Chapter 213 Star Factory: Ajax

Heading north, the plane soon entered the Netherlands, the lowest country in the world – a low-lying country of four constituent countries (Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten), where a quarter of their land is less than 1 meter above sea level and a quarter of their land is below sea level.

Seawalls are everywhere in the Netherlands – if they didn't hold back the sea, much of the Netherlands would be flooded.

Seawalls, windmills, tulips.

This has almost become synonymous with the Netherlands.

The plane landed at Amsterdam Airport and boarded the team's bus outside the airport.

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, the largest city in the Netherlands that was once the most important port in the world, and even became the center of the world during the days of the sea coachmen.

The buses crossed bridges of all sizes, built on Amsterdam's dense network of canals, which bear witness to one of the most glorious periods in Dutch history.

However, the players were not interested in the canal.

Jeffrey was very excited to return home.

"If I have time, I will definitely invite everyone to see our family's flower field! It's February, but some of the early-blooming tulip varieties are already in bloom, and although the Netherlands is in the north of England, it's not as cold as England! Jeffrey sat down in his seat and turned his head to say loudly.

"Hey... Jeffrey, I don't want to see tulips.... I want to see the real flower of Amsterdam...", exclaimed Saul Campbell.

The players laughed, and Jeffrey's face flushed.

Saul Campbell's "flower of Amsterdam" is obviously referring to Amsterdam's famous red light district...

"Hey, Thor, you're a family man," Gao Bo said with a smile.

The laughter inside the bus was louder.

"I'm just looking—" Thor shrunk his head.

"Boss... You're single," Vardy feared that the world would not be in chaos.

"Jamie, you're too loose in training, aren't you?"

"No... I don't think so! Vardy hastened to deny it.

There was a joyful atmosphere in the car.

Cars meander through the streets of Amsterdam.

Lin Sen looked at the red wall outside the car window and sighed: "Speaking of which, I used to be a fan of Ajax, but I didn't expect that this Eredivisie giant has not entered the mainstream media's field of vision for a long time." ”

"The current Ajax is not to be underestimated." Gao Bo shook his head and said.

Although the current Ajax is still far from its peak, no one dares to underestimate this star processing team known as the world's No. 1, in Ajax's youth system, a large number of stars have come out of here and flowed into major European teams.

From Cruyff and Van Basten to Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Huntelaar and more, Ajax's products have been featured in the Dutch national team in almost every period.

In fact, before the Boseman Act, Ajax was a powerhouse in the Champions League.

Ajax have a history of doing very well in European competitions and are one of the top clubs on the continent, having won their first international title in 1962 by beating fellow club Feyenoord in the inaugural UEFA Tutu Cup, and have since won a number of European competitions, including four UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA Cup, one European Cup Winners' Cup, three UEFA Super Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.

Ajax's first glory period came in the seventies of the last century, in 1971, 1972/1973, three consecutive years, Ajax won three Champions League titles in a row, they were the rulers of European football at that time, they were the strongest team at that time.

Ajax's fourth Champions League trophy came in the 90s, when Patrick Kluivert beat AC Milan goalkeeper Rossi six minutes before the final at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna on 24 May 1995. This is Ajax's third win over AC Milan in the Champions League this season.

However, it was also the last glory of Ajax in the most honoured competition in European football.

In December 1995, the Boseman Act was introduced.

Before the Bosman Act, it was difficult for players to complete the transfer, first of all, even if the player's contract expired, if he wanted to transfer to another team, he had to go through the approval of the parent team, otherwise he would never be able to transfer, and the flow of players between European countries was also affected by the foreign aid policies of their respective countries.

In the summer of 1990, Jean-Marc Bosman, a midfielder who played for the Belgian team RFC Liège, wanted to move to Dunkirk in France when his contract with his former club expired at the end of the season, and the club was ready to cut his annual salary by 60%. However, Dunkirk could not afford to pay the high transfer fee offered by Club Liège at the time, which led to the transfer being lost. Under the old transfer system, even if a player's contract expired, another club had to pay a transfer fee to the player's original club to recruit him.

After receiving legal advice, Boseman took Liège and the Belgian Football Federation to court in August of that year; In November, a Belgian district court ruled that Bosman's transfer was legal, and the Belgian Football Federation lost the case; Half a year later, the Belgian Court of Appeal ruled to dismiss the appeal; In January 1992, Boseman was denied an application for unemployment benefits from the government, and in a fit of rage, he took the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union in The Hague, the Netherlands, for $1 million on the grounds that the club's refusal to allow him to transfer violated the Treaty of Rome on the right of EU citizens to freely choose their place of residence and their free choice of employment. Boseman also asked the EU to order UEFA to lift restrictions on non-EU players, which are fundamentally racist.

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in favour of Boseman on 15 December 1995. After the introduction of the law, the movement of players within the EU began to accelerate, and players from smaller clubs wanted to wait until the end of their contracts to join the big clubs.

The Boseman Act also prohibits the local leagues of EU member states and the European Football Federation from restricting the number of non-local players in competitions, excluding non-EU players.

After the introduction of this bill to protect the interests of players, European football immediately fell into a crazy era!

Transfer fees began to soar at the speed of light in 1996, and almost every year there will be transfers that break the transfer fee record.

In some of the big leagues, player wages have also started to increase significantly, and for some players in smaller leagues, many players are eager to play in the Premier League, Serie A and other big leagues.

The hardest hit by the Bosman Act is undoubtedly Ajax.

After the law was introduced, Ajax could no longer keep the players they had cultivated in the academy, and the players began to seek a transfer to the big leagues after a little bit of fame - even if they went to the Premier League, the salary was higher than staying at Ajax.

So since 96, Ajax has slowly changed from the center of Europe to the current star processing factory, and their academy is still rich in the best players in the world, but for Ajax, the only meaning is to send players to those big clubs in Europe, nothing more.

Domestically, Ajax has not been successful in recent years, with PSV Eindhoven rising and the Eredivisie champions, from the 2003-2004 season to the club's 21st Eredivisie title to now, Ajax has not won the domestic league title for five seasons.

This season's Ajax still look like they are still some way from the top of the Eredivisie, with only 55 points after 24 league games, a gap of seven points to PSV Eindhoven at the top of the table!

...

After exiting the airport, the bus travels around Amsterdam for about 40 minutes before arriving at a hotel close to Feyenoord's training base.

Feyenoord and Ajax are rivals in the same city.

Therefore, Luton's request to borrow Feyenoord training base went very smoothly and was responded to.

In the Netherlands, Luton can train at Feyenoord's training base.

With just over two days to go, Luton's adaptation time has been very short.

For Gao Bo, the biggest difficulty in playing in the Europa League is not how strong the opponent is, but that their schedule is too tight, there are already a lot of games in the first division, and the team has almost no time to rest when it still needs to strengthen the Europa League.