Before coming to Barcelona, Rijkaard had played in the Dutch and Italian leagues, as well as featured on the Dutch national team. His appointment as Barcelona coach caused some surprise as he was considered to lack experience.
football career
Rijkaard’s professional football career began with Ajax when he made his first-team debut in 1980 at the age of 17. Scoring in his first game, he went on to play a total of 24 league games in his first season with a total of 4 goals. . Two years later the team won the league trophy, a feat that the team repeated the following year.
The second half of Rijkaard’s time at Ajax was spent under Johan Cruyff, but in 1987 Rijkaard stormed out of a training session, vowing never to play for Cruyff again. After signing for Sporting Clube de Portugal too late in the season to play, he was immediately loaned out to Zaragoza of Spain, where he played a single season.
At the end of the season, Rijkaard was signed by AC Milan, where he stayed for five years. Shifting from central defense to midfield, his aggressive play helped the team win the Italian Serie A and the European Cup twice.
He returned to Ajax with Luis Van Gaal in 1993 and helped the team win the Dutch league twice. His last match saw Ajax beat AC Milan 1-0 in the Champions League final in 1995.
Internationally, Rijkaard made 73 caps for the Netherlands and scored 10 goals, though his success was sometimes marred by his temper, such as when he spat on Germany’s Rudi Völler several times during the 1990 World Cup.
Training
After acting as an assistant coach with the Netherlands national team, he was appointed as the team’s manager in 1998, and although he was not considered to have enough experience for the job, his team was able to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2000.
After losing to Italy on penalties, Rijkaard resigned immediately, but took over as manager of Sparta Rotterdam during the 2001-2002 season. The season was disastrous for him and saw the team relegated to the second division for the first time in their history. He and the directors did not get along and with this last straw he was forced to leave.
His appointment as manager of FC Barcelona in 2003 caused many surprises, but with two league wins and a Champions League title to his name, he has firmly proven the doubters wrong.