Known for his strength on the ball, his tactical awareness and spectacular strikes and volleys, Van Basten was named European Footballer of the Year three times ( 1988, ' 89 and ' 92 ) and FIFA World Player of the Year in 1992.

Van Basten was voted eighth in a poll organised by the French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d ' Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century.

In 2004, a nationwide poll was held for the 100 greatest Dutch people ( De Grootste Nederlander ) and Van Basten was number 25, the second highest for a football player.

In March 2007, Sky Sports ranked Van Basten first on its list of great athletes who had their careers cut short.

Van Basten was born on 31 October 1964 in Utrecht.

Van Basten with the KNVB Cup.

AFC Ajax signed Van Basten for the 1981 – 82 season.

After Kieft left for Serie A club Pisa the next season, Van Basten solidified his position as the team's main attacker.

In 1987, Silvio Berlusconi signed Van Basten for Milan, with fellow countrymen Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard joining in 1988.

In his first season, Milan won their first Scudetto in eight years, but Van Basten played only 11 games and was constantly troubled by an ankle injury.

In 1988 – 89, Van Basten won the Ballon d ' Or as Europe's top footballer.

After Van Basten fell out with Arrigo Sacchi, Berlusconi sacked the manager.

Van Basten scored 25 league goals, and became Capocannoniere again.

Van Basten played exceptionally well in the early part of the season.

At the UEFA Euro 1988, Van Basten scored a total of five goals, including a hat trick against England, the winning goal in the semi-final against West Germany, and a spectacular volley in the final against the Soviet Union.

The Netherlands reached the semi-final of UEFA Euro 1992 when they lost to Denmark in a penalty shootout, with Peter Schmeichel saving a penalty shot from Van Basten.

Van Basten while manager of the Netherlands.

Van Basten officially left Milan in 1995 and retired from football, stating he would never try management.

On 29 July 2004, Van Basten was named the new manager of the Dutch national team, with van't Schip as his assistant.

Van Basten famously dropped regulars like Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Edgar Davids and Roy Makaay and benched Mark van Bommel, because he believed that they were either past their prime or constantly underachieving.

There were also calls for Van Basten to call up Dennis Bergkamp, who had retired from the national team six years earlier for a final " hurrah " as he was retiring that season.

Van Basten then revealed to the media that he never intended to do so despite Bergkamp's own willingness.

Van Basten had also wanted to include Ivorian forward Salomon Kalou, but was thwarted when Kalou was denied Dutch citizenship by the immigration authorities headed by Rita Verdonk.

Van Basten ( left ) with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar during training prior to Euro 2008.

`` As an independent American I considered all who were not for us, and you amongst the rest, as against us, yet be assured that John Jay never ceased to be the friend of Peter Van Schaack ''.

Van der Heul went on to become a master's mate on a merchant vessel, and was never convicted of piracy.

Although Van Gogh never boarded with him, Pissarro did explain to him the various ways of finding and expressing light and color, ideas which he later used in his paintings, notes Lucien.

In 1959, a severe alcohol related car crash nearly cost Van Cleef his career as a resulting knee injury had doctors telling him he would never ride a horse again.

Like Van Buren, she was raised in a Dutch home and never lost her distinct Dutch accent.

Martin Van Buren never remarried.

Gibbs never married, living all his life in his childhood home with his sister Julia and her husband Addison Van Name, who was the Yale librarian.

When Van Eyck used lapis, he never blended it with other colors.

In May 2007, Van Basten announced the end of his long-running dispute with Real Madrid forward Ruud van Nistelrooy, who had previously declared never to play for a Dutch national squad with Van Basten as its manager.

Van Vliet claimed that he never attended public school, alleging " half a day of kindergarten " to be the extent of his formal education and saying that " if you want to be a different fish, you've got to jump out of the school.

" Magic Band members have also said that the slower performances were due in part to Van Vliet's inability to fit his lyrics with the instrumental backing of the faster material on the earlier albums, a problem that was exacerbated in that he almost never rehearsed with the group.

According to Vietnamese historian Tran Van Giau, Dewey's body was dumped in a nearby river and was never recovered.

But in an odd sense, it was never Isaac Van Nuys's town as land speculators simply borrowed the name of his holding, the Van Nuys Ranch.

Denver was not the first choice to play Gilligan ; actor Jerry Van Dyke was offered the role, but he turned it down, believing that the show would never be successful.

In Subgeneation: the theory of the normal relations of the races ; an answer to miscegenation ( 1864 ) Van Evrie created the words “ subgen ” to describe what he considered to be the " inferior races " and “ subgeneation ” to describe the ‘ normal ’ relation of such inferior races to whites, something which he considered to be the " very corner-stone of democracy "; but these words never entered the dictionary.

During the Great Depression, the population of Westminster was reduced by over half ( to 268 ), and the town never had the renewed growth of its larger neighbors ( such as Van Alstyne, Anna or Melissa ); most of the town's businesses had closed by World War II.

Van Doren also notes that he continued teaching, contrary to the film's epilogue which states he never returned to doing so.

According to Rollins in Get in the Van, this version featured the band going into " a strange jam at the end until the tape ran out ;" It was never mixed down in any form.

In 1969, Van Dyke and Moore reunited for a one-hour variety special called Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman which included a never before seen alternative take from one of the show's episodes in which Van Dyke breaks down and cries after being dismissed from a film role instead of just being disappointed.