The Hague (Netherlands) – At the HSV and Werder Bremen he twirled through the Bundesliganow Eljero Elia (36) has hung up his football boots.
Between 2012 and 2015, Eljero Elia (36) played for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga. (Archive photo) © Carmen Jaspersen/dpa
The 36-year-old winger announced this on Sunday evening on the TV station’s show “De Voetbalkantine”. ESPN.
“I resigned. It wasn’t official until now because I was too busy to announce it. Now the whole of the Netherlands knows I’ve resigned,” said the 30-time national player of “Elftal”.
Most recently, Elia was active for ADO Den Haag, his youth club, in the second Dutch league. Since the summer of 2022, however, he has been without a club.
Werder keeper loses suitcase and has to go “naked up a mountain”
“In my head I had stopped for a couple of years. I really didn’t like it in the last few years,” explained the left winger.
After his Eredivisie breakthrough in The Hague, the technically gifted attacking player switched to Twente Enschede in 2007, where his strong performances put him in the spotlight and on the wish lists of some European heavyweights.
The contract was awarded to the then Bundesliga Dino from Hamburg, who transferred a whopping nine million euros to the Dutch-German border town in 2009.
At the 2010 World Cup, Eljero Elia (36, right) was on the pitch in six of Oranje’s seven games. (Archive photo) © THOMAS COEX / AFP
However, Elia was only able to meet the high expectations of the Elbe to a limited extent. In 2009/10 he added six goals and nine assists in 35 competitive appearances in all competitions and was well on his way to becoming a star of the future.
Several minor injury problems and the resulting fluctuations in form repeatedly stopped the steep rise of the vice world champion from 2010, and the really big leap in development didn’t materialize at first.
Nevertheless, Juventus Turin became aware of the lightning-fast dribbling artist and compensated the Hanseatic city on the deadline day of the 2011 summer transfer period with the former purchase price of nine million euros.
Werder coach threatens his players before the Super Bowl: “I’ll knock on the door”!
However, the Italian adventure subsequently turned out to be a misunderstanding. Elia only made four brief appearances in Serie A. After just one season, he returned to Germany.
Ironically, the Nordic rival from Bremen secured the services of the right foot, but his career on the Weser really didn’t want to get going again. Although the tricky noble technician presented good approaches again and again, there could be no question of consistency.
The great advance praise of the past few days remained false promises in three Werder years. After a loan to FC Southampton, Elia moved on to Feyenoord Rotterdam.
Things went much better there, the whirlwind even worked its way back into the national team and was rewarded in 2017 with a lucrative move to Istanbul Başakşehir, where he became a top performer and all-time favorite in the following three seasons with 86 appearances before he started his career at FC Utrecht and ended in The Hague.
