The club once fielded one of the top-professional teams in Europe; but with the increasing globalisation of the sport, it has become a different kind of enterprise – a talent factory, as The New York Times once famously said.

Ajax Cape Town is not that much different from its Dutch cousin because no less than 20 of the 30 players in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) squad of Ajax Cape Town came through its youth development ranks, says John Comitis, chief executive officer of Ajax Cape Town. “This is some feat, as no other South African professional club can lay claim to boast a higher percentage of their development academy players in their PSL team,” he adds.

Since the establishment of Ajax Cape Town, the club’s policy of “No youth, no future” has paid dividends and made the rest of the local professional football family take notice when players from the Urban Warriors soon made their way to Europe.

Since the transfer of the current Bafana Bafana captain Steven Pienaar from Ajax Cape Town to Ajax Amsterdam, the youth academy has become the pathway to the larger football stages in Europe.

Daylon Claasen, Bryce Moon, Terror Fanteni, Nathan Paulse and Stanton Lewis took the high road via the Ajax Cape Town Youth Academy to Europe.

While the focus may be on European transfers, the Youth Academy has been a conveyor belt to the local PSL in South Africa.

A local conveyor belt

It has produced approximately 73 players, at an average of seven a year, to professional football in South Africa.

A large percentage of these players represented South Africa at junior and senior level, thereby contributing to a larger pool of players for the national selectors from which to choose a Bafana Bafana squad.

Ajax Cape Town should have won the local PSL title in 2011, but was overtaken by Orlando Pirates when the slightly inexperienced Urban Warriors lost their way against their old nemesis, Maritzburg United, in the final match of the season.

The evolving Ajax Cape Town has learnt from a European institution and a legendary soccer empire, Ajax Amsterdam.

The Dutch giant has won the European Champions League four times in its history: in 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1995.

Only Real Madrid, AC Milan, Liverpool and Barcelona have won more European Champions League titles. Barcelona won its fourth title this year by beating Manchester United in the final.

Ajax Amsterdam boasts 27 Eredivisie titles and 17 Dutch Cups since its inception, according to www.blaque.co.za.

The birth of a Cape Town-based dynasty

This was one of the factors that convinced Ajax Cape Town co-founders, Comitis and Rob Moore, to align their dream of establishing a world-class football institution in South Africa with Ajax Amsterdam.

Comitis told www.blaque.co.za: “We wanted to form a partnership with a successful European club that prides itself on its strong youth development programme. In this regard, they don’t come better than Ajax Amsterdam, as they are the best in the world when it comes to the youth development – look at the players they have produced over the years.”

The state-of-the-art training facilities, Ikamva – meaning “the future” – was built in Parow.

Maarten Fontein told www.blaque.co.za that one of their core values was to invest in a strong youth development programme.

Theirs is recognised as the best in the world. “We have produced young talent for the Dutch national team, and other nationalities have benefited because we recruit young talent over the world,” said Fontein.

“I am glad that our Cape Town satellite club also invests heavily in youth. I must also add that the technical level of the South African players is improving strongly and I have been very impressed by what I have seen from Cape Town players.

“I guess it is no coincidence that both our teams are doing well in the league standings in their respective leagues,” he added. “Just look at the national teams of Netherlands and South Africa – our players are taking centre stage.”

The Urban Warriors, as Ajax is known, won the Rothmans Cup in 2000 and the Absa Cup in 2007.

Comitis admitted that the club is still a work in progress, and that improvements are needed in the turf and accommodation, investment in qualified coaches and more exposure to the international competitions by playing more international matches and tournaments.

According to Fontein, the club uses the same system from junior level up to senior level. It trains young players in the same way it trains the senior team. Thus, a young player is ready to produce the moment he wears the senior jersey for the first time.

A costly exercise

The Ajax way can be costly to maintain. This forces Amsterdam to sell its players to bigger teams in order to generate more cash, Fontein told www.blaque.co.za. “I cannot put an exact figure on how much it costs to maintain, but it runs into several million euros annually,” he added.

Comitis says the costs of running a youth development programme and a Premiership team is astronomical: “We spend about R45 000 on a player per annum; and without a sponsor, it is a difficult task. We are surviving, but I can assure you: if we had a sponsor, we could be doing much better,” he adds.

Scouting at Ajax Cape Town is taken very serious and it forms part of the youth development at the Club.

Ajax has a team of dedicated scouts working in various demographic areas in the Western Cape and around the country, constantly on the lookout for talent that can be nurtured into future professional players.

Ajax Soccer School

The Ajax Soccer School, launched in October 2010, was the next step in the development phase of Ajax Cape Town. The school is available to boys and girls from the ages of five to 13, with a professional development programme to enhance their soccer skills.

The coaches at the Ajax Soccer School work with the players in one-hour session per week, covering all areas of soccer development including technique, tactical awareness (insight) and motor skills.

Each child is evaluated individually by the qualified Ajax Soccer School coaches, and all data relating to the child’s development is stored and filed.

A typical soccer school session includes: a 10- to 15-minute technique related warm-up, a 10- to 15-minute technique-related drill, and a 20- to 30-minute related small-sided game.

The footprint of Ajax Cape Town’s influence is extended across the Cape Flats via the Ajax Community Scheme, which facilitates football programmes across the Cape Peninsula – using up to 20 trained coaches to work among young players in the areas where they live.

Gauteng sport village

The Gauteng Provincial Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation will establish a world-class sport village to house all the Olympic codes, said MEC Lebogang Maile.

“The Gauteng Village for Sport Development will serve as a central place for the development of high-performing athletes that are identified through school and recreation sport events,” he added.

The sport village will also have a sport administration hub.

The business plan for the village has not been completed, but the Ministry of Sport in Gauteng is liaising with the potential partners to conclude this plan, said Maile.

Where the Ajax model of developing and nurturing young players starts at a very early age (in Amsterdam, at age eight; and in Cape Town at age 13), the Gauteng sport village would be used more as a finishing school and a high-performance centre for talented athletes of different Olympic codes in the age group between 17 and 25.

Maile said the initial estimate indicated that to put in place a state-of-the-art and world-class village, the department would require more than R2 billion.

“Given the pressures exerted on the fiscus by pressing social and economic imperatives, we will employ innovative ways to raise the resources for this project,” he added.

Maile admitted that details about the sport village project are quite sketchy, and that more information would be available once the business plan with the partners had been concluded. ☑

Fanie Heyns