Ajax keeps rebuilding greatness from its own youth academy, decade after decade
Amsterdam's Ajax has a habit of losing its stars and growing new ones. Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Clarence Seedorf, Wesley Sneijder and Matthijs de Ligt all came up through its system. In 1995 a side packed with academy graduates won the Champions League, with an 18-year-old scoring the winning goal.
The club, named after the Greek hero, was founded on 18 March 1900 and first won the Dutch cup in 1917. Englishman Jack Reynolds steered every one of its early national titles, including five in the 1930s. Ajax was a founding member of the professional Eredivisie in 1956, won its first edition, and has never left the top flight since. It holds national records with 36 league titles and 20 cups.
The golden age began in 1965, when former player Rinus Michels became manager and introduced Total Football, a fluid system in which players swapped positions freely. With Cruyff, who had debuted a year earlier, Ajax scored a record 122 league goals in 1966–67, then won three straight European Cups from 1971. In 1972 it completed a treble of league, cup and European Cup and added the Intercontinental Cup. The era ended when Barcelona, now coached by Michels, broke the world transfer record for Cruyff in 1973.
Cruyff came back as coach in 1985 and his team scored 120 league goals in a season. Louis van Gaal then guided the club to the 1992 UEFA Cup, making it only the second club after Juventus to win all three major European competitions. His young side went through the 1994–95 league season unbeaten and beat Milan 1–0 in the Champions League final thanks to Patrick Kluivert.
The pattern repeated in 2019. A youthful team knocked out holders Real Madrid 4–1 at the Bernabéu and then Juventus, before three second-half goals from Tottenham's Lucas Moura, the last deep in stoppage time, sent them out of the semi-final on away goals. Home games are played at the Johan Cruyff Arena, renamed in his honour in 2018.
Source: AFC Ajax
