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Giovanni van Bronckhorst

Personal information
Full name	Giovanni Christiaan van Bronckhorst[1]
Date of birth	February 5, 1975 (1975-02-05) (age 34)
Place of birth	Rotterdam, Netherlands
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Left back / Defensive midfielder
Club information
Current club	Feyenoord
Number	8
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1994–1998	Feyenoord	103	(22)
1998–2001	Rangers	81	(13)
2001–2003	Arsenal	52	(2)
2003–2007	Barcelona	119	(7)
2007–	Feyenoord	70	(8)
National team‡
1996–	Netherlands	94	(5)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 26 October, 2009. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 11 June, 2009

Giovanni Christiaan van Bronckhorst (born 5 February 1975 in Rotterdam), known as Gio for short, is a Dutch footballer of Indonesian ancestry who plays for Dutch Eredivisie club Feyenoord and the Dutch national team.

Van Bronckhorst signed a three-year contract with Feyenoord in June 2007, leaving FC Barcelona as a free agent. Prior to joining Barcelona, Bronckhorst played for RKC Waalwijk (1993-94), Feyenoord (1994-98), Rangers (1998-2001), and Arsenal (2001-03).

He has earned over 90 caps for the Dutch national team, and played for his country in two World Cups (1998 and 2006), as well as three European Championships (2000, 2004, and 2008).

[edit] Club career

[edit] Rangers

Van Bronckhorst was already a regular international when he signed for Rangers in 1998, joining up with compatriot Dick Advocaat, the Scottish club's new manager. In his first competitive game for Rangers, a remarkable UEFA Cup tie away to League of Ireland side Shelbourne (although played at Tranmere Rovers' Prenton Park), Van Bronckhorst marked his debut with a finely-struck goal as Rangers came back from 3-0 down to win the match 5-3. Giovanni went on to score 22 goals for Rangers (13 in the league, three in the Scottish Cup, one in the Scottish League Cup, three in the Champions League and two in the UEFA Cup), mostly as a play-making midfielder of notable skill and subtlety, before an £8.5 m transfer to Arsenal in the summer of 2001.

[edit] Arsenal

Arsène Wenger signed Van Bronckhorst to replace the midfield void left by the departure of Emmanuel Petit from Arsenal and he was expected to partner Patrick Vieira in the centre.^[2] However, his period at Arsenal was marked by a cruciate knee ligament injury which saw him sidelined after only a few months at the club. When he returned, his role was increasingly minimal and he found himself behind Vieira, Edu and shortly before his departure to Barcelona, Gilberto Silva in the pecking order. He did not leave Arsenal without any silverware, however, as he collected two FA Cup winners' medals (despite not playing in either final) and a Premier League winners medal in 2002. He scored two league goals in his time at Arsenal, one against Leicester City in January 2002^[3] and one against Chelsea in January 2003.^[4]

[edit] Barcelona

Gio at Barcelona

As the 2003-04 season approached, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst had the opportunity to move to FC Barcelona and work with new boss Frank Rijkaard as part-exchange for the transfer of Cesc Fàbregas to Arsenal. After adapting to his new role as a left back, he helped Barça to a revival in the second half of the season. He won the La Liga title with Barça in the 2004-05 season after some of his finest displays together with 4 goals to his credit. In 2005-06, he helped his club repeat as Liga champions while winning the 2006 Champions League as well (He was the only player who participated in all Champions League matches that season). In Spain, he styled his shirt name to 'Gio' as opposed to his time at Arsenal where his name was 'Bronckhorst'. He said on Dutch soccer program Studio Voetbal, that he could return to Feyenoord due to a contract clause that allows him to sign immediately with the club he supported as a boy.

[edit] Feyenoord

On 21 August 2007, Van Bronckhorst's contract with Barça ended and he subsequently joined up with Feyenoord for the second time in his career. Since joining, Van Bronckhorst has become a pivotal member of the Eredivisie team's squad, most recently proving to be something of a rock in an injury-hit side. At the beginning of his first season in Rotterdam, coach Bert van Marwijk made Van Bronckhorst captain.

[edit] International career

Gio playing for the Netherlands

Van Bronckhorst made his national team debut in August 1996 and has since gone on to earn over 80 caps, including two World Cup and three Euro campaigns. He did not appear in the 1998 World Cup and only saw only limited action in Euro 2000 as cover for leftback Arthur Numan.

[edit] Euro 2004

However later national team coaches appreciated Van Bronkhorst's leftback capabilities, most notably Dick Advocaat who played him for the Netherlands in the Euro 2004 competition in Portugal. The Dutch team reached the semi-finals of the tournament where Portugal disposed of them.

[edit] 2006 World Cup

He was a regular in the national team for the 2006 World Cup qualification campaign. However, in the Round of 16 match against Portugal (see Battle of Nuremberg), he received a red card in a match that saw four red cards given, a World Cup record. There was an unusual scene in which Van Bronckhorst was sitting in the stands next to his FC Barcelona teammate at the time, Deco of Portugal who had also been sent off.

[edit] Euro 2008

Van Bronckhorst scored the winning goal in a Euro 2008 qualifying match against Slovenia on 28 March 2007. The Netherlands won the match 1-0.^[5]

On 9 June 2008, while playing in a 3-0 victory over Italy in UEFA Euro 2008, he assisted in the second goal scored by the Netherlands and also scored the third goal, after running all the way from the back. For the second goal, he first cleared the ball off his own line and ran deep into the Italian half, then received the ball and crossed it to Dirk Kuyt who headed it down to Wesley Sneijder to slot between the post and the advancing Gianluigi Buffon. He later even scored another one himself to condemn the world champions to an embarrassing defeat.

[edit] International goals

Num	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	June 04, 1997	Johannesburg, South Africa	South Africa	0–1	0–2	Friendly match
2.	September 2, 2000	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Republic of Ireland	2–2	2–2	World Cup 2002 qualifier
3.	February 12, 2003	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Argentina	1–0	1–0	Friendly match
4.	March 28, 2007	Celje, Slovenia	Slovenia	0–1	0–1	Euro 2008 qualifier
5.	June 9, 2008	Bern, Switzerland	Italy	3–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2008

[edit] Honours

Rangers

• Scottish Premier League: 1998–99, 1999–00
• Scottish Cup: 1999, 2000

Arsenal

• Premier League: 2001–02
• FA Cup: 2002, 2003

Barcelona

• La Liga: 2004-05, 2005–06
• Supercopa de España: 2005, 2006
• UEFA Champions League: 2006

Feyenoord

• KNVB Cup: 1994-95, 2007–08

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Giovanni van Bronckhorst

• Van Bronckhorst at FC Barcelona English Speaking Supporters Fansite
• Voetbal International profile
• Giovanni van Bronckhorst FIFA competition record
• Giovanni van Bronckhorst profile and stats at Wereld van Oranje (Dutch)

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst - Navigation boxes v • d • e Netherlands squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place 1 van der Sar • 2 Reiziger • 3 Stam • 4 F. de Boer • 5 Numan • 6 Jonk • 7 R. de Boer • 8 Bergkamp • 9 Kluivert • 10 Seedorf • 11 Cocu • 12 Zenden • 13 Ooijer • 14 Overmars • 15 Bogarde • 16 Davids • 17 van Hooijdonk • 18 de Goey • 19 van Bronckhorst • 20 Winter • 21 Hasselbaink • 22 Hesp • Coach: Hiddink v • d • e Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 2000 semi-finalists 1 Van der Sar • 2 Reiziger • 3 Stam • 4 F. de Boer • 5 Zenden • 6 Seedorf • 7 Cocu • 8 Davids • 9 Kluivert • 10 Bergkamp • 11 Overmars • 12 van Bronckhorst • 13 Konterman • 14 van Vossen • 15 Bosvelt • 16 R. de Boer • 17 van Hooijdonk • 18 de Goey • 19 Numan • 20 Winter • 21 Makaay • 22 Westerveld • Coach: Rijkaard v • d • e Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 2004 1 van der Sar • 2 Reiziger • 3 Stam • 4 Bouma • 5 van Bronckhorst • 6 Cocu • 7 van der Meyde • 8 Davids • 9 Kluivert • 10 van Nistelrooy • 11 van der Vaart • 12 Makaay • 13 Westerveld • 14 Sneijder • 15 F. de Boer • 16 Overmars • 17 van Hooijdonk • 18 Heitinga • 19 Robben • 20 Seedorf • 21 Bosvelt • 22 Zenden • 23 Waterreus • Coach: Advocaat v • d • e Netherlands squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 van der Sar • 2 Jaliens • 3 Boulahrouz • 4 Mathijsen • 5 van Bronckhorst • 6 Landzaat • 7 Kuyt • 8 Cocu • 9 van Nistelrooy • 10 van der Vaart • 11 Robben • 12 Kromkamp • 13 Ooijer • 14 Heitinga • 15 de Cler • 16 Maduro • 17 van Persie • 18 van Bommel • 19 Vennegoor of Hesselink • 20 Sneijder • 21 Babel • 22 Timmer • 23 Stekelenburg • Coach: van Basten v • d • e Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 2008 1 van der Sar • 2 Ooijer • 3 Heitinga • 4 Mathijsen • 5 van Bronckhorst • 6 De Zeeuw • 7 van Persie • 8 Engelaar • 9 van Nistelrooy • 10 Sneijder • 11 Robben • 12 Melchiot • 13 Timmer • 14 Bouma • 15 De Cler • 16 Stekelenburg • 17 De Jong • 18 Kuyt • 19 Huntelaar • 20 Afellay • 21 Boulahrouz • 22 Vennegoor of Hesselink • 23 van der Vaart • Coach: van Basten