Ajax Amsterdam

Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (Euronext: AJAX) also referred to as Ajax Amsterdam, AFC Ajax, or simply Ajax (pronounced Ah-yahx), is a football club from Amsterdam, Netherlands. The club is historically one of the top-10 football clubs in the world, and one of the 'Big Three' clubs that dominate Dutch football, the other two being Feyenoord Rotterdam and PSV Eindhoven. Ajax is one of only four clubs to have won all three major European trophies at least once (the European Champions Cup, the European Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup).

1 History
2 Stadia
3 Honours
4 Current squad
5 Famous players who once played for Ajax
6 See also
7 External links

History

The club was founded in Amsterdam on March 18, 1900 by Floris Stempel, Carel Reeser and the brothers Han and Johan Dade. Ajax originally played in an all black uniform with a red sash tied around the players' waists, but that uniform was soon replaced by a red/white striped shirt and black shorts. Red, black and white are the three colours of the flag of Amsterdam. However, when the club got promoted to the top flight of Dutch football in 1911 (then the Eerste Klasse or First Class, later named the Eredivisie), Ajax were forced to change their colours, because Sparta Rotterdam already had the exact same outfit. Special kits for away fixtures did not exist at the time and according to football association regulations, the newcomers had to change their colours if two teams in the same league had identical uniforms. Loosely inspired by the kit of Arsenal, Ajax opted for white shorts and white shirt with a broad, vertical red stripe over chest and back, which still is Ajax's outfit. Today, it is one of the most recognised football jerseys in the world.

The club is also famous for its excellent youth program and has introduced a few professional footballers such as Johan Cruijff. Its satellite club is the Ajax Cape Town of South Africa from where youth players have been drafted into the Eredivisie squad, such as Steven Pienaar and Aaron Mokoena. In 1995, the year that they won the UEFA Champions League, Ajax was the team that could best represent the Dutch national team in all departments, with goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, players such as Michael Reiziger, Frank de Boer and Danny Blind in defense, Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids and Clarence Seedorf in midfield, and Patrick Kluivert and Marc Overmars in attack. The team was coached by Louis van Gaal. Its current successes are mostly domestic, notwithstanding some minor successes in the 2002-03 Champions League. Its youth team continues to develop fairly talented individuals like Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Nigel de Jong and Johnny Heitinga who regularly represent their nation.

After their success with the 1995 Champions League, Ajax has since struggled to rediscover its European form but first they will need to dominate the Eredivisie. Players such as Shota Arveladze and Brian Laudrup have won over the fans in the late 1990s but have yet to make their abundance of talents count in major tournaments. Most recently in 2005, popular coach, Ronald Koeman resigned after Ajax's defeat to AJ Auxerre in the UEFA Cup tournament despite having a squad packed with international experience, declaring himself drained of any inspiration to further guide the team to any success. This resignation was also the aftermath of Koeman's long-standing spat with then football director Louis van Gaal who had questioned Koeman's managerial abilities after Ajax's dry spell in the domestic league which even saw them languishing in fifth position at the beginning of 2005. Koeman's replacement was widely tipped to be as of a manager with vast experience, so it may come as a surprise when former Ajax-player Danny Blind was unveiled as their new coach, with virtually no top-level manager experience although he had worked with Koeman as a technical coach and advisor. The season may also witness the restructuring of the club with key player Rafael van der Vaart joining Hamburger SV and many young talented Ajax players also voicing an intent to move to larger clubs. A revelation of the season, however, may be defensive midfielder and defender Hedwiges Maduro who made an appearance for the Netherlands team despite having only a handful of club games under his belt but may have sufficiently impressed manager Marco van Basten to call him up for the national squad.

Stadia

Ajax's first stadium was built in 1911 out of wood and was simply called The Stadium. Ajax later played in the stadium that was built for the 1928 Summer Olympics, held in Amsterdam. This stadium, designed by Jan Wils, is simply known as the Olympic Stadium. In 1934, Ajax moved to De Meer Stadion in east Amsterdam, where they would play until 1996. De Meer stadium was an unusually small stadium for such a large club, but the small stadium also created a cozy atmosphere. During big European fixtures the club would often play at the Olympic Stadium, where the capacity was higher.

In 1996, Ajax moved to a new home ground in the southeast of the city known as the Amsterdam ArenA, that was built at the cost of $134 million. The stadium is capable of holding approximately 52,000 people. The average attendance in 2004/05 was 48,600 people. The Arena has a retractable roof and was the example for other modern stadiums built in Europe in the following years. In the Netherlands, the Arena has earned a reputation for having a terrible grass pitch. The condition of the grass is caused by the roof that, even when open, takes away too much sunlight and ventilation from the ground.

The much loved De Meer stadium was torn down and the land was sold to the city council.