What happened to Dutch footballing legend Frank Rijkaard?

Frank Rijkaard is widely recognised as one of the best Dutch footballers of all time, and conquered Europe at a club and international level. Let's see how Rijkaard earned that status and what he won in his career. All career stats are sourced from Transfermarkt, unless otherwise stated.

Like many Dutch football legends, Rijkaard began his career at Ajax, making his first-team debut as a teenager against Go Ahead Eagles. He immediately scored and gave a glimpse of his enormous potential.

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Rijkaard would become an important player for Ajax at the time and was instrumental in the club's successes in the 1980s. In his first spell in Amsterdam, he won three Dutch titles, tree Dutch cups and the European Cup Winners' Cup, beating Lokomotive Leipzig in the final.

After Rijkaard's relationship with then Ajax coach Johan Cruyff deteriorated, he was transferred to Sporting CP in January 1988. However, the Portuguese side failed to register the player in time and Rijkaard played the rest of the season at Spanish side Real Zaragoza, per These Football Times.

In the summer of 1988, Rijkaard was transferred to AC Milan, who paid €3 million to Sporting.

At the San Siro, Rijkaard was part of a fearsome Dutch trio with Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit. It would go down in history as one of the most successful episodes in the club's history.

Milan dominated Europe at the time and won back-to-back European Cups in 1988/89 and 1989/90, the last of which saw Rijkaard score the winning goal against Benfica. In the early 1990s, Rijkaard also added two Italian titles to his tally, among other trophies.

In mid-1993, Rijkaard ended his Italian stint and returned to Ajax to write another successful chapter in his already impressive career.

He lifted two more Dutch titles with Ajax and, more importantly, won the Champions League in the 1994/95 season with a 1-0 win over his old love, Milan.

Rijkaard retired after that season, the perfect end to a brilliant club career, which lasted fifteen years and earned him a place among the all-time greats of Dutch football.

An aura that was only reinforced by his achievements with the Dutch national team. Rijkaard was capped 73 times for his country and scored ten goals.

The undisputed highlight of his international career was the 1988 European Championship. The Dutch had a great team, with players like Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Ronald Koeman, and went all the way to the final, beating the Soviet Union, to lift their only trophy to date.

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Rijkaard's international career, however, was also marred by a spitting incident involving Germany's Rudi Völler at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. This earned him the nickname 'lama', given by the German press, per Planet Football.

After his playing career, Rijkaard decided to try his luck as a coach, starting as an assistant with the Dutch national team and later taking charge as the head manager, resigning after losing in the semi-finals of EURO 2000.

After a one-year spell at Dutch club Sparta Rotterdam, which ended with the club's first-ever relegation, Rijkaard was appointed FC Barcelona coach at the start of the 2003/04 season and immediately welcomed Ronaldinho as his new star.

Under the guidance of the Brazilian and Rijkaard, FC Barcelona reconquered its position at the top of Spanish football, winning back-to-back titles from 2004 to 2006.

Rijkaard could also take credit for Lionel Messi's breakthrough at FC Barcelona. "If he had not decided to get me in the first team to train and play perhaps I had never reached the first team," Messi once told Egyptian tv station MBC.

"I always said [Rijkaard] was, for me, a very important person because he trusted me. He made me play in the first team," Messi added.

Rijkaard's time as Barça coach reached its climax in 2006, when the Catalans won the Champions League against Arsenal. Two years later, he stepped down after disappointing results and was replaced by Pep Guardiola, another legendary coach at the Camp Nou.

In mid-2009, Rijkaard was appointed coach of Turkish club Galatasaray, where he did not impress and was succeeded by Gheorghe Hagi. After another coaching adventure, this time with the Saudi Arabian national team, Rijkaard eventually stepped away from football in January 2013 and has not worked in the sport since.

It was the end of Rijkaard's football career, a career that delighted fans in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and around the world.

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