Ajax Soccer Team
Ajax is one of the top football
clubs in the world. It is one of the "big three"
clubs in the Netherlands that dominate the Dutch football
scene. The other "big three" clubs are Feyenoord
Rotterdam and PSV Eindhoven.
The club was founded in March 18, 1900 by the
brothers Han and Johan Dade and based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The club is probably well-known by all football
fans around the world with its recognizable white with a single
red stripe home jersey. The club is also famous for its respectable
youth program and has introduced to the world many great professional
footballers such as Johan Cruijff and Marco van Basten. Its
satellite club is the Ajax Cape Town of South Africa where
youth players were drafted in the first team squad at some
point of the seasonal campaign of the Eredivisie such as Steven
Pienaar and Aaron Mokoena. In 1995, the year that they won
the European Champions' League, the first team was best remembered
as the team that could best represent the Dutch national team
in all departments, with Edwin van der Sar in goalkeeping
position, players such as Michael Reiziger, Frank de Boer,
Danny Blind in defense, Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids and Clarence
Seedorf in midfield, as well as Patrick Kluivert and Marc
Overmars in attack. Its current fortunes are mostly domestic-based
notwithstanding some minor successes in the 2002-2003 Champions
League campaign although its youth team continues to develop
talented individuals like Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder,
Nigel de Jong and Johnny Heitinga who regularly represented
their nation.
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