As a 35 year old Dutchman, Ajax is my club! I’ve been a fan of this clubs since young because of my grandfather. He was a big fan and back in the days football wasn’t live on television. We visited my grandparents every Sunday and I always asked to stay over for lunch, so we could listen to football on the radio in the afternoon. This is where my love for Ajax started. In this article I share the best Ajax eleven of my lifetime.
Best Ajax eleven of my lifetime
I’ve been blessed to be an Ajax fan in this era. The first real memories are us winning the Champions League in 1995. Most recently we’ve got to the Europa League final and the semi-finals of the Champions League. In this time I’ve seen so many good players that it’s almost impossible to pick a best eleven. iI will divide this eleven in three groups. The goalkeeper + defenders, the midfielders and the attackers.
Goalkeeper + Defenders
Funnily enough I thought about an article like this two years ago. I already created a template team at the time and quite some things have changed since that time. Edwin van der Sar is the goalkeeper that made it to my best Ajax eleven. Maarten Stekelenburg was the second choice, but he’s been passed by Andre Onana. The back four is a tough one for me. I need to make sure I’m not recently biased, but that’s hard since the current team is making me so happy. The four defenders I’ve picked are Mathijs de Ligt, Frank Rijkaard, Christian Chivu and Nicolas Tafgliafico. It kills me to leave out players like Frank de Boer, Jan Vertonghen and Maxwell, but I have to make decisions.
Midfielders
This was another group of players that made me think a lot before picking three. I’ve seen some of the best midfield players out there in the Ajax shirt. But I went for a midfield three wirth Frenkie de Jong, Hakim Ziyech and Jari Litmanen. It’s so hard to leave players like Van der Vaart and Sneijder out of this, but I’ve got a soft spot for Hakim Ziyech. Two other players who played a season at my club as attacking midfielders are the Laudrup brothers. If they played here for a longer time, they would have been serious contenders for this post.
Attackers
Finally we’ve reached the attackers. Another line of players where I’ve seen some amazing talented players. Some of the players who didn’t make it to this eleven are Nwanko Kanu, Marc Overmars, Dusan Tadic, Finidi George and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. The three players that are selected for my best eleven are Zlatan Ibrahumovic, Luis Suarez and Patrick Kluivert. The last one made the winning goal in the 1995 Champions League final and therefore is one of my hero’s.