Club Career
Overmars first joined a small Dutch club called SV Epe, before joining Go Ahead Eagles in 1987 at the age of 14. Three years later, Willem II bought him from Go Ahead Eagles for £200,000, and a year later he signed for Ajax.
Overmars became famous with Ajax under Louis van Gaal. He was a member of the Ajax team that won the European Cup in 1995 against Milan. However, in early 1996, he suffered a serious injury, which kept him out of Euro 1996. Having returned to action in the 1996–97 season, Overmars was signed by Arsène Wenger's Arsenal in the summer of 1997 for £5.5 million.
He scored many vital goals for Arsenal, including one in the 1998 FA Cup Final and another in a 1–0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford, which helped Arsenal to secure the Double in his first season there. However, the next two seasons were trophyless, as Arsenal were pipped to the Premier League title by a single point and suffered an FA Cup semi-final replay defeat (both times by Manchester United) in the 1998–99 season, and were on the losing side to Galatasaray of Turkey in the UEFA Cup final a year later, also finishing runners-up to Manchester United in the league for the second season running – this time by an 18-point margin.
In the summer of 2000, he moved to Spain and joined Barcelona, for £25 million (€40.6 million), making Overmars the most expensive Dutch player of all time. It also made him the most expensive player to be sold by a British club and the most expensive to be signed by a Spanish club.
This transfer was the first in the history of football to be announced via the player's personal website. Despite a difficult first season at his new club, Overmars was still an impressive performer, registering eight goals in 31 appearances. He was a regular feature of Barcelona's 2001–02 Champions League campaign as they reached the semi-finals before bowing out to fierce rivals Real Madrid, but failed to inspire Barcelona to any trophy success due to a financial crisis the club suffered during the early 2000s.
After retiring as a player on doctor's advice through injury on 26 July 2004, Overmars joined his first professional football club, Go Ahead Eagles, as the technical manager.
On 26 July 2008, Overmars played in the testimonial match of Jaap Stam, where he played for a team of former Dutch internationals. During the match, Overmars outplayed Ajax defender George Ogararu. His performance led to several invitations from Eagles coach Andries Ulderink to make a comeback in football. On 10 August 2008, four years after hanging up his boots, Overmars made a shock announcement that he would come out of retirement to play again for the Go Ahead Eagles for the 2008–09 season. His right knee that caused him to end his career, still gave Overmars some worries. Therefore, Overmars did not play as many minutes or attend as many training sessions as the rest of the squad. After the end of the 2008–09 season, Overmars announced his retirement again.
Read more about this topic: Marc Overmars
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