How AZ gets the talents from the front garden of rival Ajax: ‘Seventy percent from Amsterdam’

The youth team of AZ wrote history this week by becoming the first Dutch club ever to win the UEFA Youth League, in an exceptionally impressive way. Where do all Alkmaar’s talents come from?

From Amsterdam. And from the area, to be precise. While Ajax’s youth academy is under fire after a number of fat years, the Alkmaarders successfully fish in the Amsterdam pond.

“Seventy percent of our players come from the Amsterdam area,” said technical director Max Huiberts after the 5-0 win over Hajduk Split in the Youth League final.

A look at the best youth team in Europe shows that four of the strong holders come from or around Amsterdam.

Captain Wouter Goes was born in the capital, started playing football at ASV Arsenal, played four years in the youth at Ajax and moved to AZ in 2016 as a twelve-year-old.

The cradle of Ernest Poku, who scored two goals in the final in Geneva, was also in Amsterdam. He played football at SV Robinhood and AFC before he ended up at AZ as a fifteen-year-old.

Goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro – hero of the penalty series in the semi-final – and Jayden Addai – who gave AZ the lead in the final – both come from Purmerend, just under the smoke of Amsterdam. Owusu-Oduro ended up in the youth academy of AZ via DVC Buiksloot (nowadays ASC De Volewijckers), Addai via VPV Purmersteijn.

The large number of players from the periphery of Amsterdam is also related to the club’s move in 2016 to a hypermodern sports complex in Wijdewormer, which is closer to the capital than to Alkmaar.

“In the past, the players had to sit in a van for half an hour, forty-five minutes,” said Huiberts. “That has now become considerably less, boys live in the vicinity of our training complex. This gives you extra time to train more and to pay attention to your players. That is an advantage.”

But the move had another advantage. “Players used to sometimes choose another club, because AZ was quite a distance away,” said Paul Brandenburg, head of youth academy since 2015. “We moved closer to our children and that gave a boost.”

In addition, the Alkmaarder consciously scouts in and around the capital and talent days are also organized there.

Of the four ‘Amsterdam’ Youth League heroes, Goes and Poku have already made their appearance in the first team of AZ. The Alkmaar A-selection has more players who were picked from the capital’s front garden at a young age.

Myron van Brederode, who has made his breakthrough this season, was born in Hoofddorp, but ended up in the youth of AZ as a thirteen-year-old via the local SV Overbos and the Amsterdam AFC.

Together with Maxim Dekker, Van Brederode was present with AZ in the Youth League last season, where the adventure ended in the eighth finals. Dekker comes from Rijsenhout – 20 kilometers from Amsterdam and 48 from Alkmaar – and has played with the AZ youth since he was thirteen.

Goalkeeper Hobie Verhulst is an Amsterdammer and was lured to Alkmaar via Koog aan de Zaan as an eleven-year-old, where he is now on the bench after a series of wanderings.

But it is not only Wijdewormer that has great appeal to young football talents from Amsterdam. Even before the move in 2016, they already knew how to find their way to Alkmaar. Like the big names from the AZ selection that caused a furore at the end of the tens.

Myron Boadu was born in Amsterdam and started playing football at SC Buitenveldert. There he was spotted by Ajax at the age of eleven, but rejected after a practice internship. A year later he ended up at AZ, where he fared a lot better.

Guus Til was born in Zambia but grew up in Amsterdam Southeast. AZ took him away from SV Diemen at the age of thirteen. And Adam Maher, born in Morocco, also learned to play football in Amsterdam before he entered the Alkmaar youth academy at the age of eleven.

Calvin Stengs comes from Nieuw-Vennep and is also a product of the Alkmaar youth academy. The Boadu-Til-Stengs trio ultimately earned AZ a total of 50 million euros with transfers to AS Monaco, OGC Nice and Spartak Moscow.

There were less lucrative transfers at that time for Joris van Overeem, Derrick Luckassen and Marko Vejinovic. They are well-known AZ names that had their cradle in the Amsterdam area.

What then is the secret of AZ’s youth academy, in which a lot was deliberately invested after the bankruptcy of DSB, former lender Dirk Scheringa?

“That is not really there,” said technical director Huiberts earlier this week. “Make sure you bring together many talented people, with a good program and good facilities. We’ve been doing that well for years, I think. And stick to your vision, regardless of periods of setbacks or success.”

The youth academy of AZ is thriving like never before, with a European cup as proof. In addition, the club is the purveyor of the Orange under-17 and Orange under-19.

How different is the mood at the rival in Amsterdam. Only two players from Amsterdam are left in Ajax’s A-selection: Brian Brobbey and Steven Bergwijn. Up-and-coming talent Jorrel Hato comes from Rotterdam. Kenneth Taylor from Alkmaar.

Would they be jealous of AZ at Ajax?

“I find it difficult to say anything about that, because I am not aware of the program they run there,” says Huiberts. “I do know that there are also good players and good people around.”

Head of youth academy Brandenburg refers to the other counter: “You have to ask Amsterdam, then you have to go to Ajax…”