History of AFC Ajax Amsterdam

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This page will continue to live on as an archive of old conversation... And remember, you can read the complete history of AFC Ajax Amsterdam on Ajax USA. Enjoy...

-- Anonymous, September 12, 1999

Answers

Dear members of the board,

Here's another piece of evidence that shows our "Godenzonen" club is the best in the business in Holland. According to daily newspaper "De Telegraaf" Ajax has a chance this Saturday against De Graafschap to score their 4000 goal in the Dutch "Eredivisie". Ajax' biggest victory against the "Super Boeren" was in 1998, final score 1-8. As of now the counter is set at 3998, which is miles ahead of their closest two competitors P$V and Feyenerd. The stats:

Club Games W D L GF GA

Ajax 1562 1062 277 256 3998 1639 P$V 1562 910 351 301 3562 1719 Feyenerd 1562 894 373 295 3397 1756

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2002


The team is actually Ajaccio, and it's right that the name is kinda similar.

Ajaccio is the main town of South Corsica. Bye.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002


An interesting look would be other soccer teams in the world name Ajax. I hear there is one in the Maltese League and I seemed to have seen a team with a similar name like Ajax that got promoted to French 1st division.

Cheers from Canada. Halifax

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002


Now on Ajax USA: the December 1987 chapter of our monthly feature '15 Years Ago'. Thanks to Jakob Granqvist of Zlatan.tv for sending me the pictures of his countryman Peter Larsson!

-- Anonymous, December 02, 2002

The October and, now, the most excellent November chapters of Menno's excellent "15 Years Ago" history is available on Ajax USA. A must read for fans interested in the recent past of our club.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2002


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

It's truly fascinating to see how history keeps repeating itself...

It's not the first time that the featured chapter of '15 Years Ago' (now online: has a very interesting parallel with current events at Ajax.

I mean: we're having the whole Mido thing, exactly fifteen years after a similar Rijkaard affair... Check it out.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2002


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Online now:

The August 1987 chapter of our monthly series "15 Years Ago"...

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2002


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Now on line: the July 1987 chapter of our monthly feature "15 Years Ago".

It was hard to find pictures on the internet this time, but "I got by with a little help from my friends". I borrowed a few books from Michiel Herpers, after which Alex Bokma was so kind to scan a selection of pictures for me. Thanks guys!

BTW: a few extra pictures will soon be added to some of the older chapters, so you might wanna browse through the "15 Years Ago" book we're creating.

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

On line now: the June chapter of our monthly feature "15 Years Ago".

The two photos of the KNVB Cup final are taken from a very nice ADO Den Haag fansite named ADO fans.nl. We did not use all available pictures of the final. If you want to see a few more - they're right HERE.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2002


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Ajax.nl reports that the Ajax team that won the championship of 1976- 1977 will be paid hommage to on Sunday, during the half-time break of Ajax vs FC Den Bosch. For some reason, the title was never celebrated in 1977. Therefore, general manager Arie van Eijden wants to make up for that and pay the hommage the Ajacieden deserve, albeit 25 years after winning the 1977 championship.

It will be a pretty legendary lot. Legendary coach, Tomislav Ivic, will be there. His 1976-1977 team consisted of a few remaining players from the 'Golden Ajax' (1971-1973), such as Ruud Krol and Wim Suurbier. The 'newcomers' in 1977 were players such as goalkeeper Piet Schrijvers, Sĝren Lerby, Ruud Geels, Simon Tahamata and Tscheu La-Ling.

One player will not be there: striker Frank Arnesen, now working as PSV's team manager, assisting head coach Eric Gerets. His team will play against Sparta on Sunday.

Another nice detail (found it on Ajax Netwerk): Ajax is the only club that can win the championship on Sunday. If PSV loses points against Willem II (tonight) or Sparta (Sunday) Ajax can clinch the title by beating FC Den Bosch. Therefore, the official championship shield will be at the Amsterdam ArenA on Sunday!

If PSV, Feyenoord and Ajax all win their games until Sunday, Feyenoord can no longer win the championship. In that case, the realreplica will be brought to Doetinchem (De Graafschap vs PSV), just in case PSV wins the championship on the last day of the league.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002



Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Ajax' last Eredivisie win? Last Wednesday... :-D

You probably mean Ajax' last Eredivisie championship? That was in 1998.

I think you didn't really mean anything whatsoever by this question. Folks: does anyone wanna be this guy's pen pal? He's a very nice guy. His name is z. Write to him at his email address z@z.z ;-)

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2002


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

When was Ajax last KPN Eredivisie-win?

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2002

Response to history of ajax amsterdam

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. While strolling thru www.sports.com. I came across their Ajax team page. I didn't know that Ajax had a Champions league match today. I won't spoil the result but look here:

http://www.sports.com/football/teams/eur/hol/319/index.html

to see what I mean.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

I must admit I didn't even realize it yesterday...

Our beloved little footy club turned 102 yesterday. Forgotten how it all started? Read this.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2002


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Nice little detail about the 1987 team picture in the first episode of our new monthly feature 15 Years Ago: who are still there (or have returned)?

More than I would have thought, actually: eight of 'em.

1) Coach-assistant Tonny Bruins Slot (middle row; third from the left)

2) Jack-of-all-trades Sjakie Wolfs (bottom row; left)

3) Physiotherapist Pim van Dord (bottom row; right)

4) Danny Blind (middle row; 5th from the left), now coaching the A1 youth. Nice moustache, Danny!

5) Arnold Muhren (middle row; 5th from the right), now an Ajax scout.

6) Rob Witschge (top row; right), now working as a coach-assistant at Ajax' satellite club, FC Haarlem. He will leave at the end of the season.

7) Peter Boeve (bottom row; second from the left), still under contract, but contract is dissolved on March 01.

And that's it - is what I thought. It took me a while before I discovered number eight, but it's really true: the reserve goalkeeper next to Stanley Menzo (middle row) is in fact 'good old' FRED GRIM!!! Yes, really. The blonde guy (top row, his second name was De Haan) was the second goalkeeper. Grim (21 years old on the picture) must have been the third man. I think he never played a game before he left for Cambuur Leeuwarden, where he spent the large part of his career.

Amazing. :-)

Anyways - a new '15 Years Ago' episode (quite logically called 'March 1987') will be installed on March 01... I'll try to find a nice old picture to go with the story each month.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002



Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Out of interest, here is link where i got my original ranking:

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/4125/uefaallt.html

It does include other rankings and uses various methods and criteria.

Enjoy.........

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

I take back that sentence, maiby i was a little bit presumptious.

Rankings of european clubs have allways been notoriously difficult, there is national pride, history and passion involved.

I have found very few rankings of european clubs based on wins only.

Based on their early sucesses, Real Madrid have won more cups than anybody, they comes on top every time there is a win only ranking.

What this ranking fails to take into account is that Real were a second rate team for most of the 70's and 80's and were only feared because of their history; some people would say that they won the 1st 5 cups because there was not much interest in the european cup at first.

I dont know if thats because european mentality, with regards to sports, is based on consistency as opposed to USA mentality where winner takes all.

I look at this way, Nottingham Forest (nothing personal against them), managed to win the english league in 1978, this gave them entry into the european cup which they managed to win 2 times. Thats all they ever managed to do in their entire european history. Because of their 2 wins that puts them on a par with Inter Milan and Manchester United and ahead of teams like Barcelona and Anderlecht, all 4 have a far more distinguished european pedigree than Nottingham Forest. My case is that consistency is an important factor that should be taken into account when making rankings.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Well, okay... That's much better than I thought. I usually check before I answer, this time I didn't and here's the result :-)

But then again: this little sentence by James is nonsense: "Whichever logical criteria you use the rankings wont change much".

I saw a ranking once in which clubs got three points for every Champions Cup they won, two for every UEFA Cup or Cup Winners Cup and one for every time they were a runner-up in a European final. Ajax had 17 points - and were amazingly high. Our Belgian friends would really be a lot lower.

I think this is a ranking based on all European games ever played by a certain club. Which doesn't make sense when it comes to determining the 'biggest clubs'. Here's an example?

Club number one (let's say: Anderlecht) reaches the quarter finals in two seasons in a row, by winning both games of the first three rounds, before losing both quarter final games. In those two seasons, Anderlecht would have played 16 European games, out of which 12 were won and 4 were lost. In total: (12 x 3 =) 36 points were won.

Club number two (let's say: Ajax), did not get to play European games at all in one season (for example because one idiot threw an iron bar at the goalkeeper the year before), but wins the UEFA Cup the year after by winning 9 out of the 12 games (6 in total) and drawing 3 times. That's (9 x 3 =) 27 plus (3 x 1 =) 3 = 30 points in total, in the same two seasons.

It's real nice for club number one that they reached two quarter finals. But with all due respect: club number two actually won something, is therefore part of a certain elite, but would be lower on a table like the one James posted. James table answers the question which team played the most European games - and won the most of them, but it does not answer the question what the biggest European club is when it comes to trophies. Simply because a club always getting eliminated in the semi final, can be second or third in James' ranking without ever having won something.

Anyway: this discussion started because a guy named Steve said that Ajax has a "decent record, but it doesn't doesn't compare to the big ones" or something. We all agree now that that's nonsense, don't we. If you simply look at the Cups won, Ajax' record can easily compete with any other European side, except the insane amount of Cups of Real Madrid.

Historically, Real Madrid is a category of its own. Ajax belongs in the category of Juventus, Liverpool, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. There'sno dicussion about that; just count the Cups.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

"Anderlecht never achieved anything special in Europe."

Menno it's not often that I'd question your football knowledge, but...

Anderlecht won the European Cup Winner's Cup in 1976 (v. West Ham), were runners up in 1977 (v. Hamburg), won it again in 1978 (v. Austria/WAC), and were runners up again in 1990 (v. Sampdoria).

In the UEFA cup, they won it in 1983 (v. Benfica), and were runners up in 1970 (v. Arsenal), as well as 1984 (v. Spurs).

That means they reached Euro Finals 7 times (they also won the European Super Cup in 1976 v. Bayern M and 1978 v. Liverpool although I'm not sure if that counts).

I grant you they never did well in the European Champions Cup, which is the biggest prize, but it ain't that bad.

Come on.....be nice....;o)

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

The numbers of trophies won are right, but what kind of silly ranking is that (what "championship" are you talking about)?

Obviously, it's a complete joke. Anderlecht Brussels??? I'm pretty sure KV Mechelen is the only Belgian team that ever won a European trophy (winning a final against Ajax...). Anderlecht never achieved anything special in Europe. Good ranking.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Just a quick correction to the previous e-mails: Juventus have won 2 European cups, 1 Cup winners cup, 3 uefa cups, 2 supercups and 2 intercontinental cups. They were the 1st team to win all 3 european cups, this was achieved in 1985 when they won the notorious brussels european cup final. Note that the cup winners cup does not exist anymore.

This the all time rankings of the championships:

1.Real Madrid CF Esp 45 - 333 190 55 88 710 361 +349 78 513 2.FC Barcelona Esp 44 3 341 183 76 82 683 381 +302 69 511 3.Juventus FC Ita 41 - 305 176 59 70 559 275 +284 63 474 4.FC Bayern München/Ger 34 - 272 153 64 55 535 271 +264 61 431 5.RSC Anderlecht Bel 42 - 262 130 51 81 465 331 +134 38 349 6.Internazionale FC ta 38 1 245 125 54 66 389 213 +176 43 347 7.Milan AC Ita 32 - 225 120 54 51 393 197 +196 45 339 8.SL Benfica Por 42 - 243 117 61 65 435 254 +181 44 339 9.AFC Ajax (Amsterdam)Ned 38 1 223 127 36 60 418 200 +218 43 333 10.Liverpool FC Eng 29 - 197 113 41 43 375 160 +215 37 304 Whichever logical criteria you use the rankings wont change much

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

More facts about Ajax: the 1000 victories since 1956 were out of a total of 1519 matches. So this means that Ajax has won approximately 2 out of 3 matches. They lost 251 times and drew 268 times. Ajax scored 3895 goals and got 1594 against.
The road to this magic number 1000 was very consistent: in 1969 they reached victory number 250, in 1979 number 500, in 1990 number 750 and in 2001 number 1000.

Since 1956, Sjaak Swart played most matches for Ajax (463), followed by Wim Suurbier (393) and Danny Blind (372). Johan Cruijff (who else!) scored most goals for Ajax (205), followed by Sjaak Swart (175) and Henk Groot (161). But Marco van Basten was more efficient. He scored 128 goals in 133 matches! Followed by goal-hanger Ruud Geels (123 goals in 132 matches).

The biggest victory since 1956 was in May 1972, beating Vitesse 12-1. The biggest defeat was against feyenoord, losing 9-4. This was in 1964, the worst season of Ajax. This season in which Rinus Michels became head coach and in which Johan Cruijff made his debut, Ajax ended as number 13 - in a league with only 16 clubs!

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Yesterday's home game against Sparta Rotterdam (3-0) was Ajax' 1000th victory since Dutch football went professional in 1956. After the game, the current Ajax team had a team picture taken with the 1956 team that booked Ajax' very first professional victory. I dropped a few names in my match report (which Jim will put on line when he wakes up), but for the record - here's the complete line-up of that legendary 1956 Ajax team...

Eddy Pieters Graafland, Ger van Mourik, Gerard van Dijk, Wim Anderiesen, Klaas Bakker, Cor Geelhuizen, Piet van der Kuil, Rinus Michels, Wim Bleijenberg, Loek den Edel, Willy Schmidt.

It was great to see them. Back them they beat NAC, 1-0, by a single Loek den Edel goal. Never forget.

-- Anonymous, September 24, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

IT IS ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETE HISTORY ABOUT AJAX FC THANK YOU GUYS.

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2001

Response to history of ajax amsterdam

For those of you who didn't know yet: we have now published our own history of Ajax on Ajax USA. You will find it right here.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2001

Response to history of ajax amsterdam

As far as I know, Juve has only won the CL (European League Winners Cup, or it used to be) once. Ajax won it three times and Ajax was the second or third club to win all major international cups. And after the abolition of the Cup Winners Cup, one of the 4 or so clubs who won it all.

Anyway, here's a nice article from Simon Kuper about Dutch Football;

http://www.ajax-sc.nl/voetbal/kuper.html

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Here is a link to an Ajax historical text "The Coaching Philsophies of Louis van Gaal and the Ajax Coaches" in Japanese. Does anyone know if there is an English version of this text available anywhere?

http://w2352.nsk. ne.jp/~giggs/column/a_vg.htm

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Okay. The World Club Championships aren't European Championships.

But how European Clubs have won it?? We have won it twice. Whenever European clubs play outside Europe they complain about almost everything......jet-lag, food, climate tc.

Well, we have won it twice...so I won't strike off those two medals.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Is the World Club Championship a European Cup? So that would be 11 - 2 = 9, right? But anyway, Ajax is the best!!!!

Go Ajax!!!

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Does this guy Kevin McMahon know the difference between the different European cups?? Ok to state the very well known facts-- 1. Champion's Cups - 4 2. UEFA Cup - 1 3. Cup Winners Cups - 1 4. UEFA Supercup - 3 5. World Club Champions - 2.

So that adds up to 4+1+1+3+2 = 11 . Well I agree that Milan & Madrid have more Champion's league medals. But I think that Milan have been relegated in their own league once in the 80s ( correct me if I'm mistaken). Juventus haven't won 6 CL medals. I really don't know the break up. Still Kevin could name probably 4-5 other 'BIG' clubs. Things are looking good these days for AJAX . Lets keep on hoping guys.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

Dat AJAX de mooiste en beste history heeft hoef ik denk ik niet uit te leggen ook al hebben ze laatste jaren een mindere periode gehad maar dat heeft iedere club kijk naar Ac milan maar goed...... een overbodige vraag dus..... xxxies Eva

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2001

Response to history of ajax amsterdam

A bit late, perhaps, but I saw I nevere replied to Kevin's post. I'll give my comments on each of the numbered sections he divided his contribution in:

1. Of course, it depends what formula you use. I'm not exactly sure what mathemiatical procedure they followed for the ranking I saw, but the number of finals played was irrelevant (I'm not saying it *is*, but it was in the ranking I'm referring to). It was about the number of trophies won, and I think the European Champions Cup was 3 points, the European Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Cup 1 point or something. The least you can say is that Ajax is part of the elite, the small handful of really, really, really succesful clubs. Saying that Ajax "doesn't compare" is far too negative, no matter what formula you use. They do.

2. I don't think I denied that. Did I?

3. That's a matter of terminology. Before the Cup Winners Cup disappeared, there were three European Cup tournaments: the Champions Cup, the Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup. In most countries, all three are called 'European Cups'. Over here, in Holland, people even used to call them European Cup I, European Cup II and European Cup III, but we were the only country in which those names were commonly used. But the European Champions Cup is definitely not the one and only official 'European Cup'. There is - of course - a difference in status. That's why the Champions Cup was considered of higher value than the other two in the ranking I mentioned before.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

In response to our news announcement titled "Ajax rewarded with 'UEFA Badge of Honour'", Kevin sent the following message to Ajax USA, which I'm re-posting with his permission:
1 - I seriously doubt Ajax are 'the second most succesful club side in European football history (after Real Madrid)' - try Juventus (6 european trophies, 13 finals in all, of which 6 european cup), try Barcelona (7 euro trophies, 13 finals in all), try AC Milan (7 european trophies, 11 finals in all, 5 european cups, 8 european cup finals). Ajax has a commendable record, but doesn't compare.

2 - Bayern Munich have also won all 3 major trophies, beside Ajax in the initial group of 4 (EC 1974 - 76, ECWC 1967, UEFA 1996). Outside this both Juventus (EC 2x, ECW 1x, UEFA 3x) and Barcelona (EC 1x, ECW 4x, UEFA 2x) have also triumphed in all 3.

3 - Ajax have partaken in 9 European finals, but not 9 European Cup finals. Of these 9, six were European Cup, and 2 of these were after 1974, contrary to your statement that of the 9 European Cup finals, over 50% took place after 1987.



-- Anonymous, October 30, 2000

Response to history of ajax amsterdam

I'm not fully sure, but the English version of the Ajax history on http://www.ajax.nl/ looks new and much more extensive to me. The club history is now divided in era's. There's an excellent synopsis of each period. It looks good now.

However, more effort to update the English version of Ajax.nl regularly would be good. Now it's just the club history and some general, fairly boring stuff about the club. It's not that hard to translate the news items, too.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000


Response to history of ajax amsterdam

you can find the history of the most beautiful football team of the world on www.ajax.nl (Dutch and English)

-- Anonymous, September 13, 1999

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