Gianni Zuiverloon

Gianni Michel Eugène Zuiverloon (born 30 December 1986 in Rotterdam) is a Netherlands football defender, who signed a three-year contract in July 2008 to his current club West Bromwich Albion F.C..

Club career

Gianni Zuiverloon started playing football at the age of six, when he got tired of other sports such as karate and swimming. His mother, who did not know much about football, called the first team she found in the yellow pages, which was Feyenoord. Feyenoord allowed Zuiverloon to join a youth training session, and after having proven himself at this session he was allowed to join the club, where he spent 11 years in various youth teams.

Due to the injury of a fellow team mate (Dustley Mulder) at Feyenoord, coach Ruud Gullit selected Zuiverloon for the first team, where he made his debut in professional football in the season of 2004–05. His first game was against Willem II Tilburg, on 22 August 2004. He played a total of ten games that season, scoring no goals. In order to get more first team experience he was loaned out to RKC Waalwijk in the 2005–06 season, where he played a total of 28 games.

In June 2006 he signed a three-year deal with his new club SC Heerenveen. The year before he was loaned to RKC Waalwijk, scoring his only goal that season against SC Heerenveen.

On 2 July 2008 it was confirmed by Heerenveen that he had signed a three-year deal, with an extra year in the club's favour, for West Bromwich Albion F.C. of the Premier League for £3.2million. Zuiverloon said that he had turned down offers from other Premier League and European clubs, choosing West Brom "because of the way they play football", the persuasion of his friend Ryan Babel and for the opportunity to play regularly. He made his debut in a 2–1 home to defeat to Everton F.C. on 23 August 2008.

International career

Gianni Zuiverloon is a Netherlands national under-21 football team regular. He joined the Netherlands U21 squad for the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship in France in the summer of 2006 and was capped three times.

In 2007 Zuiverloon was called up by Netherlands national under-21 football team coach Foppe de Haan to be part of his squad for the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship held in the Netherlands. Zuiverloon participated in both of their first round group matches against Israel national under-21 football team (1–0 win) and Portugal national under-21 football team (2–1 win) to secure a semi final spot and to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the semi finals against England national under-21 football team Zuiverloon had a great effort, playing a quality match which ended in 1–1 after extra time. In the following penalty shoot-out, with 32 kicks taken, Zuiverloon forced the decision with his strike past Scott Carson and brought the Dutch into their second straight final. The Dutch went on to retain their 2006 title by beating Serbia national under-21 football team 4–1 in the final. After the tournament he was named in the 'UEFA Team of the tournament'. At the 2008 Olympics he helped the Netherlands to reach the quarter-finals, where they were defeated 2–1 by Argentina.