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View Full Version : How a Soccer Star is Made (Article on Ajax Academy)



brad
08-03-2011, 09:46 PM
Great article from the NY Times about the Ajax Academy, and talks about how it compares to US player development.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html

A couple of things really stood out for me.

First is that the article really makes it seem like the purpose of the academy these days is not to develop players to make Ajax a better team, but to develop players to sell for a large profit. It sort of makes sense why an organization like MLSE would be interested in following such a model, as at the end of the day money is all that matters to them. I wonder if part (or all of the equation) is exactly this, with developing players to make an impact on TFC being a secondary goal.

Second is this quote talking about bringing a youth player up to the level of playing for the first team got me thinking about what we have seen in the first half of the season with some of the odd player selections.


Jongkind had been working with this player for several weeks and said he had progressed to “consciously able but not subconsciously able” to run with the desired form, meaning that in the heat of competition, he reverted to his old form.

Sort of makes me wonder if Winter was seeing things in training that were positive, but the players were reverting back to old ways in the "heat of competition". Could also point towards a lot of the earlier season being trials for a number of our players to see if they could do in games what they could do in practice.

Roogsy
08-03-2011, 09:57 PM
Nice find.

I found this to be a very interesting quote.


When I observed that for all the seriousness of purpose at De Toekomst, I was surprised that the players did not practice more hours or play more games, Rooi said: “Of course, because they do not want to do anything to injure them or wear them out. They’re capital. And what is the first thing a businessman does? He protects his capital.”

Whoop
08-03-2011, 10:07 PM
This article has bounced around the forum a couple of times now.

Ajax has had to shift focus of their academy based on the reality of the new economy of football.

Back in the 60s and 70s, the goal was to produce players for the first team to win European titles. It even carried into the 80s.

But as UEFA turned more towards the Champions League abandoning the European Cup format, Ajax had to shift focus. As other academies started catching up, the players being developed are now assets.

As I've said, as successful as the Ajax academy has been in the past, the academies of Twente and Feyenoord have caught up to them.

I would argue that the "Ajax academy" is more myth today than reality.

Roogsy
08-03-2011, 11:58 PM
You can observe what we do, but it is something you cannot copy.

Interesting.

Whoop
08-04-2011, 12:35 AM
This is what I'm talking about.



“What they do at Ajax is a little rote for my taste,” Jennings said. “We are more apt to let the game be the teacher.” He added that he believed Ajax “had become a caricature of itself.”



“I feel like they’ve lost some of the spirit of the place,” John Hackworth, the former U.S. youth coach, told me.

This is what Johan Cruyff is coming in to change.