Marco van Basten | Biography & Facts

Marco van Basten, byname of Marcel van Basten, (born October 31, 1964, Utrecht, Netherlands), Dutch football (soccer) player and coach who was a three-time European Player of the Year (1988, 1989, and 1992) and the 1992 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Player of the Year.

Van Basten joined the Dutch superpower Ajax in 1981, and he made his debut for their first-division side in 1982. The prolific striker led the Eredivisie (the top Dutch football league) in goals scored for four consecutive seasons (1983–84 through 1986–87), and he was the top European goal scorer during the 1985–86 campaign. Van Basten helped Ajax capture three Eredivisie titles (1981–82, 1982–83, and 1984–85) and three Dutch Cups (1983, 1986, and 1987) in his five full seasons with the club.

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In 1987 he signed with Italy’s AC Milan. Although an ankle injury limited van Basten to just 11 games with Milan in his first season, the club won the 1987–88 Serie A league championship. Van Basten was at full strength as the Dutch national team won the 1988 European Championship and Milan won the European Cup (now the Champions League) in 1989 and 1990. He led Milan to two more Serie A championships in 1991–92 and 1992–93, as Milan was undefeated in 58 consecutive league matches over that span, including the entire 1991–92 season. His worsening ankle and subsequent unsuccessful surgeries forced him to miss two full seasons, and, after an attempted comeback fell through, he retired in 1995 at age 30.

Van Basten became the manager of the Dutch national team in 2004, and he guided the squad to the round of 16 at the 2006 World Cup. He left that position after the Netherlands was upset in the quarterfinals of the 2008 European Championship and was then named manager of Ajax. Van Basten resigned after just one season managing his former club, claiming that he did not believe that he could sufficiently improve the team after it failed to qualify for Champions League play. In 2012 he became the manager of SC Heerenveen, and in 2014 he took the same position at AZ Alkmaar, but health problems prompted him to step down after just five games, and he served as assistant manager for the club until 2015. That year he became assistant manager for the Dutch national team, but he left in 2016 to serve as FIFA’s chief officer for technical development. He held that post until 2018.