On Saturday 26 November 2005, Edgar Davids picked up the ball just inside Wigan’s half and kept going. He went past several challenges, moved onto the left side of the box and drove a low left-foot shot across the body of Wigan goalkeeper Mike Pollitt. Robbie Keane had laid the ball back into his path, and the goal made it 2-0 to Spurs in the 77th minute at the JJB Stadium. It was the only goal Davids scored for Tottenham. Lee McCulloch pulled one back for Wigan late on, but Spurs held on for a 2-1 win. Davids was booked in the same game. He was 32 at the time, and he had come to Tottenham less than four months earlier.
Martin Jol had Davids back in his favoured central midfield role, with Michael Carrick alongside him, Jermaine Jenas and Tainio wide, and Keane and Mido up front. Keane had scored after eight minutes, and Davids’ goal on 77 minutes looked to have settled it until McCulloch’s late reply. For a man who had spent a decade in the biggest games in Europe, one goal was a modest return, but it’s the one Spurs fans can point to.
A free transfer at 32
Spurs signed him for nothing, and it was a long way from the Ajax years. His career by then covered Ajax, Milan, Juventus, a loan at Barcelona and a season at Inter. Inter had ended his contract, and on 3 August 2005 UEFA reported that he had completed a free transfer to Tottenham. Martin Jol was pleased, and UEFA’s report of the signing carried the manager’s words: “I know everybody is very excited, he is a big player and the one we wanted.” Jol also said Davids “is probably one of the most successful players of the last decade”, and that he “wants to play for Spurs”.
Given what Davids had won, the price looks like a bargain. He had been a Champions League finalist twice with Juventus, and Spurs were getting him at 32 for nothing. A player with that record gets judged on whether he can still do it every week, and at 32 that’s a harder question than the fee suggests.
Ajax, Juventus and the glasses
Louis van Gaal gave him the Pitbull nickname at Ajax for his fierce midfield play, and the early part of his career was built on that edge. He made his Ajax debut on 6 September 1991, won the 1992 UEFA Cup and three Eredivisie titles, and helped Ajax win the Champions League in 1995. In the 1996 final against Juventus he missed Ajax’s first penalty in the shoot-out, which Juventus won. The same Ajax years are covered in the Litmanen profile.
He joined Juventus in 1997 and won Serie A in 1997-98, 2001-02 and 2002-03, and reached two Champions League finals, losing both. The best moment for the Netherlands came at the 1998 World Cup, when he scored a last-minute winner against FR Yugoslavia in the second round on 29 June, a 2-1 win. The Dutch finished fourth.
Glaucoma developed in 1995 after eye injuries, and he had surgery on his right eye. From 1999 he played in protective glasses, first worn in a friendly against Belgium on 4 September 1999.
Here’s his club career, league games only, using the figures in Wikipedia’s career table.
Club Years Apps Goals Ajax 1991-96 106 20 AC Milan 1996-97 19 1 Juventus 1997-2004 159 9 Barcelona (loan) 2004 18 1 Inter Milan 2004-05 14 0 Tottenham Hotspur 2005-07 40 1 Ajax 2007-09 25 1 Crystal Palace 2010 6 0 Barnet 2012-14 36 1 Total 423 34
League games only. Source: Wikipedia, Edgar Davids career table. The Juventus goal total is 9 there.
Key moments
Why England never fully took to him
He arrived at 32, and most of the trophies were already in his cabinet. Spurs finished fifth in both seasons he was there, and by 28 January 2007 he had signed back for Ajax. Fans liked a player who fought for every ball, and the Pitbull fitted that. In league terms, though, his two seasons were the quiet part of a career that had been loud elsewhere.
English football tends to reward the tidy highlight over the scrap, and Davids was a scrap. For another hard man the fans took to, see Julian Dicks at West Ham.
Crystal Palace took him on a pay-as-you-play deal on 20 August 2010, and he made his debut at left-back in a League Cup second-round tie against Portsmouth on 24 August. On 8 November he announced he was leaving, calling it “one of the greatest experiences of my life”. Six league appearances make it the shortest of his English spells.
Barnet, and the player-manager job
He joined Barnet on 11 October 2012 as player-manager alongside Mark Robson. He took sole charge at the end of December 2012, and scored his only Barnet goal in a 2-0 home win over Southend in February 2013. Barnet were relegated from the Football League on the final day of 2012-13.
He resigned on 18 January 2014, after a 2-1 defeat at Chester left Barnet tenth in the Skrill Premier. Across 68 games in charge the record was 25 wins, 18 draws and 25 defeats. The announcement described his exit as a resignation by mutual agreement.
Where he is now
He has stayed close to football. Ajax put him on their supervisory board in June 2011, alongside Johan Cruyff. He was Telstar’s assistant coach in 2020, was announced as head coach of Olhanense on 4 January 2021 and sacked on 19 July that year. From May 2022 he worked as an assistant to Louis van Gaal with the Netherlands at the World Cup.
On 21 April 2026, when he was 53, speaking at the announcement of the Hong Kong Football Festival, he was asked about Spurs and gave a blunt answer. He told AFP that “It’s a lack of quality and a lack of management. Everything.” Tottenham were then in the relegation zone, two points from safety with five games left, on their third manager of the season. He said he hoped they would stay up, and called the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi “a very good thing”. He also said Spurs “should have done big things in the winter period to get some players in. It was obvious.”
Forty league games and one goal don’t make a big Spurs career on paper, and I wouldn’t argue with anyone who says so. The Wigan goal is the bit worth keeping. If you want a Spurs player whose time at the club says more about the fans than his numbers, David Ginola is the better comparison.
Featured photo: Soccer illustrated, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped).