His professional path wound through the Dutch leagues, France, Scotland and England, and while he is remembered most vividly for a sensational start at Hearts, his short 2007 loan at Leeds United also offers a revealing snapshot of a seasoned target man drafted into a promotion push and then buffeted by the kind of misfortune that can shrink an entire chapter into a handful of matches.

De Vries’ senior career began at FC Volendam in the mid-1990s, where four Eredivisie seasons hardened his game, before a year in France with Chamois Niortais and then a return home to Dordrecht ’90. In the Dutch second tier with Dordrecht, he discovered consistent scoring rhythm — double figures in back-to-back campaigns — by mastering the bread-and-butter work of a No 9: winning first balls, bringing runners into play and holding position in crowded penalty areas. The numbers and the subtler, structure-giving aspects of his play attracted admirers beyond the Netherlands and set up the move that would define his early thirties.

Hearts signed him in July 2002 and he detonated into Edinburgh folklore almost immediately, scoring four on his first start in a 5–1 derby demolition of Hibernian — a debut so emphatic it has been revisited in retrospectives ever since.

The goals kept coming: 29 in 72 league matches, plus telling contributions in cups and Europe, including a famous winner away to Bordeaux in November 2003. For a side aiming to disrupt the Old Firm duopoly, de Vries’ ability to make direct play productive — by securing long passes and turning defensive clearances into attacks — was central to Hearts finishing third and reaching semi-finals. He was the kind of forward who made team-mates taller.

Craig Levein’s departure to Leicester City in January 2005 set up their reunion in the Midlands, where de Vries initially played the lone-striker role in a pragmatic, counter-punching side. Highlights included a late FA Cup winner against Tottenham and a brace versus Blackpool in the League Cup the following autumn, but the club’s churn — managers, styles, and the squad around him — meant momentum was fragile.

After loans back to the Netherlands with Heerenveen and ADO Den Haag in 2006/07, he returned to Leicester for the start of 2007/08, scored against Watford in August, and then, as the Foxes reshaped their forward line, became available for a short-term move.

Leeds United, new toLeague One and chasing daylight after a 15-point deduction, needed experienced cover. On 1 October 2007 they brought de Vries to Elland Road on an initial one-month loan to supplement Jermaine Beckford and Trésor Kandol. He debuted the very next night, a tight, gritty 1–0 victory at Oldham Athletic, and four days later introduced himself properly to the home crowd by scoring in a 1–0 victory over Yeovil Town — classic de Vries, using his body to protect the ball in the box and finishing decisively.

In those opening appearances you could see exactly why Leeds had acted: he gave the team a secure focal point when they needed to go long under pressure, and he bought time for midfielders to join attacks.

Then came the bad luck that shrank his Leeds story. A broken toe cut the loan short on 25 October, just as familiarity with team-mates was forming.

It is one of those injuries that sounds minor and isn’t: every duel, every plant foot, every roll of the ball across the instep becomes a test. Leeds, flying despite the deduction, had little choice but to terminate the agreement. Even so, when he recovered the club brought him back on 12 November until mid-January, largely as bench insurance through a congested run of league and Football League Trophy games.

Across the two mini-spells he made six league appearances for Leeds, scoring once and added Trophy minutes; he featured again as a substitute in November league fixtures before his parent-club contract was severed in January.

The briefness shouldn’t obscure the intended function: Leeds wanted a streetwise, back-to-goal forward to absorb punishment and help see out tight leads during a relentless schedule, and in the small sample before injury he did just that.

The end of his Leicester chapter and his Leeds loan dovetailed into another reunion with Levein, this time at Dundee United in January 2008. He made 13 league appearances and, most memorably, scored in the Scottish League Cup final against Rangers — a sprawling, dramatic match United ultimately lost on penalties. For a striker whose career had been constructed on timely interventions rather than headline-chasing totals, that Hampden goal felt apt: present in the moment that mattered.

After his short Tannadice stay, he crossed back to the Netherlands in August 2008 to join SC Cambuur, where he enjoyed a late-career renaissance. Over four seasons he scored prolifically in the Eerste Divisie, became a beloved 'pinch-hitter' who could tilt play-off ties with a single touch, and was even named the Jupiler League’s player of the year in 2010 0 —a testament to how well his skill set aged in a league that prized craft as much as combat.

The epilogue as a player included spells with ONS Sneek and HCSC Den Helder while he transitioned toward coaching, first as a player-coach and then in full-time roles.

His post-playing itinerary has been eclectic and quietly adventurous: assistant positions in the Faroe Islands, at Budapest Honvéd in Hungary, and back in the Netherlands, culminating in a move into the women’s game with AZ Alkmaar’s side. Seen from a distance, that second career makes a kind of sense.

De Vries’ own playing arc — adaptable, team-first, grounded in technique and positioning — translates well into teaching attacking structure to younger forwards, whether they are building a press, learning to seal a centre-half, or mastering the blind-side run.

So where does Leeds 2007 sit in the wider story? It is a cameo, undeniably, but a telling one. Leeds in that moment were an enormous club wrestling with third-tier realities: a furious start, huge away followings, every opponent playing its 'cup final', and a manager trying to balance exuberance with control. De Vries, for a few October weeks, gave them control—someone who could make a long clearance into a platform and who, with that Yeovil strike, turned a cagey afternoon into three points. The broken toe robbed both player and club of the chance to see whether that partnership might grow. When he briefly returned in November, he was largely insurance; by January he had moved on, and Leeds continued their push without him. But the purpose of the move still scans perfectly years on: in a promotion race defined by inches, borrow a forward who knows every inch of the penalty area.