Ronald de Boer

Ronald de Boer (born May 15, 1970 in Hoorn, Netherlands) is a Dutch football midfielder who has played for the Dutch national team as well as a host of professional clubs in Europe. He regularly plays as attacking right midfield, although he could also operate in centre attacking midfield role as well as right forward position. He currently plays for Al-Shamal. He is the twin brother of Frank de Boer.

At an amateur level, he has featured for De Zouaven (1986-87) and Lutjebroek (1987-88) whereas on the professional club level, Ronald played for AFC Ajax (1988-91 and 1992-98), FC Twente (1991-93), FC Barcelona (1998-2000), Rangers FC (2000-04), Al-Rayyan (2004-05), Al-Shamal (2005-). In both Qatari clubs he was reunited again with his brother Frank, his teammate at Ajax, Barcelona, and Rangers.

De Boer won the Champions League with Ajax in 1994-95 season. While impressing at Ajax during the early 1990s towards the 1998 FIFA World Cup, his high-profile transfer to FC Barcelona marked what would be an unlikely bad patch for a prolific goal-scoring midfielder as he managed to feature in only 33 games for the club and only scored one goal overall. In the 2000-01 season, with little choice but to leave the club after warming the bench on not more than one occasion, he opted to join the Dutch legion at Rangers under the manager Dick Advocaat. Among the Dutch internationals who then played for Rangers when he joined were Arthur Numan, Bert Konterman, Fernando Ricksen, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst and he spent four successful seasons with the club before deciding to join Al-Rayyan after he was informed that his contract would not be renewed after the 2003-04 season.

De Boer compiled 67 caps and scored 13 goals for the Dutch national team. He played for the Netherlands in the 1994 where he had the appearances and the 1998 World Cup where he played in six matches and scored two goals, although he did miss a penalty in the penalty shootout against Brazil in the semi-finals. De Boer also played in Euro 96, and Euro 2000.

In the Dutch national team De Boer was used in various positions including righthalf, centre forward, and attacking midfielder. In the early Ajax years, De Boer played either centre forward or attacking midfielder. In the latter years he shifted to righthalf and acquired the jersey with number 6 on it.

De Boer was never officially captain of the Dutch national team nor Ajax. But he has been seen wearing the captains' armband on several occasions for both club and country when the first-choice captains were not playing. In most of the teams, it is his brother Frank with whom he had played side by side during the better part of their respective careers.