Fernando Ricksen

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Fernando Ricksen (born July 20, 1976) is a Dutch defender/midfielder who currently plays for Zenit St Petersburg. He plays on the right side of midfield or as a central holding player. He has won 12 caps for The Netherlands.

Ricksen, formerly of Fortuna Sittard, joined Rangers in 2000 from Dutch team AZ Alkmaar for a transfer fee of £3.6m.

[edit] Career

[edit] Rangers

Ricksen endured a difficult start to his Rangers career, culminating in him being substituted in the first half of a 6-2 defeat by Celtic.

The departure of Dick Advocaat during season 2001-02, however, appeared to give Ricksen a new lease of life as he helped the club to League Cup and Scottish Cup triumphs, under the management of Alex McLeish.

Ricksen was also a key player in Rangers' 2002-03 treble success, playing 46 games and scoring 3 goals, most notably a double in a 4-0 win against Hearts at Tynecastle.

2003-04 proved to be a difficult season for Rangers, with the departure of several successes from the treble winning season most notably Barry Ferguson and Lorenzo Amoruso. Ricksen, however, proved to be an important member of the Rangers team, playing 42 games, despite several injury problems throughout the season.

Ricksen was an ever-present during season 2004-05 playing 51 games and scoring 9 goals as Rangers won both the League Cup and the SPL after a dramatic last day of the season. Ricksen was also given the captaincy for a large part of the season following the injury to goalkeeper Stefan Klos. Ricksen was later voted both Rangers Player of the Year and joint Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year in a season which saw him thrive as one of the clubs key players.

In 2005-06, however, Ricksen failed to sustain the standard set the previous season as Rangers finished third in the SPL and without a trophy. Despite this domestic failure, Rangers did reach the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League however Ricksen as was left-out for the games against Villarreal with youngster Alan Hutton preferred.

It remained unclear whether Ricksen would be seen as a key member of the Rangers team under new manager Paul Le Guen for the 2006-07 season. An incident involving a stewardess on Rangers' outbound flight to their pre-season camp in South Africa, led to Ricksen being sent home by Le Guen, who later described his behaviour as "inappropriate and unacceptable for the way in which I have asked my players to conduct themselves."^[1]

[edit] Zenit St Petersburg

Ricksen moved on loan to Zenit St Petersburg on a season long loan on August 9, 2006, the Russian club's manager being Dick Advocaat, who signed Ricksen for Rangers. Two weeks later he returned to Ibrox in a friendly between Rangers and Zenit. Ricksen received some booing after tackling the young Scottish player Chris Burke.^[2] On November 28, 2006, Zenit St Petersburg announced that they bought out Ricksen's transfer from Rangers. In January 2009, after two and a half years in Russia, Ricksen was moved to Zenit's reserve side, having previously refused to leave the club.

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Honours

With Rangers

• Scottish Premier League: 2002-03, 2004-05
• Scottish Cup: 2001-02, 2002-03
• Scottish League Cup: 2001-02, 2002-03, 2004-05

With Zenit St Petersburg

• Russian Premier League: 2007
• UEFA Cup: 2007-08
• Russian Super Cup: 2008

[edit] References

• Scotsman.com - Le Guen suspends Ricksen over flight behaviour
• BBC - Troubled Ricksen consults clinic
• Eveningtimes.co.uk - Ricksen checks in to addiction clinic

[edit] External links

• Fernando Ricksen career stats at Soccerbase