Edwin van der Sar

In this Dutch name, the surname is Van der Sar, not Sar.
Edwin van der Sar
Van der Sar in 2015
Personal information
Full name Edwin van der Sar[1]
Date of birth (1970-10-29) 29 October 1970 (age 54)[2]
Place of birth Voorhout, Netherlands[3]
Height 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)[4]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
1980–1985 Foreholte
1985–1990 VV Noordwijk
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1990–1999 Ajax 226 (1)
1999–2001 Juventus 66 (0)
2001–2005 Fulham 127 (0)
2005–2011 Manchester United 186 (0)
2016 VV Noordwijk 1 (0)
Total 606 (1)
International career
1995–2008 Netherlands 130 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Edwin van der Sar (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɛtʋɪɱ vɑn dər ˈsɑr] ⓘ; born 29 October 1970) is a Dutch football executive and former professional player who played as a goalkeeper. He was most recently the chief executive of Ajax, with whom he began his senior playing career in the early 1990s; he is considered to be a member of the club's golden generation and was part of the Ajax team that won the UEFA Champions League in 1995. In 1999, he left Ajax for Juventus where he spent two years before moving to England, first to Fulham and then to Manchester United in 2005. There he won a second Champions League title in 2008, making him one of just eight players at the time to have won the competition with more than one club. He retired as a professional in 2011, but briefly came out of retirement in 2016 to play a match for Dutch amateur team VV Noordwijk, for whom he had previously played as a youth. He played 130 times for the Netherlands national team, and was the nation's most-capped player until 2017, when he was overtaken by Wesley Sneijder.

Van der Sar is considered by critics and fellow players as one of the best goalkeepers of all time.[5][6] He is also one of the most successful footballers ever, having won 26 major trophies in his career, mainly at Ajax and Manchester United.[7] During the 2008–09 season, he set a world record by not conceding a league goal for 1,311 minutes.[8] He is also the oldest player to win the Premier League, having done so in 2011 at the age of 40 years and 205 days. Van der Sar has won several individual awards, including Best European Goalkeeper in 1995 and 2009, and UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year in 2009.

  1. ^ "2006 FIFA World Cup Germany: List of Players: Netherlands" (PDF). FIFA. 21 March 2014. p. 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2019.
  2. ^ "Edwin Van der Sar ESPN". ESPN. ESPN Soccernet. 3 February 2011. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
  3. ^ "Edwin van der Sar Manchester United". ManUtd.com. Manchester United. 3 February 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
  4. ^ White, Jim (2008). Manchester United: The Biography. London: Sphere. p. 425. ISBN 978-1-84744-088-4.
  5. ^ "The best goalkeepers of all time". CNN. 9 February 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  6. ^ "Van der Sar ranks among the all-time greats". ESPN. 28 January 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  7. ^ Nair, Rohith (12 August 2015). "Footballers who have won the most trophies in club football". Sportskeeda.
  8. ^ "Van der Sar: I've had a great career". FIFA. 30 May 2011. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017.