My story
John Gijsbert Alan Heitinga was born on 15 November 1983 in Alphen aan de Rijn, close to the city of Leiden. He started playing football at his local club, ARC, from a very young age. For his seventh birthday his mother treated him to a coaching course at Ajax, which led to him being invited to join their famous youth academy. Having started life as a right-back, and occasionally pushing up into a defensive midfield role, John has latterly developed as an attack-minded central defender, who scores more than his share of goals.
John went on to represent Holland at every level, playing at the European Championship for Under-16’s and captaining the Dutch Under-20’s team that went to the World Cup in Argentina in 2000.
He made his league debut for the Ajax first team on 26 August 2001, at the age of just 17 years and 284 days, in the ‘classic’ against Feyenoord at the De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam. A 2-1 victory kick-started a season that ended with Ajax claiming a league and cup ‘double’ in John’s maiden season.
An injury half way through the 2001/02 season sidelined him for the rest of the campaign, and he also missed much of the 2002/03 season. However, after his comeback the club stormed to another title in 2004. By then he had won his first cap in the national team, starting as a right-back in a friendly against the USA in his own backyard, the Amsterdam Arena.
John scored his first international goal only two months later in a friendly against Greece. At Euro 2004 he was in Holland’s starting line-up for the first two games, but was sent off with two yellow cards against the Czech Republic. It meant a premature end to his tournament as the Dutch progressed to the semi-finals. At the 2006 World Cup, John played the first two games, before being rested for the third against Argentina. In the second round match against Portugal he started on the bench, and his appearance as a substitute came too late to prevent the team from defeat.
More recently, John has added two further Dutch Cup winner’s medals to his trophy cabinet - in 2006 and 2007. Now into his seventh season in the first team, John is the longest serving player in the Ajax squad. He has firmly established himself as the bedrock at the heart of the defence, while retaining his attacking inclinations, as underlined by the fact that he had already bagged four league goals by the midway point of the 2007/08 season.
In 2007, John agreed a contract extension with Ajax until 2011. However, in March 2008, the Amsterdam club accepted an offer from Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, and he will therefore embark on a new adventure in La Liga in the 2008/09 season, where he can look forward to coming face to face with his old friend and former Ajax teammate Wesley Sneijder, now at Real Madrid.
John went on to represent Holland at every level, playing at the European Championship for Under-16’s and captaining the Dutch Under-20’s team that went to the World Cup in Argentina in 2000.
He made his league debut for the Ajax first team on 26 August 2001, at the age of just 17 years and 284 days, in the ‘classic’ against Feyenoord at the De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam. A 2-1 victory kick-started a season that ended with Ajax claiming a league and cup ‘double’ in John’s maiden season.
An injury half way through the 2001/02 season sidelined him for the rest of the campaign, and he also missed much of the 2002/03 season. However, after his comeback the club stormed to another title in 2004. By then he had won his first cap in the national team, starting as a right-back in a friendly against the USA in his own backyard, the Amsterdam Arena.
John scored his first international goal only two months later in a friendly against Greece. At Euro 2004 he was in Holland’s starting line-up for the first two games, but was sent off with two yellow cards against the Czech Republic. It meant a premature end to his tournament as the Dutch progressed to the semi-finals. At the 2006 World Cup, John played the first two games, before being rested for the third against Argentina. In the second round match against Portugal he started on the bench, and his appearance as a substitute came too late to prevent the team from defeat.
More recently, John has added two further Dutch Cup winner’s medals to his trophy cabinet - in 2006 and 2007. Now into his seventh season in the first team, John is the longest serving player in the Ajax squad. He has firmly established himself as the bedrock at the heart of the defence, while retaining his attacking inclinations, as underlined by the fact that he had already bagged four league goals by the midway point of the 2007/08 season.
In 2007, John agreed a contract extension with Ajax until 2011. However, in March 2008, the Amsterdam club accepted an offer from Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, and he will therefore embark on a new adventure in La Liga in the 2008/09 season, where he can look forward to coming face to face with his old friend and former Ajax teammate Wesley Sneijder, now at Real Madrid.
