{"id":5612,"date":"2023-11-21T18:48:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T18:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajaxdaily.com\/?page_id=5612"},"modified":"2024-01-17T17:08:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T17:08:51","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-ajax-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ajaxdaily.com\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ajax-amsterdam\/","title":{"rendered":"Ajax Amsterdam: Everything You Need to Know About AFC Ajax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Founded on the 18th of March 1900, there was a time when Ajax was a byword for all things attractive about football. Based in the Dutch city of Amsterdam, Ajax plays its football in the Eredivisie, the top-flight league in Holland. It has played in the division ever since its inception in 1956 and is considered to be one of the most successful clubs in the history of the sport.<\/p>\n

There are only five clubs that have won all of the major competitions that are offered by UEFA, with Ajax being one of them. In other words, this club is a big deal and taken seriously on the international stage.<\/p>\n

Whilst Ajax’s European dominance has fallen away in recent times, the club is still thought of as being European royalty. Some of the names associated with the club are those that are well-known to everyone who knows even a little bit about football.<\/p>\n

The likes of Denis Bergkamp, Johan Cruyff<\/a> and Marco van Basten all made their way into the sport courtesy of the Ajax youth system, whilst 2016 saw the club launch the Ajax Coaching Academy, which is designed to help players and coaches develop thanks to the knowledge offered by the club, influencing the future of the sport.<\/p>\n

The History of Ajax<\/h2>\n
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AFC Ajax 1900-1901 – See page for author<\/a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax, to give the team its full name, was established in the Dutch city of Amsterdam on the 18th of March 1900. The founding fathers were Stempel, Carel Reeser and Han Dade, who had formed a club called Football Club Ajax in 1894 that was short-lived in nature.<\/p>\n

The club was an amateur one for the first few years of its existence, but in 1911 Jack Kirwan guided it into the highest level of Dutch football at the time. Having played mostly in black (as pictured above), the club was forced to change its colours upon promotion as Sparta Rotterdam already played in its colours.<\/p>\n

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Ajax 1911 in new red and white kit – Schnabel SC \u2014 Dirk Gerardus Andries Schnabel (1870-1933)<\/a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result, Ajax started playing in a white kit with a red stripe and white shorts, colours that remain associated with the club to this day. They did well enough for one of their players, G\u00e9 Fortgens made it into the Netherlands national team, they were relegated out of the division in 1914. They won the secondary league in both 1915 and 1916 but neither saw them re-promoted thanks to the outbreak of World War One. They did return to the top-flight in 1917 and won the Dutch national cup that year, winning their first title in 1919, when they also went unbeaten.<\/p>\n

Major success was enjoyed by Ajax throughout the 1920s and 1930s, with many of the club’s players becoming household names. They were mostly rebuilding during the 1940s, becoming league champions once more in 1947. They also became regional champions in 1950, although they never managed to win the championship.<\/p>\n