Jaap Stam 1998-2001 127 Games 1 Goals

Written by: Adam Carpenter

‘’Jip Jaap Stam is a big Dutchman, get past him if you flippin can, try and do a trick, he’ll make you look like a dick, Jip Jaap, Jaap Stam.’’

A very commonly used song by the Old Trafford faithful even to this day, and it was justice to the big tall centre back as he taught a lesson to many youngsters watching him how to play football at centre back without any hassle. A real role model in the game and Jaap will always be known for his superior ability in the air and always had a great tackle and could also play with his feet. He proved how good he was in England and abroad in other countries in Europe, which landed him the honour of being voted the best defender in the world for two years running in 1998 and 1999. This was the time where he was playing in England for United, and his time in Manchester was only one that span out over three seasons, but he has had very successful spells at clubs like PSV, Lazio and Milan. He retired in 2007 finishing his career in his homeland country at Ajax.

Sir Alex highly regarded Jaap and that showed in the price he paid for him to lure him away from Holland. He paid £10.5 million for Jaap, and at that time, that was an awful lot of money, especially for a centre back, this also made him the most expensive player in Dutch footballing history at the time and it is more than evident he paid off that transfer fee in the three years he spent with the reds. Jaap’s debut for United came in 1998, and went on to make 125 appearances and only scored one goal which was in a 6-2 win against Leicester City. He was present in Barcelona in the champions’ league final in 1999 and was a key pivotal player in the heart of the defence for that whole season and was voted as the world’s best defender. It shows how good a player he was when United come to the conclusion to sell him. Jaap had just come back and recovered from an Achilles injury and many thought he could not reproduce his form of 1998 and 1999. So in 2001 he was sold to Lazio for a massive sum of £16.5 million, but Sir Alex regards this as his only mistake in his United days of the timing of selling a player.

Stam managed to win quite a few honours with United in his three years at the club. He won three premierships, an F.A. Cup and a European Cup. Both of his personal awards came as a United player and his record goes to show for itself really, the three years he was at the club United win the title every year, the year he left and the year before he joined, United failed to win the league.

After Jaap left England he was still a world class centre half. Proving his worth in Italy with Lazio and Milan, he became a footballing role model and an icon in Dutch football. But he got into a bad situation when he was playing for Lazio. He was tested for drugs, nandrolone in his body to be specific and it was positive, which got him banned for 5 months, which was reduced to a month. Bar this from happening Jaap was a very professional lad and a genuine chap.

Jaap Stam had an international career for Holland which span out for 8 years. He made 67 appearances scoring three times. He was a pivotal player for his nation in the world cup in 1998, and the European championships in 2000 and 2004. Each time Holland was knocked out of these tournaments at the semi final stages. Going very close to the final of Euro 2000, where they lost out to Italy on spot kicks to decide who qualified after the sides could not be parted in 90 minutes and extra time. Stam missed a vital kick which sent his team out of the tournament.

Nowadays Jaap is a completely retired footballer after hanging his boots up from the game in 2007, because he wants to focus on his private life with his family. For now nobody knows whether he will be going into management, but many will hope he will. In 2008 he played a small role as a scout at Manchester United after Sir Alex signed him up, this may be an indication that he will go to management next. He still currently is a part time scout at Manchester United.