Winston Bogarde

Football player infobox
playername= Winston Bogarde
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1970|10|22|df=y
cityofbirth = Rotterdam
countryofbirth = Netherlands
height = height|m=1.90
currentclub =
clubnumber =
position = Centre Back (Retired)
currentclub =
years = 1988–1989
1990–1991
1991–1994
1994–1997
1997
1998–2000
2000–2004
clubs = SVV
Excelsior Rotterdam
Sparta Rotterdam
Ajax Amsterdam
AC Milan
FC Barcelona
Chelsea
Total 1988-2004
caps(goals) = 011 0(1)
010 0(0)
065 (14)
062 0(6)
003 0(0)
041 0(4)
011 0(0)
203 (25)
nationalyears = 1995–2000
nationalteam = Netherlands
nationalcaps(goals) = 020 0(0)

Winston Bogarde (born 22 October 1970 in Rotterdam) is a former Dutch professional footballer.

Career

Early career

Bogarde started his career at SVV in the 1988/1989 season and spent two seasons at the club, having played 11 games for them and scoring a goal during that period. Switching to Excelsior Rotterdam in 1990, he also managed a goal in the 10 games which he played for the club. For the 1991/1992 season, he signed for Sparta Rotterdam.

Ajax

Having established himself as a regular for the Sparta side, with 65 matches and 14 goals to his credit, Ajax Amsterdam swooped for him at the start of the 1994/1995 season. The move proved fruitful as Ajax captured the UEFA Champions League title in 1995 with a squad packed with talented individuals like Edwin van der Sar, Marc Overmars, the de Boer twins, Ronald and Frank de Boer, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Nwankwo Kanu, Finidi George, Jari Litmanen, and Patrick Kluivert. Bogarde did shine at Ajax, earning his first national cap for the Dutch team in a 2-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland on 13 December 1995.

AC Milan

AC Milan signed him from Ajax in the 1997/1998 season, but he fared little chance at the well-supported club, getting to play in only 3 matches throughout the season. His limited chances at Milan mattered little for Guus Hiddink, who included Bogarde in the Dutch squad for World Cup 1998 in France. Bogarde, however got only one match against Mexico in a 2-2 draw as a substitute for Arthur Numan in which the Dutch had taken a 2-0 lead earlier in the game. For the record, Bogarde did indeed have the chance to feature in his first start at a World Cup match against Brazil in the semi-finals in France after Numan, who regularly occupied the Dutch leftback position, was suspended in the previous encounter against Argentina in the quarter-finals, but he sustained a serious injury during training and was hospitalised. Philip Cocu took his spot for that match.

The World Cup 1998 was also where Bogarde was viewed as detrimental to the Dutch team's morale, as after the 2nd round match against Yugoslavia Bogarde was seen forcibly pushing his fellow teammates, Van der Sar and Numan, aside even though they were trying to celebrate Edgar Davids' winning goal.

FC Barcelona

After the World Cup, Bogarde tied up a contract with FC Barcelona and began a period of relative inactivity with his future clubs. Joining the Dutch contingent at Barcelona in the 1998/1999 season under Louis van Gaal, Bogarde started his Barcelona career quite well, playing 19 games in his first season but vanished into obscurity in the following seasons, eking out only 9 games in the next 3 seasons as the Dutch influence on the Catalonian club also reduced considerably. In the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League group match against AIK in Stockholm he was humiliated by being substituted after only 20 minutes of play after almost picking up a red card at the hands of the opposing strike force.

Chelsea FC

He signed for Chelsea FC in the 2000/2001 season, after following the advice of compatriot Mario Melchiot to join him at the London club. Bogarde was signed when Gianluca Vialli was manager, although the manager had no idea the transfer was happening and was organised by Ken Bates and Colin Hutchinson. Emerson Thome was shipped off to Sunderland and Bogarde came in. This was the beginning of the end for an angry Vialli. Bogarde's career at Chelsea is notable because, only weeks after signing his contract with the club, the newly-appointed manager Claudio Ranieri wanted him to leave.

According to Bogarde it would be next to impossible to find a team that would offer him a contract comparable to the one he had at Chelsea with reference to his biography "Deze Neger Buigt Voor Niemand (This Negro Bows for No One)", he was astounded at the salary Chelsea had agreed on since it is a fact that his value has depreciated severely due to lack of first-team action. Bogarde decided to stay at Chelsea honouring his contract to the letter (as he could not get a similar salary anwhere else), as a result Bogarde played only sparingly for Chelsea again. Of his contract he has said, 'Why should I throw fifteen million euro away when it is already mine? At the moment I signed it was in fact my money, my contract'. In the end, he only appeared eleven times during his four-year contract, reportedly earning £40,000 a week during this period. Worse still, Chelsea won a domestic trophy during this period triggering a bonus payment in agreement with his contract, despite Bogarde not featuring at all for Chelsea that season. His contract ended in 2004.

During his period at Chelsea, they repeatedly tried to offload him because of his inflated wages. When there were no takers, Chelsea demoted him to their reserves and youth team in an effort to force Bogarde to leave. However, he stuck to his contract, turning up every day and attending whatever training he was assigned to. Bogarde claims to have been placed in suspiciously compromising situations involving drugs (Similar to what happened with Chelsea players Mark Bosnich and Adrian Mutu), soon after he refused to leave Chelsea or sign a new contract for a reduced wage. Bogarde continued to stick to the letter his contract and working every day with the Chelsea reserves, while increasingly becoming a figure of ridicule in the English press for his alleged selfishness.cn|date=September 2008 Of the derision he received at the hands of the press, Bogarde has responded, 'This world is about money, so when you are offered those millions you take them. Few people will ever earn so many. I am one of the few fortunates who do. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership, but I don't care.'cn|date=September 2008

On 8 November 2005, he announced his retirement from professional football, having failed to reach an agreement with a club since leaving Chelsea. Bogarde was capped twenty times for the Dutch national team and appeared in the 1998 World Cup in France.

Honours

*UEFA Champions League: 1 (Ajax Amsterdam)
*Dutch Football League: 2 (1994/95, 1995/96, Ajax Amsterdam)
*Spanish League: 1 ( 1998/99, F.C. Barcelona)

External links

* [http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=352047&root=europe&cc=5901 Soccernet Article reviewing his time at Chelsea and his book]
*wvo|1102