Nigel de Jong: Is he too brutal?

Dutch international midfielder Nigel de Jong is a player who always gives 100% and has no fear in going into tough tackles, but over the years he has overdone it with his commitment and trying to stop his opponents whatever may come. The latest nasty incidence was on Sunday, October 3 in an English Premier League match between Manchester City and Newcastle United. De Jong broke French international Hatem ben Arfa's leg in two places in an unneeded tackle and the on loan Newcastle winger will be out for quite some time.

This latest rough tackle resulted in Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk leaving out de Jong for the Netherlands Euro2012 qualifiers last Friday against Moldova and on Tuesday against Sweden. Dutch team mate and captain Mark van Bommel told the media after the decision that de Jong is one of the best holding midfielders in international football and maybe van Marwijk wanted to take de Jong out of the firing line in the interest the player. Interestingly that such a statement comes from mark van Bommel, who himself is a similar kind of player, but who hasn't done any similar on field tackles.

Many will remember de Jongs brutal kung fu kick on Spain's Xabi Alonso during the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Surprisingly referee Howard Webb had only given him a yellow card, but the foul was condemned internationally. As it was the World Cup final so de Jong was branded as a dangerous player and such a foul on Hatem ben Arfa will surely not improve his reputation. And it wasn't the first such instance, he had done it earlier this year in March in an international friendly against the United States were Bolton Wanderers midfielder Stuart Holden ended-up with a broken leg and I remember a similar rough foul while playing for Hamburger SV in the German Bundesliga a few years ago.

And this case might become a little bit more complicated as Olympique Marseille president Jean-Claude Dassier, the club who have loaned ben Arfa to Newcastle, has told French television program Telefoot, "We will file a claim against De Jong. It's about getting rid of this type of individual from European grounds."

But there is an interesting piece of statistics to Nigel de Jong. He has never ever received a red card in his professional football career, he only received a double yellow card expulsion while playing for Hamburger SV against Rapid Bucharest in the UEFA Cup in 2006. So as per statistics, he is a fair midfielder.

Still Nigel de Jong should do some retrospection and try to avoid such tackles in the future which endangers the health of his opponents. Otherwise tougher action could be taken against him in the future.