Marten Elco de Roon (born 29 March 1991) is a Dutch professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

and the Netherlands national team. He formerly played for

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

SC Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherlands. History Sportclub Heerenveen was founded on 20 July ...

and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Early life

De Roon was born in Zwijndrecht and raised in

Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands. It is located on the island of IJsselmonde, and borders with Zwijndrecht, Ridderkerk, and the Noord River (with Alblasserdam and Papendrecht on the other side). The j ...

, where he played in youth teams of

ASWH ASWH, short for Altijd Sterker Worden Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, is an association football club from Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Netherlands. The club was founded in 1929. The club won section championships in 1949, 1959, 1961, 1970, 1883, 1999, 2001, 2002, ...

. From ASWH, he continued to youth teams of

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

and

Club career

Sparta Rotterdam

De Roon made his

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

debut for

on 27 March 2010, starting in the match against

Twente Twente ( nl, Twente , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germ ...

De Grolsch Veste De Grolsch Veste (, en, The Grolsch Fortress, previously known as ''Arke Stadion'' ) is the stadium of football club FC Twente. It is located in Enschede, Netherlands, at the Business & Science Park, near the University of Twente. The stadium ...

. He made a total of three appearances in the Eredivisie for the 2009–10 season.

Heerenveen

In April 2012, Eredivisie club

announced the signing of De Roon on a three-year contract.

Atalanta

In July 2015, De Roon was signed by

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

side

Middlesbrough

On 4 July 2016, De Roon signed for newly-promoted

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

for a reported £12 million transfer fee. He scored his first goal for his new club – a 91st-minute equaliser – on 5 November 2016 in a 1–1 draw with

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

at the

Etihad Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...

. He went on to score a further 3 league goals for the club over the remainder of the season, including the only goal in a victory over

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in the Tees–Wear derby, however Middlesbrough were relegated on 8 May 2017. On 18 July 2017, Middlesbrough confirmed that they paid £8.8 million for De Roon, with Atalanta earning another £900,000 after the midfielder played 30 games for the club.

Return to Atalanta

On 10 August 2017, De Roon re-signed for Atalanta for an undisclosed fee. He once again cemented himself as a starter under

Gian Piero Gasperini Gian Piero Gasperini (born 26 January 1958) is an Italian football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of Italian side Atalanta. Playing career Gasperini entered the Juventus youth system at the age of 9; during his stay ...

, and helped Atalanta finish in a historic 3rd place in the 2018–19 season, earning them a spot in the

2019–20 UEFA Champions League group stage The 2019–20 UEFA Champions League group stage began on 17 September 2019 and ended on 11 December 2019. A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League. Draw The ...

. He also scored a volley against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

in the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

semi-finals in the 58th minute. Atalanta would win the tie 5–4, though lost in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

against

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. He made his Champions League debut on 18 September 2019 against

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

International career

De Roon has represented the Netherlands under-19 national team in the qualification rounds for the

2010 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship The 2010 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the ninth edition of UEFA's European Under-19 Championship since it was renamed from the original under-18 event, in 2001. France hosted the championship during July. Ukraine were the title holders ...

. On 12 November 2009, he made his debut and scored his first goal for the U-19 ''Oranje'' in a qualification match against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. On 13 November 2016, he made his debut for the senior team. He was later named in the first Dutch squad chosen by new national team manager

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is the younger brother of his former international teammate Erwin Koeman and the son of former Dutch international Martin Koeman. Koeman was cap ...

. This was in March 2018 for the friendlies against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

Profile
at the Atalanta B.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Roon, Marten de 1991 births Living people Footballers from Zwijndrecht, Netherlands Footballers from Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht Association football midfielders Dutch footballers Netherlands youth international footballers Netherlands international footballers ASWH players Feyenoord players Sparta Rotterdam players SC Heerenveen players Atalanta B.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Serie A players Premier League players English Football League players UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Dutch expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Italy Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England