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One half of the famous de Boer twins, Ronald de Boer was a
world-class creative midfield player who first shot to prominence as
part of the wonderful Ajax side that claimed the European Cup in 1995.
Dick Advocaat persuaded him to join Rangers from Barcelona for £4
million in August 2000, and de Boer made an immediate impact with a
stunning display on his debut against Sturm Graz in the European
Champions League. Ronald scored one of Rangers' five goals that evening
and showcased his full repertoire of talents during a sumptuous display
that had the Rangers supporters purring in anticipation for the years
ahead.
Unfortunately, Ronald's time in Glasgow was punctuated by numerous
injuries, which meant that he never really produced the form he showed
against Graz on a regular basis. For example, in his first season in
Glasgow, 2000/2001, de Boer played in under half of the thirty-eight
league fixtures largely due to the debilitating effects of a persistent
knee injury. The 2001/2002 season was much the same, with de Boer
appearing in just thirty-eight of the fifty-nine competitive fixtures
that Rangers contested in a campaign that saw Alex McLeish replace Dick
Advocaat in the manager's office and silverware return to Ibrox in the
shape of the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup following
successes over Celtic and Ayr United respectively.
However, in the one campaign in which the Dutchman did remain
relatively injury-free he illustrated what a fine player he was. In
2002/2003, Rangers won the domestic 'Treble' of League Championship,
Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup, and de Boer's guile and
goal-scoring played a significant role in that success. He netted
nineteen goals in all competitions and created many more, as Rangers
swept the boards in Scotland for the seventh time in their history. Over
the course of the season, he demonstrated an uncanny knack of ghosting
into the penalty area to score vital goals, but none of his strikes were
more crucial than his header on the final day of the league season
against Dunfermline Athletic at Ibrox. His goal put Rangers 4-1 ahead
midway through the second half and restored them to the summit of the
table ahead of archrivals Celtic on goals scored.
Ronald paid a heavy price for his exertions in 2002/2003, though, as
he missed almost five months of the following season through injury. He
appeared just twenty-one times in a Rangers jersey and scored only three
goals, against Aberdeen and Dunfermline Athletic in the league and
Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup. He missed all of Rangers' matches in the
UEFA Champions League, and although he was joined by his identical twin
brother Frank in the Ibrox dressing room in January of 2004, the duo
played in the same Rangers side on just eight occasions.
Capped sixty-seven times by Holland, Ronald was a player who exuded
supreme self-confidence that bordered on arrogance at times. He was a
terrific midfield playmaker, who could carve out goal-scoring
opportunities for his team-mates on a regular basis thanks to his
terrific vision and wonderful range of passing. After making 128
appearances and scoring thirty-seven goals, Ronald left Rangers in the
summer of 2004 to wind down his career with Al-Rayyan in Qatar.
(Alistair Aird, Author of Ally McCoist - Portrait of a Hero)
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