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André Ooijer (born 11 July 1974 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is a Dutch international football player who currently plays for PSV Eindhoven. He was talented even as a child, joining his first amateur football team when he was just five years old and started playing for other amateur clubs SDW and SDZ when he was just 12 years. He signed on at hometown club Ajax Amsterdam during the 1986/1987 season and featured for the reserve team. Sensing that he had little future in a club with so much competition for a first team place such as Ajax, he agreed a loan deal to FC Volendam in the 1994/1995 season before signing on for Roda JC in the beginning of the 1995/1996 season in a permanent transfer. Throughout his career at this point, he excelled at rightback position although he could also operate at centreback as well as the defensive midfield spot. After impressing at Roda JC, he joined PSV Eindhoven at the midway of the 1997/1998 season. His talents at PSV did not go unnoticed as he was selected as part of the Dutch squad for the World Cup 1998 in France by Guus Hiddink as cover for Michael Reiziger. He endured a frustrating tournament in that World Cup as he warmed the bench on all occasions and did not feature in any of the Netherlands' games, delaying his debut for the 'Oranje'. Frank Rijkaard who replaced Hiddink as the head coach of the Dutch team in 1999 took notice of Ooijer's progress at club level and during a tour of Brazil of the same year, Rijkaard handed him his first appearance on 5 June 1999 in a difficult match against Brazil as a substitute for Reiziger who was injured during the game. The match ended in a 2-2 draw and Ooijer made a confident start to the national team. Despite his convincing performances, he was not included in the final squad for the Euro 2000 tournament on home soil after being dropped at the last minute. After being overlooked several times for an international team spot by Louis van Gaal who took over from Rijkaard in 2001, he was able to feature for Dick Advocaat in 2003 with a solid performance in the qualification games including a goal against Scotland in the qualification second-leg playoff for the Euro 2004 at the Amsterdam ArenA. Such was his luck not to be able to feature in a major tournament as he was also dropped by Advocaat in the final squad travelling to Portugal for the Euro 2004 Finals. However for PSV, he enjoyed some domestic success by winning the Eredivisie title in 2002 and regularly played in the Champions League even scoring a goal against Arsenal FC in a first round match of the 2004/2005 season to ensure that PSV reached the second knockout stage for the first time. He has 16 international caps for the Netherlands and 2 goals.
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