Radja Nainggolan - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Radja Nainggolan

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User Rating

(0 users)

Complete

60%

Born
1988 (36 years old)

Birth Place

Antwerp, Belgium

Position
Central Midfield

Status
Active

Ethnicity

Team Number
10

Height
177 cm

Weight
64 kg

Outfitter

Kit

Side
Right

Agent

Market Value
Free

Wage Year

Player Manager ID
8169332

Player Cutout

Player Action Render

Sport

Soccer

Team
Bhayangkara FC

2nd Team

League
Indonesian Super League

Creative Commons Artwork
No

Description
Available in:

Radja Nainggolan (born 4 May 1988) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Liga 1 club Bhayangkara.

Nicknamed Il Ninja, he spent almost his entire professional career in Italy, representing Piacenza, Cagliari, Roma and Inter Milan. He made 367 appearances and scored 48 goals in Serie A, being named four consecutive times in its Team of the Year.

A Belgium international for eight years, Nainggolan played 30 times for his country (scoring six goals) and represented it at Euro 2016.

Nainggolan was born in Antwerp, the son of Lizy Bogaerts, a Belgian of Flemish ethnicity who raised him with his three half brothers and his twin sister, and Marianus Nainggolan, an Indonesian of Toba Batak background and member of the Batak Christian Protestant Church. He was raised in Kiel, a working-class and multicultural neighbourhood of the city. His father abandoned the family when Nainggolan was still a child.

Nainggolan's mother died in 2010, and after her death he tattooed two large wings on his back with her dates of birth and death. He was raised Roman Catholic and speaks Dutch, English, French and Italian fluently.

Due to his father's heritage, Nainggolan was eligible to represent both Indonesia and Belgium, but ultimately chose to play for the latter nation. He took part at the 2007–09 International Challenge Trophy finals, a tournament which the under-23 team won.

Nainggolan earned his first senior cap on 29 May 2009, against Chile in the Kirin Cup. He scored his first goal for the Red Devils on 5 March 2014, in a 2–2 friendly draw with Côte d'Ivoire.

On 13 May 2014, Nainggolan was selected in a standby list for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He did not make the final cut, however.

Nainggolan was a starter for the Marc Wilmots-led side during the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. He scored in an away draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a 4–1 win in Andorra as the team qualified for the tournament for the first time in 16 years.

Nainggolan was selected to the finals in France. He made his debut in the tournament on 13 June, playing 62 minutes in a 2–0 loss against Italy. After featuring as a second-half substitute in the second game, a 3–0 defeat of the Republic of Ireland, he returned to the starting XI against Sweden, scoring the game's only goal at the Stade de Nice after a counter-attack to send his country to the knockout stage as second; in the quarter-finals, he netted from 25 metres to put his country ahead against Wales after 12 minutes, but in an eventual 3–1 loss.

On 26 August 2017, aged 29, Nainggolan announced that he would be retiring from international football after not being selected for Belgium's upcoming World Cup qualifiers, and stated that he would be focusing on his club career with Roma. However, he was selected by new manager Roberto Martínez for friendlies against Mexico and Japan in November, only to pull out due to injury.

On 21 May 2018, after once again not being picked for the upcoming World Cup in Russia, Nainggolan retired from the international scene.

Nainggolan married Claudia Lai, with the couple being parents to daughters Aysha (b. 2012) and Mailey (b. 2016). His twin sister, Riana, is also a footballer; she is openly lesbian and he spoke out against homophobia.

On 10 July 2019, Lai confirmed in an Instagram post that she had been diagnosed with cancer and would begin chemotherapy treatment.