![]() ![]() But for some families, the first time they realize their boys are under serious consideration is when a letter arrives from Ajax requesting that they bring their sons in for a closer look, an invitation that is almost never declined. He’ll observe a prospect for months or even years, and players he recommends will also be watched by one of the club’s paid scouts, a coach and sometimes the director of the Ajax youth academy. (He works during the week as a prison warden.) His territory includes the area between The Hague and Haarlem - “the flower district, which is also a very good hunting ground for players” is how he described it. ![]() De Jong, a solidly built former amateur player, is one of some 60 volunteer scouts who fan out on weekends to watch games involving local amateur clubs. Like other professional clubs in Europe and around the world, Ajax operates something similar to a big-league baseball team’s minor-league system - but one that reaches into early childhood. Is he on his forefeet, running lightly? Does he have creativity with the ball? Does he seem that he is really loving the game? I think these things are good at predicting how he’ll be when he is older.” That may be because of their size and stage of development. One man, Ronald de Jong, said: “I am never looking for a result - for example, which boy is scoring the most goals or even who is running the fastest. A group of men standing near me looked on intently, clutching rosters that matched the players with their numbers. The whole scene had a speeded-up, almost cartoonish feel to it, but I certainly didn’t see anyone laughing.Īfter a series of these auditions, some players would be formally enrolled in the Ajax (pronounced EYE-ox) academy. Their shots on goal were taken with surprising force, which kept the coaches who were serving as goalkeepers flinching and shielding themselves in self-defense. It was late November and cold, with a biting wind howling off the North Sea, but the boys skittered about in only their lightweight jerseys and baggy shorts. As I came upon them, they were competing in a series of four-on-four games on a small, artificial-turf field with a wall around it, like a hockey rink, so that balls heading out of bounds bounced right back into play. The first time I visited De Toekomst happened to coincide with the arrival of 21 new players - 7- and 8-year-olds, mainly, all from Amsterdam and its vicinity - who were spotted by scouts and identified as possible future professionals. The construction of soccer players is another problem to be solved, and it’s one they undertake with a characteristic lack of sentiment or illusion. They are engineers with creative souls, experts at systems, infrastructure and putting scant resources to their best use. The Dutch live in a cramped, soggy nation made possible only because they mastered the art of redirecting water. In America, with its wide-open spaces and wide-open possibilities, we celebrate the “self-made athlete,” honor effort and luck and let children seek their own course for as long as they can - even when that means living with dreams that are unattainable and always were. “All modern ideas on how to develop youngsters begin with Ajax,” Huw Jennings, an architect of the English youth-development system, told me. It manufactures players and then sells them, often for immense fees, on the world market. With the increasing globalization of the sport, which has driven the best players to richer leagues in England, Germany, Italy and Spain, the club has become a different kind of enterprise - a talent factory. Ajax once fielded one of the top professional teams in Europe. Everything about the academy, from the amenities to the pedigree of the coaches - several of them former players for the powerful Dutch national team - signifies quality. In an airy cafe and bar, players are served meals and visitors can have a glass of beer or a cappuccino while looking out over the training grounds. Set down beside a highway in an unprepossessing district of Amsterdam, it consists of eight well-kept playing fields and a two-story building that houses locker rooms, classrooms, workout facilities and offices for coaches and sports scientists. The youth academy of the famed dutch soccer club Ajax is grandiosely called De Toekomst - The Future. ![]()
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