Radja Nainggolan

Radja Nainggolan

Nainggolan playing for Roma in 2014
Personal information
Full name	Radja Nainggolan
Date of birth	(1988-05-04) 4 May 1988 (age 28)
Place of birth	Antwerp, Belgium
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Roma
Number	4
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)
2010–2014	Cagliari	131	(7)
2014	→ Roma (loan)	17	(2)
2014–	Roma	95	(20)
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	26	(6)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:59, 26 February 2017 (UTC). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 6 September 2016

Radja Nainggolan (born 4 May 1988) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Italian club Roma and the Belgian national team.

Considered by many experts one of the best midfielders in Europe, Nainggolan began his senior playing career with Piacenza in Italy, before signing with Cagliari in 2010. It was during his time in Cagliari he earned the nickname Il Ninja. After five seasons with the Sardinian club, he was signed by Roma in 2014.

A Belgian international since 2009, Nainggolan represented his country 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 Batak background and member of the Batak Christian Protestant Church who left them with nothing when he was just 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 and Italian fluently, as well as understanding French.

Nainggolan began playing football with Tubantia Borgerhout at the age of 5 years. At age 12, he moved to the youth team of Germinal Beerschot, where he remained until 2005, when he was noted by Alessandro Beltrami, and moved to Piacenza, who at the time were in Serie B. He made his debut for the senior side on 28 May 2006, during a home defeat to Arezzo. He made another appearance for the first team during the 2006–07 season, before being inserted permanently into the first team the following season, where he played ten games.