Edwin van der Sar: One Of The Best!

Edwin van der Sar officially ended his active Football career with a tribute match in his honor on 03-08-2011. A lot of big names showed including Rooney, Giggs, Bergkamp, Rijkaard and Ferdinand. We at L7M thought this would be the perfect time to write a little tribute, our way, about this fantastic goalkeeper.

Van der Sar, 29-10-1970, started his professional football career at Ajax in 1990. During the 1992/93 season he had his big breakthrough when he replaced Stanley Menzo as Ajax’s number 1 goalkeeper. He would stay at Ajax for 9 years and won 13 titles with them. The highlight of this period was definitely the 1994 and 1995 in which he, while being part of the golden generation of Ajax, won the Dutch title, Johan Cruijff Shield, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and Intercontinental Cup.

Van der Sar scored his one and only goal, in his career, during his period with ajax.

After the 1998/99 season Van der Sar decided he was ready to move on and signed for the Italian Serie A club Juventus. Even though he showed good form, his stay in Italy wasn’t the best. He lost his place in the summer of 2001 when Juventus decided to sign goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. Unwilling to remain as second choice behind Buffon, Van der Sar made it clear he wished to move on after 2 years in the Serie A.
 

The big clubs were sleeping and Van der Sar eventually opted to move to the English Premier League, joining newly promoted London club Fulham. For 4 years he would defend Fulhams goal and proved he was still one of the best goalkeepers in the world. In a television interview Van der Sar told that he had a great time in London from a social point of view. He, however, wished to finish his career with a big club. This opportunity arose in 2005.

In 2005 Manchester was in need of a good goalkeeper for several years now and they finally opted to sign Van der Sar. This would be a perfect combination and together they would win 10 titles, including 4 Premier League Cups, the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup. In 2011 Van der Sar decided it was time to retire from Football and played his last game for Manchester United on 28-05-2011,  the UEFA Champions League Final against Barcelona, Sadly United lost. One of the biggest compliments Van der Sar received, at the end of his career, was from Alex Ferguson who confessed they should have signed Van der Sar much earlier.

One of the great things about Van der Sar were his Football skills.

Van der Sar won several titles with his clubs, but during his career he also took home individual honours, including Best European Goalkeeper in 1995, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year in 1995 and 2009. He also holds the world league clean sheet record, 1,311 minutes, set during the 2008/09 Premier League season. Is the first goalkeeper to keep 50 clean sheets in the UEFA Champions League and he is the most capped player for the Netherlands national team, with 130 caps.

Even though there were some bumps along the way, Van der Sar’s career has been like a young boy’s dream. We at L7M want to thank Edwin van der Sar for all the beautifull saves he made during his career, especially for Ajax and the national team. We wish him the best for the future, with health being the most important thing for him and his family. We hope to see you back in football though as an analist or coach!
 

The end