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3.7
8 more steps to go

Historical photo of Ajax Amsterdam

© By Nationaal Archief via Wikimedia Commons

Ajax Amsterdam and youth

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Ajax Amsterdam - Top training club and best youth academy in Europe?

What do I need to do?

Read the evidence provided here to support the above statement

If you wish to expand your knowledge, read the longer piece of work on Dutch football in Step 3.18.
These readings are optional.

Overview of the club

Ajax Amsterdam were founded as far back as 1900, but initiated a football revolution when they won the
Championship Cup three times in succession in the 1970s with their brand of “total football”.

In 1995, the year Ajax won the Champions League, the Dutch national team was almost entirely composed of
Ajax players, with Edwin van der Sar in goal; players such as Michael Reiziger, Frank de Boer, and Danny Blind
in defence; Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, and Clarence Seedorf in midfield; and Patrick Kluivert and Marc
Overmars in attack.

In 2011 AFC Ajax opened its first youth academies outside of the Netherlands, when the club partnered up with
George Kazianis and All Star Consultancy in Greece to open the Ajax Hellas Youth Academy. The offices are
based in Nea Smyrni, Attica, with the main training facility located on the island of Corfu, hosting a total of 15
football youth academies throughout Greece and Cyprus. Eddie van Schaik heads the organisation as coach and
consultant, introducing the Ajax football philosophy at the various Greek football training camps.
Ajax has also expanded its talent-searching programme to South Africa with Ajax Cape Town. Ajax Cape Town
was set up with the help of Rob Moore. Some youth players from Ajax Cape Town have been drafted into the
Eredivisie squad, such as South African internationals Steven Pienaar, Thulani Serero and Cameroonian
international Eyong Enoh. Ajax also had a satellite club in the United States under the name Ajax America, until
it filed for bankruptcy.

Club success
In terms of developing homegrown talent through a youth training system that is playing in the top leagues, Ajax
Amsterdam year on year has out performed other clubs. As of 2012, the Dutch side topped the table of clubs
which have trained the most players under contract with top division clubs in Europe. In the 2013 season, with
69 representatives (12 players continued to play for Ajax while a total of 57 Ajax youth academy graduates are
employed by other teams), Ajax outperforms Partizan Belgrade, Barcelona, Hajduk Split and Sporting Lisbon.

Table 1: The number of players trained in top division leagues in 2013 - European Top 20
Explanation: In the 2013 season 69 players playing in the top divisions were graduates of the Ajax academy. 12
of those players still remain at their original club as Ajax players.

Ajax Amsterdam Netherlands 69 (12)

Partizan Serbia 66 (7)
Barcelona Spain 61 (16)
Hajduk Split Croatia 52 (13)
Sporting Lisbon Portugal 52 (8)
Crvena Zveda Serbia 50 (5)
Sparta Praha Czech Republic 46 (6)
Real Madrid Spain 46 (7)
Dinamo Zagreb Ukraine 45 (7)
Feynoord Netherlands 44 (13)
Dynamo Kylv Ukraine 44 (5)
MYK Hungary 43 (15)
Shakhtar Donetsk Ukraine 43 (4)
Dinamo Minsk Belarus 41 (8)
Osijek Croatia 41 (24)
Slavia Praha Czech Republic 39 (11)
Leveski Sofia Bulgaria 37 (4)
Porto Portugal 37 (1)
Arsenal England 36 (10)
Bayern Munchen Germany 36 (7)

Club-trained players
Remember that the data in Table 1 reflects the best training clubs as measured by players produced who are
playing in the top division leagues in Europe. This is different from the number of club-trained players who are
produced by European football clubs.

If we were measuring just the number of club-trained players in 2013 playing in the European leagues, then the
picture would be different. This would be for a number of economic, cultural and political reasons.
A Scottish team, Heart of Midlothian FC, were challenged financially during season 2013-14 and had to rely
mainly on their own home grown footballers.

The three top clubs in Europe during this season composed of club-trained players were:

Club Country % of club trained players

Szombatheyi Haladas Hungary 85.7%
Heart of Midlothian Scotland 80.0%
Osjek Croatia 77.4%

Further Reading
You can read more about the Dutch system of producing young talented players by accessing the Routledge
Readings that are provided free as part of this course. One of the readings is titled ‘Looking at the extraordinary
success of the “Clockwork Orange”: examining the brilliance of total football played by the Netherlands’. It is in
a journal called Soccer in Society, Volume 15 (5) 2014.

What’s next?

We have looked at why Ajax Amsterdam might be viewed as a great club and provided some evidence and facts
to support the argument. We now move on to look at another club, Real Madrid, and discuss why it might be
seen to be great.

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Real Madrid and wealth article Is football good for the community? discussion
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