Edwin Van der sar, My super star

Edwin Van der sar, My super star

   

Male
40 years old
Manchester, Northwest
United Kingdom

General

Edwin is the ambassador for ‘Doe Een Wens’ – The Make-A-Wish foundation in Holland

http://www.doeeenwens.nl

'I have two children myself. If you then go into a hospital, and you see children that are ill, then you realize just how very sad it is. I find giving considerably good support to an ill child gives that child a good feeling.'

'Ik heb zelf twee kinderen. Als je dan in een ziekenhuis komt en je ziet kinderen die ziek zijn, dan besef je dat het ook mis kan gaan. Ik vind het belangrijk om steun te leveren om zo een ziek kind een goed gevoel te kunnen geven.'

Edwin van der Sar, born 29 October 1970 in Voorhout, is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. He plays club football for Manchester United FC in the English Premier League. Van der Sar is the most capped Dutch player of all-time. He originally played his last match for Holland in the Euro 2008 quarter final loss to Russia before returning to play later that same year in two World Cup qualifiers against Iceland and Norway due to injuries to the current goalkeepers.

Edwin van der Sar began his career at hometown club Foreholte and then VV Noordwijk, where he was spotted by AFC Ajax. After going through the ranks of Ajax's youth system, he enjoyed a long and successful stint in the senior side, winning the 1991-92 UEFA Cup and the 1995 UEFA Champions League, as well as the 1995 Best European Goalkeeper award.

Edwin then left AFC Ajax to join Juventus Turin FC and went on to make 66 appearances for the Italian club.

His move to the English Premier League (EPL) took him firstly to Fulham F.C. in 2001, reportedly for around £7 million. Initially signing a four year contract, he notched up 126 appearances for the North London club and also won player of the season in 2004/2005.

Edwin moved to Manchester United on 1st June 2005 for a reported fee of £2 million; (although the exact transfer fee was undisclosed.) Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson considered him the best goalkeeper to play for the club since Peter Schmeichel. Edwin made his debut for United, against Debreceni in the Champions League. His premier league debut for Manchester United came against Everton FC away at Goodison Park. The game was won 2-0, and Edwin made a great impression making one of the saves of the season from a Tim Cahill header.

On 5 May 2007, his penalty save helped assure a 1–0 triumph over Manchester City in the Manchester derby. The following day, Chelsea's failure to beat Arsenal at the Emirates ensured Manchester United's ninth Premier League trophy and van der Sar's first. He was also named in the 2006–07 PFA Team of the Year. Three months later, he was a catalyst in Manchester United's 16th FA Community Shield victory, as he saved three consecutive penalties in a shootout after Manchester United and Chelsea played to a 1–1 draw at the end of regular time.

In December 2008, Van der Sar signed a new one-year deal, keeping him at Manchester United until the 2009–10 season.

The 2007–08 season was a mixed bag for him, he had several great performances despite missing a couple of games with a niggling groin injury. He would, however, help United secure their second successive Premier League title on the final day and win the Champions League by saving the final penalty, of the penalty shootout stage, after a 1-1 draw in the Champions League Final against Chelsea FC in Moscow from striker Nicolas Anelka.

At the start of the 2008/2009 season, Edwin secured another Community Shield win, again on penalties after Unitedwere held to a 0-0 draw against Portsmouth at Wembley.

On 27 January 2009, Van der Sar helped Manchester United set a new club and Premier League record for consecutive clean sheets – the club's 5–0 win over West Bromwich Albion meant that they had gone 11 games (1,032 minutes) without conceding a goal, beating the previous record of 10 matches (1,025 minutes) set by Petr Cech in the 2004–05 season. On 31 January 2009, following a 1-0 win over Everton, Van der Sar overtook Reading's Steve Death, who set the previous record of 1,103 minutes in 1979

Van Der Sar was included in Holland's 1994 World Cup squad but did not play. He had to wait until 7 June 1995 for his international debut, against Belarus. Despite losing 1-0, Edwin had certainly made a good impression. He has been in goal for all three recent eliminations from major competitions by penalties: Euro 96, 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000.

However, during the penalty shootout at the Euro 2004 quarter-final against Sweden, Van der Sar saved a penalty from Olof Mellberg, helping Netherlands to win the shootouts by 5-4 and go to the semifinals of that tournament, in which unfortunately the team lost to Portugal

Prior to the 2006 World Cup group match against Ivory Coast, Van der Sar had not conceded a goal in 10 consecutive non-friendly matches and kept a clean sheet for 1,013 minutes, an all-time European record

Van der Sar has represented the Dutch national team 130 times, which makes him Holland's most capped player. This puts him in the top thirty most capped players of all time. As captain of the Netherlands, he broke Frank de Boer's record in the 2006 World Cup second round match against Portugal.

On his 37th birthday, Van der Sar was interviewed by Radio 538 and stated that he intended to retire from international football after Euro 2008. He was the Netherlands' captain in their decisive 3–0 defeat of Italy on June 9, 2008 and also for the match on 13th June against France which was won with 4–1. On 21 June, he initially played his last international match, in a 3–1 quarter-final loss against Russia in extra time. This was his 16th appearance on an European Championship finals match, with which he equalled the record set by Lilian Thuram a few days earlier.

However, due to injuries to new goalkeepers, Maarten Stekelenburg and Henk Timmer, Edwin agreed to pull out of international retirement to play in the two world cup qualifier games against Iceland and Norway

Honours
Ajax:
Eredivisie:
Winner (4): 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98Runner Up (2): 1990–91, 1991–92
KNVB Cup:
Winner (3): 1993, 1998, 1999
UEFA Champions League:
Winner (1): 1995Runner Up (1): 1996
UEFA Cup:
Winner (1): 1992
UEFA Super Cup:
Winner (1): 1995Runner Up (1): 2008
Intercontinental Cup
Winner (1): 1995
Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu:
Winner (1): 1992Runner Up (1): 1995

Juventus:
UEFA Intertoto Cup:
Winner (1): 1999

Fulham:
UEFA Intertoto Cup:
Winner (1): 2002

Manchester United:
FA Premier League:
Winner (2): 2006-07, 2007-08Runner Up (1): 2005-06
Football League Cup:
Winner (1): 2006
FA Community Shield:
Winner (2): 2007, 2008
UEFA Champions League:
Winner (1): 2008
Club World Cup:
Winner (1):
2008/2009

Individual:

Barclays Golden Glove 2008 - 2009 UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year in 1995 and 2009:
Dutch Football Goalkeeper of the Year: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
Dutch Golden Shoe: 1998
UEFA Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament Barclays Merit Award: 2008–09