Victor Tadeusz Sikora (born 11 April 1978) is a Dutch retired 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 ...

who played 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 ...

. Sikora began his career at the Go Ahead Eagles youth academy and worked his way into the first team, debuting as a 16-year-old. He quickly grew out to become a prolific scorer from midfield, prompting a move to Vitesse in 1999 before being signed by Dutch giants

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

in 2002, where he appeared in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

group stage together with players such as

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sho ...

Rafael van der Vaart Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, and is currently the assistant manager of Danish 2nd Division club Esbjerg fB. Van der Vaart began his c ...

and

Wesley Sneijder Wesley Sneijder (; born 9 June 1984) is a Dutch retired professional footballer. Due to his elite playmaking ability, Sneijder was considered one of the best midfielders in the world during his prime. A product of the Ajax Youth Academy, he st ...

. Following successive injuries and loans to

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 NAC Breda, he signed a permanent deal with the latter in 2006. In the later stages of his career, Sikora had brief spells playing in the United States and Australia before announcing his retirement in 2012. Sikora earned six

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

between 2001 and 2002.

Club career

Go Ahead Eagles

Born in Deventer, Overijssel, Sikora began his youth career with lower-tier club Roda Deventer, before moving to regional professional club Go Ahead Eagles as a youth. At that club, also based in Deventer, he played for various youth teams until the 1994–95 season, where he was promoted to the first team, who competed in the highest division in Dutch football, the

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 ...

. In the same season, at age 16, Sikora made his professional debut when he came on as a substitute for

Gijs Steinmann Gijsbertus "Gijs" Steinmann (born 2 April 1961) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defender. Career Steinmann played club football for AZ, Den Bosch, Utrecht and Go Ahead Eagles in the Eredivisie. During his career he wa ...

in the 69th minute of the 2–1 away defeat to

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

on 15 February 1995. After a mixed season, in which Go Ahead Eagles only managed to finish in the penultimate spot in the league table, the team was able to secure another year in the highest tier by winning the relegation play-offs at the end of the season. After avoiding relegation, Sikora was included more often in the first-team squad during the 1995–96 season and finished the season with 14 league appearances, in which he also scored his first professional league goal. As in the previous season, Go Ahead Eagles struggled, and with 22 points in 34 games the team finished in last place of the table thereby suffered relegation to the second-tier

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as t ...

. There, Sikora grew out to become a first-team regular, and by the end of the 1996–97 season, he had made 32 appearances, in which he scored eight goals. Apart from club topscorer

Erik Tammer Erik Tammer (born 29 June 1969) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the current co-owner of USL League Two club Dayton Dutch Lions. Playing career Tammer played youth football with VV de Meeuwen, DSO/Ultra ...

(23 goals), he was the top goalscorer of his team. Although the Eagles took part in the promotion play-offs, the club did not manage promotion back to the Eredivisie due to a lower

goal differential Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. The club suffered some setbacks in the following season. After 34 games played, the team only achieved a mid-table finish and remained in the Eerste Divisie. Sikora appeared in 31 matches and alongside players such as Tammer (17 goals) and

Jan Michels Jan Michels (born 8 September 1970) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. His first professional club was PEC Zwolle in 1990. He later played with the Go Ahead Eagles, Motherwell in Scotland, Sparta Rotterdam, F ...

(12 goals), he was one of the team's top goalscorers again with twelve goals. After another, for him personally, very strong 1998–99 season, in which he scored 13 goals in 29 league appearances games – but again failed to make promotion play-offs with the team, interest among Eredivisie clubs arose for Sikora, who was mostly utilised as a striker. His biggest achievement during the season was reaching the round of 16 of the

1998–99 KNVB Cup The 81st edition of the KNVB Cup (at the time called ''Amstel Cup'') started on August 11, 1998. The final was played on May 13, 1999: Ajax beat Fortuna Sittard 2–0 and won the cup for the fourteenth time. A total of 61 clubs participated. T ...

, where the team was subsequently knocked out to

PEC Zwolle PEC Zwolle is a Dutch football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie in the 2021–22 season. They have played in the Eredivisie for a total ...

after a 2–5 loss. In the years before, Sikora and the team had mostly suffered elimination from the tournament from the current competition shortly after first knockout round.

Vitesse

Sikora, who in his final season with Go Ahead Eagles with his 13 goals ranked second on the team in goalscoring behind Bram Marbus (14 goals), was signed by the Dutch

club Vitesse. At the

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...

based club, Sikora quickly established himself in

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

and his first season with the club he appeared in 28 league games in which he scored eight goals. Vitesse finished fourth in the league table thus qualified for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

in his first season. In the 1999–2000 season, Sikora had already made his first European appearance, which he followed up in the following season by playing two matches in the

2000–01 UEFA Cup Liverpool won the 2000–01 UEFA Cup with a golden goal in the final against Alavés for their third title in the competition. It completed a cup treble for the club, as they also won the FA Cup and the League Cup that season. The conclusion of ...

. In the league, Sikora's 2000–01 season was similar to the previous season as he made 27 Eredivisie appearances, in which he scored nine goals. However, Vitesse missed out on European qualification on

, finishing sixth in the league. In the KNVB Cup, the team also missed out during these seasons, being knocked out in the semi-finals in both the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 editions of the KNVB Cup. In the 2001–02 season, in which he again finished in European spots with Vitesse, Sikora made three goals in 29 appearances.

Ajax

Despite a low goal average in his final season at Vitesse, defending Dutch champions

expressed their interest in him and he finally joined the club on a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

4.5 million deal. Besides Ajax, there was also interest from English club Fulham. In his first season at the club, he was unable to establish himself as a first-team regular, also and struggled with injuries. He made 17 league appearances in which he scored twice as Ajax lifted the

2002 Johan Cruyff Shield The seventh edition of the Johan Cruyff Shield ( nl, Johan Cruijff Schaal) was held on 11 August 2002 between 2001–02 Eredivisie and 2001–02 KNVB Cup winners Ajax, and Eredivisie runners-up PSV Eindhoven. Ajax won the match 3–1. Match De ...

that year, as they finished runners-up in the league and stranded in the semi-finals of the KNVB Cup against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), 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 bef ...

. In addition, Sikora gained his first experience in the

, where he made four appearances, including in matches against

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

and Roma, and made it to the quarter-finals of the competition, where, however, they were defeated by the eventual winners

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

after a 2–3 loss on aggregate. In the Eredivisie, Ajax finished second in the league table, one point behind rivals PSV, which meant that they qualified for the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

for the 2003–04 Champions League. After narrowly advancing from the third round, after a 2–3 win on aggregate over

Grazer AK Grazer AK, founded 18 August 1902 as Grazer Athletiksport Klub (in Austria the abbreviation GAK is more common), is an Austrian sports club, from the city of Graz in the federal state of Styria (''Steiermark''). The football section used to be on ...

, Ajax were knocked out in the subsequent group stage, finishing in last place of Group H. Sikora, who played in both qualifiers against Grazer AK and in two of Ajax' six group matches in the Champions League, emerged as a regular starter in midfield in the Eredivisie after the team were knocked out of European contention. Sikora, who was mostly used in defensive midfield, made a total of 27 league appearances and five goals and was thus instrumental in Ajax securing their 29th title in club history. In his time at

, Sikora scored seven league goals, won two league titles (2002, 2004), a Johan Cruyff Shield and KNVB Cup titles in 2002. Sikora also participated in the

with

Loans to Heerenveen and NAC

Despite achieving successes with Ajax, the club's management decided that Sikora was to be loaned out in order for him to gain more regular playing time. His first loan was at

, who signed him to a one-year loan deal. For Heerenveen, he only made 19 appearances and one goal in the 2004–05 season. After finishing fifth in the league table and returning to Ajax, Sikora was sent on a season-long loan to NAC Breda. Both club and player struggled for form during the 2005–06 season, as he only made 13 league appearances, in which he remained goalless, as NAC finished 16th and only managed to avoid relegation following play-offs. Even though Sikora failed to establish himself as a regular starter during his loan at NAC, he was signed on a permanent deal following the season.

NAC Breda

Plagued by injuries, Sikora struggled to make the starting lineup following his permanent move to NAC Breda and only made nine Eredivisie appearances during the 2006–07 season, in which he scored one goal. In addition, the club fought a relegation battle, and once again the team had to avoid relegation through the play-offs. They were, however, successful there and remained a top-tier side. In the following season, Sikora made 21 league appearances and scored two goals, but was still unable to match his performances of earlier years and decided to leave NAC as his contract expired.

FC Dallas

Soon after leaving NAC, Sikora moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, where he signed a lucrative contract with Major League Soccer (MLS) side

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). The franchise began play in 1996 as a charter club of the le ...

with a base salary of US$144,000 and a guaranteed severance pay of just over US$163,000. He was, however, injured after only two league games and out for several weeks after a

meniscus tear A tear of a meniscus is a rupturing of one or more of the fibrocartilage strips in the knee called menisci. When doctors and patients refer to "torn cartilage" in the knee, they actually may be referring to an injury to a meniscus at the top of ...

in his right knee. He made a return after one month, but failed to establish himself as first-team regular and towards the end of the season he appeared during three league games, in which he was unable to make the final whistle and had to be substituted early on. However, in the final game of the season, a 2–2 away draw against LA Galaxy, Sikora scored an important goal after an assist provided by Mexico international Duilio Davino.

Loan to Perth Glory

After a trial at his former club, Go Ahead Eagles, Sikora joined Australian club Perth Glory on loan during the winter break before the new season. There he was supposed to replace Brazilian midfielder Amaral, who was sidelined due to injury. In his first season, Sikora was utilised in five league games, in which he scored no goals.

Perth Glory

After only two months on loan, Sikora signed a one-year permanent deal in February 2009 with Perth Glory.Sikora signs for Glory
Before that, he had already been in contact with his former club, Go Ahead Eagles, where he also completed trials, but ultimately failed to secure a contract. After his return to Australia, Sikora quickly became a regular on the club's professional team. He made 17 A-League appearances before December 2009 in which he scored four goals. After that, however, he suffered injury setbacks that prevented him from being used competitively for Perth Glory. A multitude of different injuries caused the setbacks, including strains and thigh injuries, but also hip problems that ruled the midfielder out for several weeks. In addition, there were injuries to the knee, for which Sikora had already had surgery in June 2009. After he had only made one appearance in the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons, Sikora announced his retirement from professional football in mid-2012.

International career

Sikora has earned six caps with the

, with his first appearance coming in a February 2001 friendly against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, and the last in 2002 against the

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Ajax *

: 2003–04 * Johan Cruyff Shield: 2002

References

External links

Perth Glory profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sikora, Victor 1978 births Living people Footballers from Deventer Dutch people of Polish descent Dutch footballers Netherlands international footballers Netherlands under-21 international footballers Dutch expatriate footballers Go Ahead Eagles players SBV Vitesse players AFC Ajax players SC Heerenveen players NAC Breda players FC Dallas players Perth Glory FC players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Major League Soccer players A-League Men players Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate soccer players in Australia Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United States Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Australia Association football midfielders