De Boer takes the floor

Ronald de Boer was in the uefa.com chat room on UEFA Champions League Matchday 6 to answer your questions. The Dutch international, who began his career with AFC Ajax before moving to FC Barcelona, helped Rangers FC win the treble of Scottish Premier League, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup last season.

Regular moves
De Boer has been with Rangers since 2000 and said he had adapted successully to life in Scotland. He told Raul: "I must say adapting for me is easy because I have my work and you make friends with your team-mates. For the family it is a bit more difficult to adapt. Barcelona was great but the language was difficult. Scotland has a little bit less sunshine but it is more like Holland and we knew the language."

Panathinaikos match
Rangers lost to Panathinaikos FC on Matchday 6, which means they will not play in Europe after the winter break. Answering Vasilis' question about that 3-1 home defeat, De Boer said: "We had too many key players missing from the spine of the team. They had two wonderful strikes but no chances before that. We were without Craig Moore, myself, [Mikel] Arteta and [Shota] Arveladze and it is difficult to cope without that type of experience."

Likely winners
In response to a question from GtrCeasar, De Boer said he expected one of four clubs to win the Champions League: "Real Madrid CF, AC Milan, Manchester United FC and Arsenal FC are the four who look most likely to lift the trophy but you can also have surprises. When we won in 95 [with Ajax] it was quite a surprise so that sort of thing could happen again."

Dutch ambitions
On the UEFA EURO 2004™ final tournament draw, which has seen the Netherlands grouped with Latvia, Germany and the Czech Republic, De Boer told Czech: "Everybody wanted Latvia, although they beat Turkey. Germany are not great just now but with Germans you never know. The Czechs were very good but we can beat them and they can beat us." De Boer's added that his favourites to win the title are France.

Playing with Frank
Asked about playing with his brother Frank, de Boer's response was: "Yes, I am quite proud that two members of the family are on the highest level. It is something great for my parents, especially as Frank is the record holder for Dutch caps."

Swapping places
Blockheaderik asked if De Boer had ever wanted to switch positions with his brother, a central defender, in a match. He replied: "It is often hard to play as a striker as you get a lot of big, strong, tough defenders kicking you, but I think Frank has better defensive qualities than me and I am a better forward than him."

Travel targets
Finally, speaking about his hobbies, de Boer told Malikmondy he wants "to visit a lot of cities because there are so many beautiful cities in the world. I would also like to play more golf and get my level up".

Season's greetings
We would like to join Ronald de Boer in wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and invite you to join us again soon for the next Talk Football Expert Chat.