Go Ahead Eagles Born in
Deventer,
Overijssel, Sikora began his youth career with lower-tier club Roda Deventer, before moving to regional professional club
Go Ahead Eagles as a youth. At that club, also based in Deventer, he played for various youth teams until the
1994–95 season, where he was promoted to the first team, who competed in the highest division in Dutch football, the
Eredivisie. In the same season, at age 16, Sikora made his professional debut when he came on as a substitute for
Gijs Steinmann in the 69th minute of the 2–1 away defeat to
RKC Waalwijk on 15 February 1995. After a mixed season, in which Go Ahead Eagles only managed to finish in the penultimate spot in the league table, the team was able to secure another year in the highest tier by winning the relegation play-offs at the end of the season. After avoiding relegation, Sikora was included more often in the first-team squad during the
1995–96 season and finished the season with 14 league appearances, in which he also scored his first professional league goal. As in the previous season, Go Ahead Eagles struggled, and with 22 points in 34 games the team finished in last place of the table thereby suffered relegation to the second-tier
Eerste Divisie. There, Sikora grew out to become a first-team regular, and by the end of the
1996–97 season, he had made 32 appearances, in which he scored eight goals. Apart from club topscorer
Erik Tammer (23 goals), he was the top goalscorer of his team. Although the Eagles took part in the promotion play-offs, the club did not manage promotion back to the Eredivisie due to a lower
goal differential. The club suffered some setbacks in the
following season. After 34 games played, the team only achieved a mid-table finish and remained in the Eerste Divisie. Sikora appeared in 31 matches and alongside players such as Tammer (17 goals) and
Jan Michels (12 goals), he was one of the team's top goalscorers again with twelve goals. After another, for him personally, very strong
1998–99 season, in which he scored 13 goals in 29 league appearances games – but again failed to make promotion play-offs with the team, interest among Eredivisie clubs arose for Sikora, who was mostly utilised as a
striker. His biggest achievement during the season was reaching the round of 16 of the
1998–99 KNVB Cup, where the team was subsequently knocked out to
PEC Zwolle after a 2–5 loss. In the years before, Sikora and the team had mostly suffered elimination from the tournament from the current competition shortly after first knockout round.
Vitesse Sikora, who in his final season with Go Ahead Eagles with his 13 goals ranked second on the team in goalscoring behind
Bram Marbus (14 goals), was signed by the Dutch
Eredivisie club
Vitesse. At the
Arnhem based club, Sikora quickly established himself in
midfield and his first season with the club he appeared in 28 league games in which he scored eight goals. Vitesse finished fourth in the league table thus qualified for the
UEFA Cup in his first season. In the
1999–2000 season, Sikora had already made his first European appearance, which he followed up in the following season by playing two matches in the
2000–01 UEFA Cup. In the league, Sikora's 2000–01 season was similar to the previous season as he made 27 Eredivisie appearances, in which he scored nine goals. However, Vitesse missed out on European qualification on
goal differential, finishing sixth in the league. In the
KNVB Cup, the team also missed out during these seasons, being knocked out in the semi-finals in both the
1999–2000 and
2000–01 editions of the
KNVB Cup. In the
2001–02 season, in which he again finished in European spots with Vitesse, Sikora made three goals in 29 appearances.
Ajax Despite a low goal average in his final season at
Vitesse, defending
Dutch champions Ajax expressed their interest in him and he finally joined the club on a
€ 4.5 million deal. Besides Ajax, there was also interest from English club
Fulham. He made 17 league appearances in which he scored twice as Ajax lifted the
2002 Johan Cruyff Shield that year, as they finished runners-up in the league and stranded in the semi-finals of the KNVB Cup against
Feyenoord. In addition, Sikora gained his first experience in the
UEFA Champions League, where he made four appearances, including in matches against
Lyon,
Inter Milan and
Roma, and made it to the quarter-finals of the competition, where, however, they were defeated by the eventual winners
Milan after a 2–3 loss on aggregate. In the Eredivisie, Ajax finished second in the league table, one point behind rivals
PSV, which meant that they qualified for the
third qualifying round for the
2003–04 Champions League. After narrowly advancing from the third round, after a 2–3 win on aggregate over
Grazer AK, Ajax were knocked out in the subsequent group stage, finishing in last place of Group H. Sikora, who played in both qualifiers against Grazer AK and in two of Ajax' six group matches in the Champions League, emerged as a regular starter in midfield in the Eredivisie after the team were knocked out of European contention. Sikora, who was mostly used in defensive midfield, made a total of 27 league appearances and five goals and was thus instrumental in Ajax securing their
29th title in club history. In his time at
Ajax, Sikora scored seven league goals, won two league titles (2002, 2004), a
Johan Cruyff Shield and
KNVB Cup titles in 2002. Sikora also participated in the
UEFA Champions League with
Ajax.
Loans to Heerenveen and NAC Despite achieving successes with Ajax, the club's management decided that Sikora was to be loaned out in order for him to gain more regular playing time. His first loan was at
SC Heerenveen, who signed him to a one-year loan deal. For Heerenveen, he only made 19 appearances and one goal in the
2004–05 season. After finishing fifth in the league table and returning to Ajax, Sikora was sent on a season-long loan to
NAC Breda. Both club and player struggled for form during the
2005–06 season, as he only made 13 league appearances, in which he remained goalless, as NAC finished 16th and only managed to avoid relegation following play-offs. Even though Sikora failed to establish himself as a regular starter during his loan at NAC, he was signed on a permanent deal following the season.
NAC Breda Plagued by injuries, Sikora struggled to make the starting lineup following his permanent move to
NAC Breda and only made nine Eredivisie appearances during the
2006–07 season, in which he scored one goal. In addition, the club fought a relegation battle, and once again the team had to avoid relegation through the play-offs. They were, however, successful there and remained a top-tier side. In the
following season, Sikora made 21 league appearances and scored two goals, but was still unable to match his performances of earlier years and decided to leave NAC as his contract expired.
FC Dallas Soon after leaving NAC, Sikora moved to the
United States, where he signed a lucrative contract with
Major League Soccer (MLS) side
FC Dallas with a base salary of US$144,000 and a guaranteed severance pay of just over US$163,000. He was, however, injured after only two league games and out for several weeks after a
meniscus tear in his right knee. He made a return after one month, but failed to establish himself as first-team regular and towards the end of the season he appeared during three league games, in which he was unable to make the final whistle and had to be substituted early on. However, in the final game of the season, a 2–2 away draw against
LA Galaxy, Sikora scored an important goal after an assist provided by
Mexico international Duilio Davino.
Loan to Perth Glory After a trial at his former club,
Go Ahead Eagles, Sikora joined Australian club
Perth Glory on loan during the winter break before the new season. There he was supposed to replace Brazilian midfielder
Amaral, who was sidelined due to injury. Before that, he had already been in contact with his former club,
Go Ahead Eagles, where he also completed trials, but ultimately failed to secure a contract. In addition, there were injuries to the knee, for which Sikora had already had surgery in June 2009. ==International career==