The AJAX Model

DATE: 26^th Nov 2013

STAGE: Champions League Group Stage (Match day 5)

RESULT: Ajax 2-1 Barcelona

For Ajax fans, this was a memorable victory. For Barca fans, this was the first blip of their amazing season so far. For football purists, this was the Old School beating the New ones. Amazingly, both teams started with 7 home grown players in the starting line-up. Though much has already been said about the famed ‘La Masia’ academy of Barcelona, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they would retrace their roots back to the famous Ajax model.

The fine academy of Ajax called ‘DE TOEKOMST’ or ‘THE FUTURE’ was built to facilitate the basic goal of the club to bring through at least 3 players into the first team every two years, anything less than that would be seen as a failure for the club. Ever since the advent of the ‘Total Football’ concept under the great Dutch manager Rinus Michels, the club has been going forward with this ideology and the adoption of the single philosophy which is taught to every player in the academy at an early age makes Ajax stand out in world football.

 The academy consists of 25 coaches guiding about 200 students within age groups ranging from 7-19 years. The preferred coaches at the academy are mostly former players with the experience of playing at the highest level, who can be trusted to stay true to the Ajax philosophy. The academy seeks to provide the right foundation for young talents with skills in ball control, dribbling, technique and basic footballing intelligence by gaining new recruits through local test stages like ‘Talentdagen’ from within 50 km area of Amsterdam. They are further assisted by about 50 scouts working all over Netherlands and 5 more scouts patrolling across Europe(mostly nearby countries like Denmark and Belgium) to recruit the latest talents.

"We are not capable of spending large amounts of money on players, which means that you have to develop them yourself".

-Danny Blind (former Ajax player & ex-assistant manager)

So now the million dollar question that arises is that ‘What makes the Ajax Academy so successful?’ Perhaps it is alternative training methods employed where players are made to play in positions other than their favored ones in accordance to their Total Football philosophy. This allows a youngster to understand the game from the perspective of their team-mates and helps to build the team chemistry. A full back is made to play on their preferred side of midfield to gain the experience of what the man ahead of them will be facing or they can be deployed as wingers to assess the situations they’ll be in when they make those overlapping runs from the back. It’s a simple yet an effective philosophy, where the focus is more on the technical aspect of the game rather than the power play. From a young age, players are taught to be confident with the ball at their feet. Specialist coaches are there to help players improve every aspect of their play, whether it is dribbling or fitness in general. Every aspect of the player’s game is honed to provide all round development along with a sense of discipline. The academy also instills a sense of attitude and respect as evident from the World class talents who have graduated from De Toekomst.

Johan Cryuff is possibly the most famous of the footballers to have come through the ranks at Ajax having mastered the Total Football concept and is credited for introducing a similar philosophy at Barcelona, a key aspect in all their recent conquests. Other famous graduates like Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Dennis Bergkamp, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Frank De Boer, Wesley Sneijder have all had an eventful playing career. One thing that stands common among all these greats is their exceptional awareness and vision which has helped them to be successful managers as well after hanging their boots. The brilliant work done by De Boer as the current Ajax head coach, assisted by Bergkamp is applauded by all and the recent appointment of Seedorf as the gaffer at Milan provides support to the very notion.

In recent times, Ajax have had to deal with the departure of their star academy graduates like Gregory

Van Der Weil(PSG), Jan Vertonghen and Cristian Eriksen (Tottenham) who left to play in tougher leagues and for teams who can provide larger pay-checks. Yet Ajax continues to be competitive at the European scene and dazzle with their attacking football on display as Manchester City found out last season. Arsenal and Barcelona can also lay claim to be excellent centers of youth development but Ajax are a relatively smaller club playing in a weaker league with a much lesser budget at their disposal, the fact they produce such talents regularly is impressive. The current roster of Daley Blind, Ricardo VanRhijn, Seim De Jong and others will look to emulate the success of their predecessors and restore Ajax to the pinnacle of European football.


Author:

Gaurav Mishra

follow me on twitter  - @GM_Barca

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