Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax, also referred to as Ajax Amsterdam, AFC Ajax, or simply Ajax (pronounced i-yax), is a football club from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

History

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. Ajax is also one of only four clubs to have won all three major European trophies.

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. The team was coached by Louis van Gaal. 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.

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 build for the 1928 Olympic games of Amsterdam. This stadium designed by Jan Wils is know as the Olympic Stadium. Ajax also played in stadium called De Meer from 1934on. In 1996, Ajax changed from the Olympic stadium and De Meer to a new home ground known as the Amsterdam ArenA that was built at the cost of $134 million. The stadium is capable of holding up to approximately 52 000 people. Amsterdam Arena, also written in camel case: ArenA (Amsterdam southeast). The Arena has a retractable roof and was the example for other modern stadiums that were build in the EU in the following years. In the Netherlands the Arena has earned a reputation for having a terrible grassfield. The condition of the field is caused by the roof that, even when open, takes away to much sunlight and ventilation of the field.

Honours

• Dutch championship: 29
  • 1918, 1919, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1937, 1939, 1947, 1957, 1960, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004.

• Dutch cup: 15
  • 1917, 1943, 1961, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1979, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2002.

• Dutch supercup (renamed in 1996 as Johan Cruijff-schaal (Johan Cruijff Shield)): 4
  • 1993, 1994, 1995, 2002.

• European Champion Club's Cup / UEFA Champions League: 4
  • 1971, 1972, 1973, 1995.

• European Cup Winners' Cup: 1
  • 1987.

• UEFA Cup: 1
  • 1992.

• European Super Cup: 3
  • 1972, 1973, 1995.

• International Football Cup: 1
  • 1962

• Intercontinental Cup / European-South America Cup: 2
  • 1972, 1995.

Current squad

Famous Ajax players

See also

• Dutch Football League teams

External links

Official

• Ajax.nl - Official website of AFC Ajax in Dutch
• Ajax.nl - Official website of AFC Ajax in English

Unofficial

• Ajax USA - English-language fansite of AFC Ajax
• Ajax en France - French-language fansite of AFC Ajax (French)