competitors in the UEFA Cup and in 1997–1998 finished third in the Eredivise, its record highest finish to date. Herbert Neumann was Vitesse's manager over most of these years (1992–95 and 1998–99), while star players included: Nikos Machlas, the first ever Vitesse player to win the European Golden Boot in 1998 when he scored 34 goals in a season; John van den Brom, who played 378 matches for Vitesse during this period scoring 110 goals from midfield; and Edward Sturing, who played 383 matches in defence for Vitesse from 1987 to 1998, as well as receiving 3 caps for the Netherlands national team. Additional stars included Dejan Čurović, who spent six years at Vitesse playing 109 matches as a striker, scoring 41 goals including the first goal in GelreDome. Meanwhile, Dutch forward Roy Makaay spent four years at Vitesse, scoring 42 goals in 109 matches between 1993 and 1997. Aalbers resigned on 15 February 2000, after the main sponsor, Nuon, threatened to pull the plug if he did not. Nuon, as a public utility company owned by local authorities, had trouble explaining why it invested heavily in Aalbers' ambitious plans. His successor was Jan Koning (former chief of Sara Lee/DE who resigned after four months). In a short period of time, Vitesse began to show negative financial results due to poor deals on the transfer market. The club survived numerous financial crises, such as the last one in 2008, when debts were bought off, under the threat of bankruptcy. The club was in serious financial trouble, and in August 2010 its majority shareholder agreed to sell the club to the Georgian businessman Merab Jordania. There were rumors that this purchase was engineered by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. The club underwent a successful transformation into a modern, commercial sports organization and established itself as one of the dominant teams of the Eredivisie. On 1 July 2012, Fred Rutten signed a contract as the new manager of Vitesse, for the season 2012-13. Rutten left Vitesse after the season, finishing in 4th place. Wilfried Bony ended the season as the Eredivisie's top scorer with 31 goals in 30 matches and was awarded the Golden Shoe for the best player in the Netherlands. For the 2013–14 season, Vitesse appointed Peter Bosz as its new manager. In November 2013, Vitesse was top of the league in the Eredivisie for the first time since 2006. It