Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Netherlands Football Captain)

Giovanni Christian van Bronckhorst (Dutch pronunciation: born 5 February 1975 in Rotterdam), known as Gio for short, is a Dutch footballer of Indonesian descent who plays for Dutch Eredivisie club Feyenoord and serves as the captain of 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 100 caps for the Dutch national team, and played for his country in three World Cups (1998, 2006 and 2010), as well as three European Championships (2000, 2004, and 2008).


Childhood and early career
Van Bronckhorst was born in Rotterdam to an Indo father and a Moluccan mother.He began playing for a local amateur youth team in Rotterdam from the age of 6, joining the youth academy at Feyenoord the following year.In 1990, aged 15, the club offered him a professional contract, which he accepted.He won the Dutch Youth League with Feyenoord in 1991, but struggled to break into the first team.He was loaned out to RKC Waalwijk, making his Eredivise debut in 1993. He returned to Feyenoord for the 1994/5 season, but was used as a fringe player, making only ten appearances for the club.1995–96 was his breakthrough season, as he started almost every game for Feyenoord, playing alongside the likes of Regi Blinker and Henrik Larsson.

He also made his debut for the national Olympic team in 1996, although they failed to qualify for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.He was given his first full international cap in August 1996, being given a starting place by Guus Hiddink in the Oranje's lineup to face Brazil in a friendly at the Amsterdam Arena. He was part of the Holland squad for the 1998 World Cup, but did not play during the tournament.

Domestically, with Feyenoord failing to break the PSV-Ajax strangehold on the Eredivise for the fourth year in a row, and major players such as Larsson leaving the team, van Bronkhorst began to search for a new club.He chose to join up with Dick Advocaat (his former manager at international U-16 and U-18 level) at Glasgow Rangers, joining the club in 1998 for a fee of £5.5m.He cites Larsson, who had joined Rangers' Glasgow rivals Celtic, as a major factor in persuading him to move to Scotland.Fellow Feyenoord teammates Regi Blinker and Bobby Petta had also joined Celtic.

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. Van Bronckhorst 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.

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. 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 and one against Chelsea in January 2003.
Barcelona
As the 2003–04 season approached, van Bronckhorst had the opportunity to move to FC Barcelona and work with new boss Frank Rijkaard on a one-year loan, with a view to a permanent transfer. After adapting to his new role as a left back, he helped Barça to a revival in the second half of the season. In May 2004, van Bronckhorst completed his move from Arsenal to Barcelona for a fee of €2 million, signing a three-year deal. 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 used 'Gio' as the name on his shirt, as opposed to 'Bronckhorst' from his time at Arsenal. 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.
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.On 12 May 2010, he announced that he will end his playing career after the World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
International Career
Van Bronckhorst made his national team debut in August 1996 and has since gone on to earn over 100 caps, including three World Cup and three Euro campaigns. He did not appear in the 1998 World Cup and only saw limited action in Euro 2000 as cover for leftback Arthur Numan.

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 when the host team, Portugal, eliminated them.

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.

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.

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.

2010 World Cup
Van Bronckhorst has announced that he will retire from football after the 2010 World Cup. He was included in the preliminary squad for the tournament, and on 27 May 2010, Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk announced that he would be part of the final squad of 23, and would serve as the team captain. Van Bronckhorst earned his 100th cap in the opening group match versus Denmark. In the semi-final against Uruguay he scored the opening goal of the match, which the Netherlands won 3–2.