Eljero George Rinaldo Elia

Eljero George Rinaldo Elia>is a Dutch football player who presently plays for Hamburger SV, a German Bundesliga club and also for the Dutch national football team. A product of the AFC Ajax academy, Eljero played for teams like FC Twente and ADO Den Haag prior to joining Hamburg in 2009. In 2009, he made his debut for the national team and scored his debut goal too thus participating at the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

Eljero began his career on the Netherlands under 19 team in 2005, a year after his debut as a professional player. At the beginning of 2006, he got selected for the under 21 team squad and was selected by Bert van Marwijk for a friendly match against England. In 2009, he made his debut for the team against Japan in a friendly match replacing Arjen Robben.

After his selection in the squad of the FIFA World cup in 2010, he assisted the second goal in a 2-0 victory over Denmark with his shot hitting the post and Dirk Kuyt tapping it in. At the second match of the Group stage, Eljero came as a replacement in the 72nd minute of the game. In the 66th minute of the match against Cameroon, he replaced Dirk Kuyt.

Career Highlights

In 2009, Eljero was awarded the Johan Cruijff Award as the “young player of the year” in the Netherlands.