2011, he signed a one-year contract extension with the club. Ooijer announced on 13 March 2012 that he would retire from football at the end of the 2011–12 season. On 6 May 2012, he played his final professional match and scored a goal for Ajax in a 3–1 win against Vitesse. International career Ooijer was selected as part of the Netherlands national team for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France by manager Guus Hiddink as cover for Michael Reiziger. He endured a frustrating tournament in that World Cup as he never left the substitutes' bench, thus delaying his international debut. Frank Rijkaard, who replaced Hiddink as the head coach of the Dutch team in 1999, took notice of Ooijer's progress at club level. During a tour of Brazil of the same year, Rijkaard handed him his first appearance as a substitute for Reiziger, who was injured during the game, in a match against Brazil on 5 June 1999. The match ended in a 2–2 draw and Ooijer made a confident start to the national team. Despite his convincing performances, he was not included in the final squad for the UEFA Euro 2000 tournament on home soil after being dropped at the last minute. After being overlooked several times for an international team spot by Louis van Gaal who took over from Rijkaard in 2001, he was able to feature for Dick Advocaat in 2003 with a solid performance in the qualification matches, including a goal against Scotland in the qualification second-leg playoff for UEFA Euro 2004 at the Amsterdam Arena. Such was his luck, however, not to be able to feature in a major tournament up to then as he was also dropped by Advocaat in the final squad which travelled to Portugal for the Euro 2004 finals in favour of Reiziger and Johnny Heitinga, who played in the same position. Ooijer was finally able to make a start in a major tournament when he was chosen as part of Marco van Basten's 2006 World Cup squad. He played in all four matches for his country, lasting the full 90 minutes in each game. Ooijer was called up to the Netherlands's Euro 2008 squad in Austria and Switzerland, where he played the first two games before being rested for the last group game as the Netherlands had already qualified. He then played in the quarter-final game against Russia which