Ajax Amsterdam
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Template:Football club infobox Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax, also referred to as Ajax Amsterdam, AFC Ajax, or simply Ajax (pronounced i-yax), is a football club from Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is one of the top football clubs in the world, and one of the "big three" clubs that dominate the Dutch football scene, the other two being Feyenoord Rotterdam and PSV Eindhoven. Ajax is also one of only four clubs to have won all three major European trophies.
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History
The club was founded in March 18, 1900 by the brothers Han and Johan Dade.
The club is one of the most recognised by football fans around the world, with its white home jersey with a single red stripe. The club is also famous for its respected 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 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 talented individuals like Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Nigel de Jong and Johnny Heitinga who regularly represent their nation.
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. Ajax also played in the De Meer Stadion from 1934 on. In 1996, they 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 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 to much sunlight and ventilation from the ground.
Honours
- Dutch championship: 29
- Dutch cup: 15
- Dutch supercup (renamed in 1996 as Johan Cruijff-schaal (Johan Cruijff Shield)): 4
- European Champion Club's Cup / UEFA Champions League: 4
- European Cup Winners' Cup: 1
- 1987.
- Intercontinental Cup / European-South America Cup: 2
Current squad
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Famous Ajax players
See also
External links
- Official
- Ajax.nl - Official website of AFC Ajax in Dutch (http://www.ajax.nl/)
- Ajax.nl - Official website of AFC Ajax in English (http://english.ajax.nl/)
- Unofficial
- Ajax USA - English-language fansite of AFC Ajax (http://www.ajaxusa.com/)
- Ajax en France - French-language fansite of AFC Ajax (http://www.ajaxenfrance.com/) (French)
- Ajax News (English) (http://www.epitch.co.uk/eredivisie/ajax/)
- Polish Ajax Info-Site (Polish) (http://www.ajax.anv.pl)
Template:Eredivisiede:Ajax Amsterdam fr:Ajax Amsterdam it:Ajax ja:アヤックス・アムステルダム nl:AFC Ajax pl:Ajax Amsterdam pt:Ajax de Amsterdão fi:AFC Ajax sv:AFC Ajax