Cape Town – The visiting Ajax Amsterdam delegation departed the Mother City with sweet memories of a wonderful trip to these shores – and left behind some sage advice on the way forward for Ajax Cape Town and their youth development programme.
After the negative publicity in May, when the Dutch club’s director of football Marc Overmars hinted that they could terminate their link with Ajax Cape Town, the PSL club suggested the former Arsenal and Barcelona winger withhold his comments until after he had made a trip to the Mother City and saw for himself what was taking place here.
This week such a visit took place as Ajax Amsterdam sent their top officials to Cape Town to have an in-depth look at the running of their satellite club in South Africa.
In attendance from the Dutch giants in Amsterdam were Michael Kinsbergen (chief executive), Jeroen Slop (financial director), Overmars, Wim Jonk (head of youth) and Ruben Jongkind (head of talent development).
All indications are that things went well.
“The visit was immensely beneficial for Ajax Cape Town and several important matters were discussed.
“Most importantly, information on how to improve our youth development programme, and to align it with the Johan Cruyff plan, which was recently implemented at Ajax Amsterdam” said Ajax Cape Town’s executive director Ari Efstathiou.
“We agreed that the aim of Ajax Cape Town must be to position itself as the number one youth development academy in Africa.
“Without wanting to pre-empt Ajax Amsterdam’s response, and the delegation said they would soon be releasing a media statement, I think they were really impressed, especially by the raw football talent they were exposed to.”
Efstathiou said they had held a number of fruitful meetings with their Dutch counterparts and not once was the subject of Ajax Amsterdam pulling out of Cape Town ever discussed.
In fact, earlier this week, there was an article in one of the Dutch newspapers reiterating the possibility of the Dutch pulling the plug. Efstathiou said he printed the article off the web and showed it to Overmars, who said it was complete nonsense.
“The one area where they want us to improve on is in the intensity of the training programme for our under-19s, which will now be implemented as part of the Johan Cruyff plan,” added Efstathiou.
The Dutch contingent also led a few training sessions with the Ajax Cape Town juniors.
“This was my first visit to Cape Town,” Jonk told the Cape club’s in-house television station. “We had a warm welcome and a great time. It has been an inspiration to be involved here.
“There are things that are being done well, but there are also things that can be improved upon... things that we can build on. It is especially in the smaller details where it can be better, which can bring players to a higher level. The standard is quite high and there are some really good individual players in the youth academy.
“But, and this is crucial, while everyone always wants to win, the most important point is to develop the player.
“The Ajax Cape Town players have a good attitude and, if we combine that with the tactical and technical experience we have at Ajax Amsterdam, a club with a great history, then it can be successful.”
Jongkind agreed and said the trip had gone “beyond expectations”.
“The potential here is great,” said Ajax Amsterdam’s head of talent development. “I was impressed with the energy of the young players and their dynamic play. But if there’s one thing I will take home with me from this trip, it’s the passion I saw.”
And then, to bring the Dutch delegation’s trip to a fitting climax, they had front-row seats as Ajax Cape Town proceeded to defeat defending PSL champions Kaizer Chiefs in front of 25 000 people at the Cape Town Stadium.
The atmosphere at the stadium, and the passion and desire of the Cape club’s performance, was just what Ajax Cape Town needed to send the Ajax Amsterdam contingent home with hope, optimism and renewed belief in their African football venture.
Cape Argus