John Heitinga

John Gijsbert Allan "Johnny" Heitinga (* November 15, 1983 in Alphen aan den Rijn ) is a Dutch football player. The center-back is since the 2013/14 season at Fulham under contract. With the AFC Ajax, he became Dutch champion and cup winner. Since 2004, Heitinga also plays in the Dutch national team.

Career

Association

Johnny Heitinga has Indonesian roots; his grandfather and his father moved in 1957 geborenener in Jakarta in 1959 to the land of the former colonial power. As a child Heitinga started with the football game at the ARC in his home town of Alphen. When he was seven years old, his mother gave him a trial at Ajax Amsterdam, which meant that Ajax accepted him in his youth training. He started out in Amsterdam at right-back, but also occasionally played in defensive midfield. From the youth department, he joined the 2001/02 season for Senior Squad. Making its debut in the Eredivisie on 26 August 2001, he had been transferred to central defense. In the match against Feyenoord Rotterdam he came on in the 69th minute for Shota Arveladze. A few days later he arrived on September 20 for his first international assignment in the UEFA Cup against Apollon Limassol. The team led by André Bergdølmo, Ferdi Vierklau and Rafael van der Vaart, he quickly counted among the regular forces and came up to the winter break on 13 missions. After two more operations in the second half gave him back an injury and he could make no further contribution to winning the doubles. In the following season he was put out of action; until October 2003, he again played regularly in Ajaxens first team. On November 9, 2003, he scored in the game at ADO Den Haag his first league goal. On presentation of Wesley Sneijder, he enforced a header for a 1-1 draw in the 4-1 victory of Amsterdam. Later in the game he was sent off with second yellow card. This season, in which he was in 26 league games in central defense and again at right-back in action, he was with the Ajaciden again win the league title and was A-National player. He became the almost unbelievable fixture in the Ajax back line. In 2006 and 2007 he was re- Cup winner with the team.

During his seventh professional season at Ajax, at the end he was voted player of the year, the Eredivisie, was established in March 2008 that the Spanish first division side Atletico Madrid Heitinga commits for the period specified transfer fee of ten million euros for the 2008/09 season. For Atlético, he played a season and scored in 32 games - including 27 in La Liga - three goals. But Madrid was only a way station in the Premier League: September 1, 2009 changed Heitinga to Everton. The transfer fee was around this time 6.2 million pounds, but could be further increased to seven million pounds. Heitinga signed in Liverpool a contract for five years. In the UEFA Europa League 2009/10 Everton could not use the Dutchman as he had played for Atlético already in the Champions League qualifiers. For the Englishman he made in the 2009/10 season 33 games, including 29 with two goals in the league.

On January 31, 2014 Heitinga moved to Fulham, where he signed a contract until the end of the season.

National

His debut for the Dutch national team he was on 18 February 2004 as a right-back in the 1-0 victory for the Oranje in the Amsterdam Arena against the United States. He was the 99th Ajax player, who had been appointed to the Dutch Oranje. Two months and two games later he was able to score his first international goal; in the 4-0 win over Greece, he scored the third goal. At Euro 2004 he was in the first two games in the starting line-up, but had to watch for a second yellow card against the Czech Republic in the third game. Also in the 2006 World Cup and at Euro 2008 he played three games. For the 2010 World Cup he stood with 51 missions as one of the more experienced players in the squad of Bond coach Bert van Marwijk. He came in six games for use and saw the final against Spain in the 109th minute, the yellow and red card

Achievements

Dutch Champion 2002, 2004 ( with Ajax )
Dutch Cup winner 2002, 2006, 2007 ( with Ajax )
Dutch Supercup winner 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 ( with Ajax )
Footballer of the Year of the Netherlands in 2008

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