Frank de Boer’s finest games
GAMES THAT CHANGED MY LIFE FRANK DE BOER
PEC Zwolle 4 Ajax 1 September 21, 1988 Eredivisie
“You can’t forget your debut, especially when you’re in the academy at Ajax and that’s everything you’ve dreamed about as a kid. By 1988 I was knocking at that door and finally got an opportunity at the age of 18, coming on as a substitute in a match at Zwolle – even if the result didn’t go the way we wanted that day. It was the beginning of a great adventure for me. After that, I played regularly for the remainder of the season and ended up winning 14 trophies with Ajax. We were simply the best football team on the planet during that time and won everything – five Eredivisie titles, two KNVB Cups, the Champions League, UEFA Cup, Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup. I was very happy to be in the middle of it.”
Ajax 1 Milan 0 May 24, 1995 Champions League final
“Beating Milan 1- 0 in Vienna to win the Champions League final was the most important victory and best memory of my career. I grew up idolising Marco van Basten, so to play in a European Cup final against his old team was truly special – I’d watched Milan on TV countless times. We had a fantastic side with a good combination of young talent, like Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids and Patrick Kluivert, and seasoned pros, such as Danny Blind and Frank Rijkaard. That was an outstanding group of guys. In every position, we had the top players in the world. Every single one of them was elite level.”
Brazil 1 Netherlands 1 ( 4- 2 pens) July 7, 1998 World Cup semi- final
“I’d say that was the best performance of my whole career – in that semi- final against Brazil in Marseille, I showed the world who Frank de Boer was. I felt we had a genuine chance to win the World Cup that year – in my opinion, France and Holland were the top two teams in the competition. Why did we come up just short? Well, you can’t blame everything on bad luck. Sometimes if you believe in something strongly you can make it happen, but we were the outsiders that night, the underdogs. We weren’t confident enough that we could go all the way and that was a shame, because we should have done.”
Barcelona 3 Real Madrid 0 February 14, 1999 La Liga
“My first El Clasico was a special occasion – I’d waited for it to come. We had a terrific squad with individual stars like Pep Guardiola, Luis Figo and Rivaldo, led by my old Ajax manager Louis van Gaal. I remember the media pumping up the excitement even three weeks ahead of the game – there were 20 pages about the match in the newspapers every day. I played the full 90 minutes, defended well and did my job. Walking onto the pitch at the Camp Nou and seeing all those passionate fans and Catalonia flags is something I’ll never ever forget.”