 Nainggolan playing for Belgium in 2009 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 4 May 1988 | ||
| Place of birth | Antwerp, Belgium | ||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Roma (on loan from Cagliari) | ||
| Number | 44 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 2000–2005 | Germinal Beerschot | ||
| 2005–2007 | Piacenza | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2006–2010 | Piacenza | 71 | (4) |
| 2010 | → Cagliari (loan) | 7 | (0) |
| 2010– | Cagliari | 124 | (7) |
| 2014 | → Roma (loan) | 1 | (0) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2004 | Belgium U16 | 1 | (0) |
| 2007 | Belgium U19 | 2 | (0) |
| 2008–2009 | Belgium U20 | 2 | (0) |
| 2007–2010 | Belgium U21 | 13 | (1) |
| 2009– | Belgium | 4 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:36, 12 January 2014 (UTC).
† Appearances (Goals).
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 00:00, 7 February 2013 (UTC) | |||
Radja Nainggolan (born 4 May 1988) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays for A.S. Roma on loan from Cagliari Calcio, as a midfielder.
Early life
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,[1][2] and Marianus Nainggolan, an Indonesian of Batakbackground member of the Batak Christian Protestant Church[3] who left them with nothing when he was just a child.[4]
Nainggolan's mother died in 2010,[5] and after her death he tattooed two large wings on his back with her dates of birth and death.[4][6] He was raised Roman Catholic and speaks Dutch, English, Flemish and Italianfluently, as well as understanding French.[7][8]
Club career
Piacenza
Nainggolan arrived at Piacenza Calcio in late 2005 at the age of 17, from local K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot. Still a junior he managed to appear in two Serie B games for the club, over the course of two separate seasons.
Nainggolan played 38 matches in the 2008–09 campaign for the Emilia-Romagna outfit, scoring three goals for an eventual 10th-place finish. On 27 January 2010 he was loaned to Cagliari Calcio in Serie A, with theSardinians having an option to buy the player permanently at the end of the season.[9] He made his league debut on 7 February, playing seven minutes in a 0–3 away loss against Inter Milan.[10]
Cagliari
On 21 June 2010, Cagliari acquired Nainggolan on a permanent basis. In early October 2013, after three seasons as an undisputed first-choice,[11] he renewed his contract until 2016.[12] However, on 7 January of the following year, he was loaned to fellow league club A.S. Roma until the end of the campaign for a fee of€3 million, with Roma having the right to sign him permanently in the ensuing summer for €6 million.[13]
Nainggolan made his debut for his new team on 9 January 2014, starting in a 1–0 home win over U.C. Sampdoria for the season's Coppa Italia, which qualified the club to the quarterfinals.
