Philippe De Ridder

Club

De Ridder played his professional football career in Belgium with the club RWD Molenbeek and he was part of the team which became Division 2 champions in 1985. He then played for RWD Molenbeek in the Belgium Premiership the next season. In 1985, a serious injury to both his knee and ankle stalled his playing career and forced him to retire.

International

He also represented Belgium in the Under 12 to Under 20 stage. He has also featured in the Under 18 European Championship for his country. He was captain of the Belgian national youth team where he played alongside several World Cup winners like Patrick Vervoort, Marc Degryse, Stéphane Demol and Filip De Wilde.

Coaching career

After finishing his short playing career, De Ridder started coaching. He got his UEFA B license coaching degree in Belgium and then began his coaching career in the US. He then moved on to Brazil, Spain and Argentina, where he got his lessons in first-team coaching.

East Bengal

In 2005, he became manager of one of the most successful clubs of Indian football, East Bengal, in mid-season. Under his coaching, East Bengal became the runners-up of the now defunct National Football League. His most notable event while with East Bengal was the victory of East Bengal against Mohun Bagan in the biggest derby in Indian Football in front of 90,000 people. East Bengal then won the Super Cup in a one match face-off tournament against the 2005-06 NFL Premier Division champions, Mahindra United, beating them by a solitary goal.

Chirag United

After the 2005-06 season, De Ridder signed with Chirag United (now Prayag United) after resigning with East Bengal. His stay was short, as De Ridder could not qualify Chirag for the I-League 2nd Division.

Back to East Bengal

In 2009, he signed with East Bengal again during the mid phase of the I-League, when East Bengal was having the most disastrous season of their entire history. De Ridder then patched up the team from the miserable conditions and went into the national level tournament Federation Cup as the underdogs. When even their die-hard fans were predicting an early exit for the team, De Ridder and his men returned as champions of the tournament and beating their arch rivals, Mohun Bagan, 2-0 on the way. This also provided East Bengal a ticket for the AFC Cup, a second tier club tournament of the Asian Continent. He then left the club again due to complications with the board.

United Sikkim

On December 3, 2011, De Ridder was confirmed as manager of I-League 2nd Division club United Sikkim. Under his coaching, United Sikkim F.C. became the champions of I-League 2nd Division and were promoted to play in I-League for the season 2012-13. After being manager of the team for some part of I-League, De Ridder decided to move to a different role of football director for United Sikkim.

Reitlang FC

On November, 2013, De Ridder was confirmed as Technical Director cum player of the club Mizoram premier league. The team was in a disastrous last position in the Mizoram Premier League with only 3 points after 7 matches. Under his coaching, Reitlang FC was saved from relegation with a total of 13 points,taking 10 points in the remaining 7 matches. Making several appearances as a player during the league, he became also the oldest player ever to have participated in the Mizoram Premier league.

FC Adeli Batumi (GEORGIA)

His next assignment took him to Georgia to work with FC Adeli Batumi. The club was battling relegation and financial difficulties too. He brought in new players and also made a historical transfer bringing in for the first time ever, an Indian player from Pune FC, Anupam Sarkar to slot into an ailing defense line and also chip in with valuable appearances in the defensive midfield whenever needed. The team shaped on well and for the first match against the league leaders who had beat them 6-0 in the first leg, earned a well deserved 1-1 draw. In that match, Batumi led by 1 goal, but conceded the lead due to an unmindful individual mistake in the closing few moments of the game. Batumi did very well, but the championship was cut down at the end due to some suspicion of abnormal betting movements in the competition (none that involved his team though).

Dayu FC

In the meantime Ridder accepted the challenge of taking the role of Technical Director of Dayu FC in Beijing China - a very popular club created by a former star of Chinese football. While with Dayu, de Ridder started with setting up the bases of excellence through developing the youth academy players with the 360 CFT method. Progress was evident. And immediate. Organizing international exposure for players and producing attractive and efficient football players were the quintessential objectives. After 12 months the club was bought by investors from inner Mongolia. de Ridder continued to develop the team and the youth system working from the region of Hohhot.

Ridder's academies

Ridder had set up two academies of excellence in Belgium (Lions soccer Academy and 360 Foot) which were specialized in the individual development of skills, power and speed as well as goal scoring abilities. He also traveled for 13 years around the world, exchanging knowledge and working with several French, Dutch, Spanish, Ecuadorian, Brazilian, Argentinian and American coaches, youth coordinators and presidents around the world, to be able to put together a successful and creative training methodology. Many players participated for several years in these elite training centres, such as Faris Haroun (Blackpool), Arnor Angeli (Mons), Rosario Saporito (Diegem Sport), Fabio Tonini (FC Brussels), and Bernard Malanda-Adje (Wolfsburg). They all came to de Ridder when they had problems in their club to sustain their position in the first eleven and when all were normal and unknown players and they all became international players after receiving De Ridder’s 360 CFT training and football philosophy. In India, De Ridder successfully implemented the 360 CFT method on a full professional team with East Bengal and gave some unknown Indian players a chance to express their talent. He has demonstrated his 360 CFT method at different places around the globe like Planet Football Academy (Togo) and IFA-CFS Soccer Academy (India).

Player

Managerial

In his years of club management, Ridder has led his clubs to win several titles.

Individual

Other career

Ridder is an art director, photographer, cartoonist, dancer, musician, saxophone player, management professional, writer and a sports journalist.

Art director and designer

Ridder is a highly experienced professional art director. He has worked with several international organizations such as Management Centre Europe and Tenue De Soiree Magazine (Brussels), Metropolitan Life Insurance, Morgan Stanley and AVI (Disney account) (New York City), Bowhaus and IMEDIA (AT&T account) (New Jersey), Telmark International (London) and LEON cultural magazine (Tenerife) as graphic designer and art director.

Music

Ridder is a musician and specialist saxophone player. His genre is a cocktail of original scores, music and story-telling with a touch of improvisation. He started in jam sessions with his professional musician friends at Brussels, and debuted on the Indian music scene with his performance at the Guwahati Club, Assam, and showed immense potential.

Media publicity

Ridder is a very popular figure in the city of Kolkata and in the media. He wrote a book in 2006 titled, Kolkata by Ridder, based on the "City of Joy", Kolkata, which was well received by the Kolkatans, especially the football lovers. In India, he worked for the Times of India and Bartaman as an expert guest journalist as well as a football expert on a Channel 10 television show and as a cartoonist for the Bengal Post during the 2010 FIFA World cup.

Management

Ridder had the chance to learn marketing and management skills from a very young age due to the injury which ended his playing career. He followed many high level professional courses like Lateral Thinking for Management by Edward De Bono, In search of Excellence by Tom Peters, Management and Motivation by E. Sulliman, Marketing and Management by Kotler-Dubois and Advanced Direct Marketing, Creative Thinking by R Van Oeck, at reputed institutes such as Management Centre Europe (Brussels) and Advanced Direct Marketing – Chamber of Commerce (Brussels). He also exercised his management skills in public relations, press group DH, at the FIFA World Cup, 1994 and with professional organizations as general manager at 360 Foot and the U19 Togo National team's European tour in Belgium.

Chevsa Sports Marketing & Management

Ridder is the co-owner of Chevsa Sports Marketing & Management, a Kolkata based sports marketing and management agency which has a stated mission to discover, develop and promote elite professional sportsmen as well as young talents, primarily in football and also other sports like cricket, boxing and tennis with the help of corporate and related governing bodies and supporting sporting institutions and clubs for the betterment of sports in the country.

Personal

Ridder is popularly known as "Indi" among his fans, friends and colleagues. Ridder is also actively involved with social service. He has helped in raising fund through football and also sponsoring and giving free training to the orphaned and needy children in Africa, Belgium and India. Ridder can speak six languages; English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian fluently, and the others being Portuguese and German.