Richard Knopper

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Personal information
Richard Knopper
Full name	Richard Gijsbert Knopper
Date of birth	August 29, 1977 (1977-08-29) (age 30)
Place of birth	Rijswijk, Netherlands
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	ADO Den Haag
Youth clubs
1988-1993 1993-1997	Feyenoord Rotterdam Ajax Amsterdam
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1997-2004 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2006 2006-	AFC Ajax Aris F.C. (loan) SC Heerenveen (loan) Vitesse Arnhem ADO Den Haag	67 (19) 21 (1) 32 (9) 47 (8) 17 (3)
National team²
	Netherlands
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 28 September 2006. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 28 September 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Richard Knopper (born August 29, 1977 in Rijswijk) is a Dutch footballer who currently plays for ADO Den Haag. Knopper began his footballing career with Feyenoord youth team, however, he signed his professional contract with arch-rivals Ajax, and made his Ajax debut in November of 1997, in the away match against Sparta Rotterdam. In 1999 he was voted by the Ajax supporters as most talented player, receiving the Marco van Basten Trophy. His best season at Ajax was unfortunately Ajax's poorest season of the recent years, in 1999/2000. Knopper was one of the most valuable players that season, scoring fifteen goals as a midfielder. He was a regular under Jan Wouters, but when Co Adriaanse took over as head coach in 2000, Knopper was injured for almost the entire season, playing only eight matches that year. In his last year at Ajax, he won the Dutch League under Ronald Koeman, adding another thirteen matches to his total of 67 Ajax league matches. In 2002, Knopper joined Greek team Aris Saloniki on loan, and in the following year, loaned out to SC Heerenveen. Knopper finally left Ajax in 2004 to join Vitesse Arnhem where he could be guaranteed first team football. After some troubles with his new Vitesse manager Aad de Mos in 2006, he was forced to leave Arnhem. ADO Den Haag took the player on loan and contracted him till the summer of 2010.

[edit] References

v • d • e ADO Den Haag – current squad

1 Postma • 2 Rijaard • 3 Kum • 4 Teixeira • 6 Ranković • 7 Cornelisse • 8 Bosschaart • 9 Hoogendorp • 10 Knopper • 11 Verhoek • 14 Schwiebbe • 16 Van de Haar • 17 Meriç • 18 Riedewald • 19 Stoffels • 20 Fernandez • 21 Coster • 22 Zwinkels • 24 El Moussaoui • 25 Arends • 27 El Kadi • 28 Immers • 29 Knijnenburg • Manager: Vloet

Persondata
NAME	Knopper, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Professional football player
DATE OF BIRTH	August 29, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rijswijk
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH