Donny van de Beek

Donny van de Beek (born 18 April 1997) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt, on loan from Premier League club Manchester United.

He joined the Ajax academy in 2008.

In August 2014, he joined the Ajax youth academy signing a three-year contract, and was assigned to the D-team.

He progressed further through the academy and featured in the A1 team Supercup victory against the Feyenoord A1 team.

At the end of the 2014–15 season, he won the Ajax Talent of the Future award.

In 2015, Van de Beek made his competitive debut for the club in a UEFA Europa League match against Celtic.

On 27 January 2015, he signed a contract extension, to keep him at the club until mid-2018.

Van de Beek made his debut for Jong Ajax (the Ajax reserve team) in the Eerste Divisie against Sparta Rotterdam in January 2015.

Two months later, manager Frank de Boer called him to the senior team for a league match against ADO Den Haag as an injury replacement.

However, he was an unused substitute in that match.

In November 2015, Van de Beek was called to the senior team for a UEFA Europa League match against Scottish club Celtic.

He made his European debut in the match, which Ajax won 2–1.

He termed his debut as "beautiful" and added: "I have taken my duels well. It was of course difficult because the game went back and forth continuously. But I think I did fine."

Three days later, Van de Beek made his first team debut in a 2–0 league victory against PEC Zwolle.

In the following month, he scored his first goal for Ajax in a 1–1 draw against Norwegian club Molde.

As he scored the goal, his head collided with opposition player Joona Toivio's causing his left eyebrow to bleed.

Commenting on the goal, he said that he would not soon forget it.

The goal also won him the club's Goal of the Month award.

By the end of the 2015–16 season, he cemented his position with the first team, and was also playing regularly for the Ajax under-19 team in the UEFA Youth League.

Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo reported that Barcelona was considering options to secure his services.

In the 2016–17 season, Ajax progressed to the Europa League Final, but lost to Manchester United.

Voetbal International reported in January 2016 that manager De Boer was impressed by Van de Beek and said he would continue to play with the first team "until further notice".

After the departures of John Heitinga and Yaya Sanogo, he was officially promoted to the first team on 16 February.

Media reports in March suggested that German club Bayern Munich was interested in signing him.

At the beginning of the 2016–17 season, new manager Peter Bosz included Van de Beek in the Ajax squad for the UEFA Champions League qualification match against Greek club PAOK for a couple of reasons: Bosz was impressed by Van de Beek's performance during pre-season friendlies in Austria, Riechedly Bazoer was injured and Nemanja Gudelj was suspended.

On 26 July, he made his Champions League debut against PAOK, starting in the 1–1 draw.

While playing for the reserves during the season he and Abdelhak Nouri were the only players who were given more than a 7.0 rating on average by Voetbal International.

In November, he was included in the Europa League Team of the Week for his performance against Panathinaikos.

During the 2017–18 season, Van de Beek established himself as a key player in Ajax's starting eleven.

In November 2017, he made his senior international debut against Romania.

Following the 2018–19 campaign, in which Ajax reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, Van de Beek was listed among the 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d'Or.

With Ajax, he won the Eredivisie title, KNVB Cup and Johan Cruyff Shield.

In 2019, he was part of the squad that reached the first ever UEFA Nations League Final, but lost to Portugal.

Van de Beek was born in Nijkerkerveen.

His parents are André and Gerdina van de Beek.

André is a supporter of Ajax and took Donny to their stadium at the age of five.

Donny's younger brother Rody played for Veensche Boys.

Van de Beek began his career as a boy with the local Veensche Boys' academy where his father, André, once played.

On 30 August 2020, Van de Beek joined Premier League club Manchester United.

In youth international football, Van de Beek made more than 40 appearances for the Netherlands from under-17 to under-21 level.