Edwin van der Sar bows out at the Arena with star-filled line-up

Manchester United keeper and former Dutch international Edwin van der Sar ended his professional playing career at Amsterdam’s Arena stadium on Wednesday with a long line-up of star players turning up for two testimonial matches in front of 53,000 fans.


The first match featured two teams which van der Sar played for – Ajax and Oranje.
Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Frank Rijkaard, Frank de Boer and his brother Ronald, represented Ajax while Bergkamp and Giovanni van Bronckhorst were among the former internationals to put on orange shirts again.
Later, Van der Sar’s Dream Team included Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Dirk Kuyt, Edgar Davids, Rio Ferdinand and Dennis Bergkamp, played for an hour against Dutch league champions Ajax. The dream team won 1-0.
‘This is incredible,’ Van der Sar, who began his professional career 21 years ago, said after the match.
‘I want to thank everyone in the stadium. Thanks for your support through the years,’ Van der Sar told the crowd. Van der Sar, 40, had 130 caps for the Netherlands during his career.

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