Theo Lucius

Theo Lucius
Personal information
Full name	Theodorus Martinus Maria Lucius
Position(s)	Defender, Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Feyenoord
Number	6
	‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of August 19, 2007

Theodorus Martinus Maria Lucius (born December 19, 1976 in Veghel) is a Dutch professional footballer who currently plays as a defender or midfielder for Feyenoord. During his career he has won four Eredivisie championships, one KNVB Cup and two times the Johan Cruijff-schaal. He is nicknamed "Boem Boem Theo" (Boom Boom Theo).

Biography

Theo Lucius was born and raised in Veghel and has a sister and a brother. His sister Anne Lucius plays korfball on national level. When Lucius was five years old he started his football career at amateur side VV Heeswijk. He stayed at VV Heeswijk until he was thirteen and professional side BVV Den Bosch showed interest in him.^[1] Before he joined Den Bosch he always played as a striker, but once there he was positioned as a midfielder. After four seasons of youth football at the club he knocked on the door of the first team squad.^[1]

At that time he already worked as a carpenter since he was 15. Three years of hard work made him stronger, both physically and mentally.^[1] When he was offered a contract to play professional football at FC Den Bosch in which was stated that he would make the same amount of money as he did as a carpenter he didn't hesitate and signed the contact.^[1] He joined the first team squad of FC Den Bosch and trained together with the other team members, but manager Chris Dekker was unable to use Lucius in official matches yet. When Lucius would have played for FC Den Bosch they should have paid a certain amount of money towards VV Heeswijk.^[1] In the following season, 1996-97 newly appointed manager Kees Zwamborn let Lucius make his professional debut on August 20, 1996. The Eerste Divisie match away against BV Veendam was lost 1-0. Lucius was a first team regular from the start and only missed one appearance in his two seasons at the club. In both seasont they ended up in the third and fifth position. In both seasons they won a period title, which allowed them to participate in the promotion play-offs, but missed out on promotion in both cases.^[1] His performances didn't go unnoticed and a total of 20 clubs showed interest in signing him. Out of these 20 teams he decided to make a filter of three clubs to decide which team he would join. Out of FC Utrecht, AZ and PSV he eventually choose to play for PSV.^[1]

PSV manager Bobby Robson was delighted with his new signing and made him a first team regular from the start, playing 25 matches in his first season at the club. When Robson left and Erik Gerets took over Lucius was no longer guaranteed a place in PSV's first team and it was decided to sent him on loan to FC Utrecht. This turned out to be a good choice as he played 32 matches during the season and he developed himself as a better player for the years to come.^[1] Gerets had been following his progression at FC Utrecht and included Lucius into his first team squad for the 2000-01 season. This was the start of a very successful period in his career. That same season PSV became the Dutch national champions and Lucius won his first trophy. A few months later the Johan Cruijff-schaal was his second trophy. In 2003 he won his second Eredivisie championship, while in 2005 a third was added to his conto. That same year they also won the KNVB Cup and another Johan Cruijff-schaal. In 2006 he became Dutch national champion for the fourth time in his career. Besides that two more KNVB Cup finals were reached as well as two quarter finals in the UEFA Cup and a semi final in the UEFA Champions League in which they were eliminated by AC Milan in the dying seconds of the game.^[1] Lucius had always played as a midfielder, but in the last 1.5 years of his PSV career he had been used as a right back instead.

In January 2004 Lucius reached the headlines for selling illegal fireworks to a man from Breda in December 2003. When using the fireworks in question the man was badly injured and lost his eye. As a result Lucius was sent to jail from January 8 to 11, 2004. A year later he was found guilty and was charged a community service order of 80 hours. In April 2006 this charge was raised to 240 hours.^[2]

On June 4, 2005 Lucius made his debut in the Netherlands national football team of manager Marco van Basten in a 2-0 home win in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Romania. Four days later he won his second cap in another qualification match which was won 4-0 away to Finland. In September 2005 he featured in the 4-0 home win in the qualifier against Andorra. In this period he started to struggle to get first team football at PSV and he often had to take place on the bench and he eventually missed out on a place in the World Cup squad.^[1] He felt it was time to move on and was able to choose out of a number of teams. Feyenoord already showed interest in signing him the year before and with Erwin Koeman as a manager, who previously was the assistant manager at PSV his decision was easily made.^[1]

Besides PSV and Den Bosch, Feyenoord was the only Dutch based team he wanted to play for. He would never be able or willing to play for AFC Ajax.^[1] His hard working playing style made him a fan favourite and captain at Feyenoord from the start. He was one of the few players that showed a decent form in a disappointing season for the team that eventually finished in 7th position in the league. Improvements were made during the 2007-08 summer break and with the return of Giovanni van Bronckhorst he was no longer the captain of the team.

Statistics

Season	Club	Competition	Apps	Goals
1996/97	FC Den Bosch	Eerste Divisie	34	3
1997/98	FC Den Bosch	Eerste Divisie	33	4
1998/99	PSV	Eredivisie	25	1
1999/00	FC Utrecht	Eredivisie	32	3
2000/01	PSV	Eredivisie	17	1
2001/02	PSV	Eredivisie	23	1
2002/03	PSV	Eredivisie	14	0
2003/04	PSV	Eredivisie	22	4
2004/05	PSV	Eredivisie	22	1
2005/06	PSV	Eredivisie	21	0
2006/07	Feyenoord	Eredivisie	27	5
2007/08	Feyenoord	Eredivisie	1	0
Total			271	23