Ajax FC has had its fair share of brilliant footballers. Arguably one of the club’s best strikers over the last few decades has been Patrick Kluivert, who also had spells with Barcelona and AC Milan, scoring almost 250 goals for club and country.
It seems scoring runs in the family. While many of you know winger Justin Kluivert, 26, who started at Ajax and now plays for English Premier League side Bournemouth, there are also two other sons playing professional football.
Meanwhile, 24-year-old centre-back Ruben Kluivert, who started his career with Utrecht, now plays for Lyon in France. And then there is Shane Kluivert, 18, who plays for the Barcelona youth team as a forward. Just recently all three of them went down in the history books.
A Fantastic Feat
In the space of three consecutive days, each of them scored for their respective clubs. It began when winger Shane curled in spectacularly from the edge of the box to initiate a 2-1 comeback over PSG in the UEFA Youth League.
A day later (Thursday), Ruben headed home the second goal in Lyon’s 2-0 win over RB Salzburg in their Europa League encounter.
On Friday, Justin scored for Bournemouth in the Cherries’ 3-1 win over Fulham, with an incredible long-range effort to open his account for the season and round off a great week for the Kluivert family.
What a way to score your first goal of the season ☄️
All the angles of Justin Kluivert’s wonder strike in @afcbournemouth‘s win over Fulham 🍿 pic.twitter.com/E7QkULTr0R
— Premier League (@premierleague) October 3, 2025
This is actually quite some feat – especially at professional levels of football; even the youngest brother Shane represents one of the best clubs in Europe at youth level – Barcelona’s academy having always had a sterling reputation.
He could also prove to be quite the player. Older brother Justin has taken some time to realise his potential, though, now at Bournemouth he is developing into one of the best wingers in the Premier League. Shane could rival him, or potentially overtake his level in a shorter time period.
It is interesting that with Kluivert senior having been an out-and-out striker and two of his sons being tricky wingers, that another should be a centre-back.
Despite this, Ruben – the middle brother, still possesses all of the Dutch footballing skill; comfortable with the ball and, as shown – an aerial presence in the box.
Ajax A True Legacy Club
Over the last few years, the Amsterdam club has proven to be generational. Kluivert isn’t the only ex-player to see one of his son’s play at the club (Justin).
One player as famous as Kluivert and who was also his teammate at Barcelona; Frank De Boer’s son, Mitchell was part of the academy in the 2000s. Other notable links are current youth player Damian Van Der Vaart – son of ex star, Rafael.
It is likely that we will see many other famous Ajax players’ sons turn out for the club, though we may never see the kind of repetition involving three sons of a famous player scoring at a high level in the same week again. Then again, stranger things have happened.