Football is a group game made of 11 individuals on each team. This is the game’s core principle, and every year millions of dollars are spent on each team just to make these eleven perform better. However, a man is known for his defensive abilities to the point that he has been given the total name defense. We will talk about this player in our version of Matthijs de Ligt Biography.
Imagine how good a defender should be for the critiques to ignore this core principle of football that you need your team to be complete. The player we will talk about has impressed the world, and the best part of this story is that he is only 23 years old! Many athletes spend years perfecting their skills in their position, but this defender has already perfected his ways, and we still doubt that he has reached his full potential.
Of course, we are talking about Matthijs de Ligt, the 23-year-old Bayern Munich defender with a rich history of playing for top-class teams such as Ajax and Juventus and now for Stern des Südens.
Let us delve deeper into Matthijs de Ligt Biography so we can provide you with the context to describe his skills even further.
A one-of-a-kind version of Matthijs de Ligt Biography
So here at Footbalium, we try to give a complete version of Matthijs de Ligt Biography that you have never seen before. If you search for this man’s story, you will only find a section of his life on separate platforms, but here, you get it all in one place. Now, without further ado, let’s hop into the article and learn more about this athlete.
Matthijs de Ligt introduction
Let us first introduce this defender to those who are unfamiliar with him. The Matthijs de Ligt stats below will provide you with all the information you need about this player before we get to the rest of the article.
- Age: 23 years
- Height: 1.89 m
- Nationality: Netherlands/Dutch
- Preferred Foot: Right
- Current Team: Bayern Munich
- Number: 4
- Position: Centre-back
We aim to cover Matthijs de Ligt biography completely; thus, let us start with his childhood.
Matthijs de Ligt childhood
Matthijs de Ligt was born on August 12, 1999, in Leiderdorp, a town, and municipality in the western Netherlands, to parents Vivian and Frank de Ligt.
His birthplace was a relatively small town with a 2021 population of 27,377. Matthijs de Ligt’s parents relocated to Abcoude, a town close to Amsterdam, shortly after he was born. Parents and their children’s love for the Ajax football team grew significantly along with improved economic opportunities.
Later in his early childhood, two twins, Fleur and Wouter, joined the family. Matthijs was glad that he finally got not only one but two playmates. Early on, Matthijs de Ligt always took the lead as a big brother. Wouter, the younger sibling, had always considered himself fortunate to have a close relationship with his big brother from their early years. The two spent hours playing together. Fleur would also join them occasionally.
The de Ligt brothers developed the custom of never letting one another wander in the dark by themselves back then.
They also developed a strong passion and love for the Ajax football team from a young age. The de Ligt brothers developed the custom of never letting one another wander in the dark by themselves back then.
Also, back then, both boys would run hysterically through their living room if Ajax played and scored.
During the week, their parents take them for walks to the Ajax stadium (Johan Cruijff Arena) as part of their leisure time.
In his own life, Matthijs was known for always watching out for his twin siblings and never being afraid to stand up to bullies in the classroom.
Matthijs de Ligt enters football
If you came here to read about this player’s career, here is the section of Matthijs de Ligt biography where we start covering all of his careers, domestic and international career.
Matthijs first started playing tennis, which later proved to be not his fit. He was made for football, not tennis; thus, he came to his senses and realized he should quit.
Matthijs struggled to adapt to his career. He was looking for other options at the time. Fortunately for him, his friend eventually invited him to a practice session and introduced him to football. Matthijs started playing football right away following the practice.
First club
He had to adjust to the new sport for about a year. During this time, he was able to sign up for the FC Abcoude youth team, which was in the location where he was residing, which gave him the opportunity to further develop his talent.
Matthijs never forgot his family in the process.
Before then, Matthijs would frequently bring his younger brother Wouter along with him to club events. While playing for the youth club, the hero of our story realized he could become much more than what he is now.
He had a steely drive and was focused on his new aim of becoming a professional while playing for FC Abcoude. He worked hard to achieve his goals, and look at him now. Matthijs continued to play for FC Abcoude for three more years, developing his abilities and setting greater goals.
Ajax sent its scouts to observe the defender’s playstyle to determine if it suited their team. He had remarkable growth, which was steady and initially satisfied their needs.
Yet as time passed, scouts for Ajax started to have concerns. They were concerned that Matthijs de Ligt was gaining weight at a rate that would be seen as unsportsmanlike. They decided to take a chance since they could still see his potential.
Matthijs de Ligt senior career
Matthijs de Ligt was promoted to senior football as he neared 17 because he was the quickest and fastest to advance beyond all youth ranks. This occurred after receiving several honors for football playing in his youth.
Fans had already realized he would be a fantastic player at that point. A year later, he was given a promotion to the Ajax senior team.
On August 8, 2016, Matthijs de Ligt played well in his first game against FC Emmen. He scored and performed well on this particular day to introduce himself to the Ajax supporters. After then, Matthijs de Ligt real name became “total defense” in the field.
His rapid rise began to pick up speed during his debut season of professional football.
Matthijs de Ligt and his former Colombian colleague Davinson Sánchez bonded well to give Ajax excellent defensive cover.
At the young age of 17, leading his squad to the 2017 UEFA Europa League final undoubtedly earned accolades from all sides.
On July 18, 2019, De Ligt agreed to a five-year, €75 million contract with Serie A champion Juventus. He had a successful run with the squad, making 117 appearances, but the problem was that the team had too many superstars, making it common for a young player like him to be overlooked and out of the spotlight. On July 19, 2022, he transferred to his current squad from Juventus after spending three years there. He now receives a good amount of playing time and frequently appears on the field in Bayern Munich.
Matthijs de Ligt international
To end his career narration, we will present his international run and accomplishments in this section of Matthijs de Ligt biography.
For the first time, De Ligt stepped on the field for the Netherlands on March 25, 2017, in a 2-0 defeat to Bulgaria in a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. Despite having started two league games for Ajax, national team manager Danny Blind selected De Ligt for the squad. He started for the national team at the age of 17, making him the youngest player to do so since 1931.
De Ligt started and played the full 90 minutes in each of the four UEFA Nations League games the Netherlands played against Germany and France to win the group and advance to the tournament’s final. He helped his side get to the final, where Portugal defeated the Netherlands 0-1.
He was dismissed for handball on June 27, 2021, in the UEFA Euro 2020 round of 16 matches between the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. As a result, the Netherlands lost the match and was eliminated from the tournament.
Matthijs de Ligt family and GF
For Matthijs, a gorgeous woman had already opened her heart to him before he was successful. Maybe this was why Matthijs de Ligt biography includes such success stories.
Annekee Molenaar and Matthijs have been dating for a few years now. Annekee Molenaar is the famous Dutch lawyer and former football player Keje Molenaar’s daughter, so it should be no surprise that she has a thing or two for football players. She is a glamour model with more than 400,000 Instagram followers.
Because Annick enjoys acting, she is not scared of being in the spotlight. She is a graduate of an Amsterdam youth theater program. Even before Matthijs became well-known, Annick was known to spend a lot of time with him outside of hockey and acting.
Midway through 2014, while both were still merely dating after being childhood sweethearts, information about their relationship came to light.
Matthijs de Ligt off the pitch
How does Matthijs de Ligt life story go on when he is off his professional duty? What does Matthijs de Ligt do outside the pitch? There are a few reports on this player’s lifestyle. Their reports are certainly worth reviewing, and we would do it in this section of Matthijs de Ligt biography.
Several people who know him say that he has a calm, focused, serious, intellectual, and joyful attitude. He is also loyal and profound.
Matthijs enjoys his alone time and dislikes receiving attention unrelated to his work. If he’s not playing football, he’s probably with Annick, playing FIFA, or binge-watching Netflix all day.
He doesn’t want to hang out with everyone; that’s not his style. Most recently, his mother pressured him for a driver’s license, but that didn’t work out.
During his time in Italy with Serie A powerhouse Juventus, the defender traveled around in a Jeep Cherokee. This shows that the player does not spend excessively on his vehicles.
In the summer of 2022, the center back for the Netherlands transferred from Italy to Germany. As a result, they are presently living in Germany, albeit it is still unclear exactly where their home is located.
Matthijs de Ligt honors and achievements
We have presented everything to Know About Matthijs de Ligt in a way that we would also have room for his honors and achievements for the last part.
Considering that he is still 23 years old and has a lot to do in the football world, we see his short list of team achievements justified. However, despite his young age, he has many individual awards, which we will discuss in this last section of Matthijs de Ligt biography.
His first trophy came in the 2018-19 season with Ajax, and it was the Eredivisie title. KNVB Cup was his second trophy with this team in the same season.
After his transfer to Juventus, this team won the league title in the 2019-2020 season and Coppa Italia a year after that. Plus, Supercoppa Italiana was another trophy he managed to get his hands on with Juventus in 2020.
In Budesliga, he has only won DFL-Supercup 2022 with Bayern to this point.
He has no major trophies with the national team, but as mentioned before, he has many years to play for this team, so this may change soon.
The Golden Boy of 2018 has a long list of individual awards, and we will only mention the most important parts to wrap up Matthijs de Ligt biography.
One of his first individual trophies was Copa Amsterdam Best Player 2015. Later, he managed to win Dutch Footballer of the Year for the 2018–19 season, Kopa trophy 2019, IFFHS Men’s World Team 2019, and UEFA Team of the Year for 2019.
