Daniel de Ridder played for Birmingham City between 2007 and 2008, and for Wigan Athletic between 2008 and 2011.
Born in Amsterdam, de Ridder began his career as a promising young midfielder at Ajax.
Now age 38, de Ridder racked up 30 appearances for the Netherlands U21 side and showed a lot of early promise. But injuries quickly started to hamper his career.
After leaving Ajax in 2005, de Ridder joined Celta Vigo where he spent two years before joining Birmingham City on a free transfer.
During one season at St Andrew’s, de Ridder featured 10 times in the Premier League but saw his contract terminated early that season.
He then signed for Wigan Athletic but during a three-year stay, the Dutchman managed just 18 league outings, with injuries continuing to blight his career.
So what’s de Ridder up to these days?
After leaving Wigan Athletic in 2011, de Ridder went on to have spells with Grasshopper, Heerenveen, RKC Waalwijk, and Cambuur.
De Ridder ended his playing career with the latter in 2015, at the age of 31. Since then, de Ridder has worked regularly as a pundit in his native Netherlands.
He regularly appeared on the Dutch football show NOS Eredivisie op Vrijdag but in a 2021 interview, de Ridder revealed his ambitions to study law, and he’s been relatively quiet on the football scene since.
De Ridder then seems to be pursuing a career beyond football but he remains active on social media, and you can check out his Instagram page here.
As a youngster at Ajax, de Ridder showed a lot of early promise but like so many unlucky names, he suffered terribly with injuries and he perhaps didn’t fulfil his true potential as a footballer.