Marc Overmars

For the Dutch computer scientist with a similar name, see Mark Overmars.

Marc Overmars (born March 29, 1973 in Emst) is a Dutch football player. He is best known as a right-footed left-winger, although he is able to use both his feet with equal precision and power. Known for his speed, Overmars' nicknames included "the Roadrunner" or simply "meep-meep." He has always denied the persistent rumors about him being gay, declining to discuss his personal life.

Club career

Overmars first joined a small Dutch club called SV Epe before joining Go Ahead Eagles. Willem II Tilburg later bought him from Go Ahead Eagles for ₤200 000 and during the 1991/1992 season, AFC Ajax Amsterdam bought him.

Marc Overmars became famous with Ajax under Louis van Gaal. He was a member of the Ajax team that won the European Cup in 1995 against A.C. Milan of Italy. However, soon after the final, he suffered a serious right knee injury in 1996, which kept him out of Euro 96. Despite his injury, Overmars was signed by Arsène Wenger's Arsenal in the summer of 1997 for ₤5.5 million.

At the London club he scored vital goals, including one in the 1998 FA Cup final and another in a 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford, which helped Arsenal to secure the Double. In the summer of 2000, he moved to Spain and joined FC Barcelona, for a record ₤25 million (€40.6 million), making Overmars the most expensive Dutch player of all time. This transfer was the first in the history of football to be announced via the player's personal website. Despite a difficult first season at his new club, Overmars was still an impressive performer, registering eight goals in 31 appearances. He was a regular feature of Barcelona's 2001-02 UEFA Champions League campaign in which he scored once in ten matches en route to the semi-finals, but failed to inspire FC Barcelona to any trophy success. In 2004 he announced his retirement as an active player surprisingly early, when he was just 30 years old.

After his football career, Overmars went to his first club, Go Ahead Eagles, as the technical manager of the club.

On August 10, 2008, Overmars made a shock announcement that he would come out of retirement to play again for the Go Ahead Eagles for the 2008-09 season. Not long before the announcement, Overmars played in the testimonial of Jaap Stam, where he played for a combination of former Dutch-internationals under the name 'Team Jaap Stam'. In the game, Overmars outplayed Ajax-defender George Ogararu. His performance led to several invitations from Eagles-coach Andries Ulderink to make a comeback in football. Marc already trained every week with the squad of Go Ahead Eagles, together with Paul Bosvelt. Overmars eventually decided to come back on the football pitch, under conditions. His right knee that caused him to end his career, still gives Overmars some worries. Therefore, Overmars won't play as many minutes or attend as much training sessions as the rest of the squad.

International career

On February 24, 1993, he made his debut in the Dutch national team against Turkey. By the time of the 1994 World Cup, Overmars was a regular in the Dutch national team.

In the 1998 World Cup, he was a regular fixture for Holland where he assisted his nation to a semi-final showdown with Brazil. Overmars was one of the best Dutch players in the tournament but suffered an injury in the 2nd round game against Yugoslavia (now Serbia). This ruled Overmars out of the next match, which was against Argentina. However, Overmars did enter late in the game as a substitute. He made an immediate impact by providing an inch perfect cross that almost led to a goal for the Netherlands. Overmars' injury became even worse after this game and he had to sit out the entire following match against Brazil. The Netherlands lost this match on penalties. Overmars was fit again to play in the Netherlands final match, which was the 3rd/4th play-off game against Croatia, but the Dutch lost 2-1.

In all, Overmars played 86 games for the Dutch national team, scoring 17 goals. Overmars was the youngest player to reach 50 caps with the Dutch national team. His final match was the Netherlands' loss to Portugal in the semifinals of the 2004 European Championships.

By now, Overmars was being continually troubled by a persistent knee injury. After taking doctors' advice on the problem, on July 26, 2004, he announced his retirement from professional football.

After his retirement he started working as a director for his first team, Deventer side Go Ahead Eagles. He once said that he considers his former teammate Jari Litmanen as one of the greatest players ever. He is also best friends with Dennis Bergkamp.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1990-91||Go Ahead Eagles||Eerste Divisie||11||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1991-92||Willem II Tilburg||Eredivisie||31||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1992-93||rowspan="5"|Ajax||rowspan="5"|Eredivisie||34||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1993-94||34||12|||||||||||||||| |- |1994-95||27||8|||||||||||||||| |- |1995-96||15||11|||||||||||||||| |- |1996-97||25||2|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1997-98||rowspan="3"|Arsenal||rowspan="3"|Premier League||32||12||||2||||2|||||||| |- |1998-99||37||6||||3||||||||1|||| |- |1999-00||31||7||||1||||||||5|||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2000-01||rowspan="4"|Barcelona||rowspan="4"|La Liga||31||8|||||||||||||||| |- |2001-02||20||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2002-03||26||6|||||||||||||||| |- |2003-04||20||1|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2008-09||Go Ahead Eagles||Eerste Divisie|||||||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3177||38|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 4100||25|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 497||15|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5374||78|||||||||||||||| |}

External links

• Marc Overmars at Wereld van Oranje (archived) (in Dutch)