Club Career
After playing in the youth level at ZOB, Ajax and De Graafschap, Lindenbergh began his professional career at De Graafschap that played in the Eerste Divisie. His debut was on November 12, 1994 in a 1–0 win over VVV. He became a key player for the team straight away and helped them to gain promotion to the Eredivisie for the following season, in which he made 30 appearances. In total he took part in 159 games for De Graafschap, scoring six goals, with the club permanently in the top flight. During the 1999–00 season, he left De Vijverberg to continue his career at AZ Alkmaar.
At AZ, Lindenbergh was a first team regular from the start, but he struggled to gain appearances in his second season at the club. As of 2001 he was back on track and became one of the key players of the team unexpectedly made it to the UEFA Cup semi-finals in 2005, only to be beaten on away goals by Sporting Lisbon. Ajax manager Danny Blind acknowledged Lindenbergh's good form and declared an interest in signing him. At the end of the 2004/05 season, Lindenbergh agreed to a move to the Amsterdam ArenA.
He made his debut for the club in 2005 in the 2–0 Eredivisie victory against Willem II. He went on to play eighteen games that season, as well as gaining some Champions League experience along the way. Ajax went on to win the KNVB Cup that same season. When Blind left Ajax and Henk ten Cate was appointed as the new manager, times changed for Lindenbergh and he only appeared in 12 matches that season. Still he participated in the KNVB Cup, which Ajax successfully defended. Following speculation about a transfer (Lindenbergh, along with Michael Krohn-Dehli were deemed surplus to requirements, and were not even allowed to train with the first team to keep their fitness up), Lindenbergh signed with Sparta Rotterdam.
Read more about this topic: Olaf Lindenbergh
Famous quotes containing the words club and/or career:
“Of course we women gossip on occasion. But our appetite for it is not as avid as a man’s. It is in the boys’ gyms, the college fraternity houses, the club locker rooms, the paneled offices of business that gossip reaches its luxuriant flower.”
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)