More than victory: Cruyff Philosophy in the Ajax Youth Training Reform

"When the Cruyff Project was launched, people thought no one was concerned about whether the youth team won anymore," Jasper van Leuwen said. "But it wasn't. As a player, you have to crave victory, and it's in your heart."

"But as a coach, you shouldn't do everything to win. I remember joking with the U15 echelon coach and I said, 'Look, if the U15 champion is really that way How important is it, why have you never seen a newspaper report? ’ Never, because it doesn’t matter. It may be important to you, but it is not the case for the whole world. ”

"What is really important is to cultivate the super genius in the team. If this is done well, he will appear in the newspaper frequently. This is your responsibility in the Youth Training Academy."

From such a conversation, it is not difficult to see why the reform battle of Ajax Youth Training Academy can be called the "soul defense battle" of this Dutch giant. In 2011, after legend John Cruyff and his followers regained control of the "De Toekomst", they began to cultivate the young players who are now in their playing years.

Arsenal's Yurien Timber, Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberg, Manchester United's Mattes de Ligt and Nussel Mazravie, Newcastle United's Sven Botmann, and Barcelona's Frenki De Jong all came out from here.

Although Cruyff has died of lung cancer for nearly a decade, his legacy is still alive.

"This is no longer Ajax." In September 2010, after the team lost to Real Madrid 0-2, Cruyff wrote this famous quote in the Telegraph. The most prestigious Dutch club was in a crack at the time.

In less than a year, the club's complex board structure, coupled with differences on the team's future strategic direction, led to some disputes eventually coming to court - Cruyff tried to prevent Louis Van Gaal from becoming the club's new director.

"Ajax is a public company," Ruben Rongjinde explained. He is a close friend of Cruyff and a core figure in the club's youth training academy. "It is also an association with hundreds of members, many of whom have long served in the club and are passionate about it. But this structure makes everything difficult to operate."

"Under this big umbrella, everyone hopes that Ajax is good, but it is difficult to reach a consensus on the direction of development. Finance is also a big problem, and there is no room for gradual improvement or minor repairs - that is a moment of success or failure: either reform and change, or stick to the rules and let Ajax fall into trouble. And this 'shock therapy' has triggered resistance."

Cruyff's core dissatisfaction is that he believes that the club's youth training academy can no longer cultivate top talents. He felt that the club was in a stagnation: occasionally winning the Eredivisie championship, but becoming a foil on a wider stage.

In 2011, Cruyff was persuaded to return to the Ajax board of directors under Barcelona and began to jointly promote radical reforms with like-minded coaches and executives, drawing on his experiences in his legendary player and coaching career.

Jong Jinde is one of the assistants. He initially specialized in track and field coaching, and later entered Ajax, committed to improving the physical fitness and explosiveness of youth training players. Van Leuwen later joined as an advisor, first auditing the youth training system, and eventually serving as the talent recruitment supervisor for Ajax.

Communication via telephone, Cruyff, Jungkind and youth training director Wim Jonk jointly drafted a club reform plan - outlined on the back of a homestay's wallpaper, and then reported to club executives including Marco Van Basten, Dennis Borgkamp and Frank Rijkald.

"Before the meeting, Wim and I went for a coffee," recalled Jung-de. "While walking down the street, I asked, 'Hey Wim, did you bring the plan?' He said, 'No, you brought it? Oh no.' We realized we had the plan in the bar. I ran back to pick it up, and luckily it was still there."

If there was an overly enthusiastic waiter at the time, Ajax's fate might have been rewritten. After months of discussion, Cruyff and his followers reached an agreement that they would take control of the Youth Training Academy, with a 25% increase in the college’s budget.

"This caused controversy," recalled Van Leuwen, "but no matter how you count, the total sales of players trained by the Youth Training Academy exceeded 400 million euros. You should know that our budget ended up being about 8 million euros, and you can imagine how amazing the return on investment was."

But all this was out of reach at the time. Ajax was a little "unworthy" at that time: Martin Yoll's football style was unattractive, and the only youth training players worth mentioning in the past decade were Daly Blind, Jan Feltonheng and Christian Eriksen (only Blind grew up mainly in Ajax).

"Obviously, some people are working to improve the situation, but the whole system is not sound," said Rong Jinde. "No high-level players emerge, they are not at the Champions League level. How can we regain the offensive football style?"

"One important factor is the disappearance of street football - compared with the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, players' technical, physical and mental levels are changing. Therefore, the pleasing football model of our past must be redefined and transformed in a new social context."

What they first set out to reform the structure of the youth training academy. Traditionally, coach salaries increase by echelon level, and coaches of senior echelons such as U16 are higher than those of U9 coaches.

"In my opinion, this development model is completely unreasonable," said Rong Jinde. "If you have to divide it, you should turn it over. In human growth, which years are the most important? It is from 0 to 6 years old, and the brain is formed at this stage. Children's thinking is more malleable and can absorb more information."

"After all, every year is important. Current Eindhoven head coach Peter Boss was in Ajax at the time and told Cruyff that he personally prefers the "five-second rule."

"Count to five in your mind," Cruyff responded, "think about how far the ball can be pushed - almost half the field."

Sometimes, pursuing more difficult concepts means that the youth team will lose - facing a fast opponent forward, the defense line is too high; for the sake of player development, midfielders are allowed to play left-back instead, resulting in one-on-one breakthroughs. But the senior coaches were not shaken.

"Of course, high standards are important," said Jungkinde, "but forward defense can be risky. Players may predict mistakes, grab too early or too late, as the last line of defense, there will be a lot of room behind them, and it is easy to lose the ball. The same is true for compressing the space, and a few goals may be lost,"

"Of course, against Feyenoord, some people still oppose this kind of risky football. But it has to do with the structural problems of the youth training academy - paying too much attention to the results. And this is one of the core principles of Cruyff: education is a long-term process. We need to use the game to let the children learn so that they can win the game in the future."

In the eyes of Jungkinde and Van Leuwen, one of the players who best reflect these eight principles is Abdhak Nuri, a late-mature player with creativity in their bones.

Nuri won the best player of Ajax team in the 2016-17 season, completed her first team debut at the age of 19, and was just promoted to the first team in July 2017. That month, he fell to the ground due to arrhythmia in a pre-season friendly match and fell into a coma for more than a year, resulting in severe brain damage.

Later, Ajax's investigation found that the medical treatment he received on the court was "inadequate". The club continued to pay for his medical expenses, retired his jersey and named the "Future Genius Award" after the No. 10 player.

"I have known him since he was 9 years old," said Jungkinde. "He is the embodiment of Ajax, the embodiment of the football style we are committed to - freedom, like street football, create the most wonderful moments with joy. That's his style. We still remember him as much as possible. When we go to the gym, I always choose Locker No. 34."

"I think I can call him the charm of Ajax during the Cruyff Project," added Van Leuwen. "I remember we were in the Youth Champions League against Barcelona and Paris When Saint-Germain was incredible, he was the most special player on the court. Three or four thousand people came to the youth training academy to watch him play. "

"You can compare him to Andres Iniesta, and perhaps Martin Odegao - a skilled and not strong player. He didn't seem to have to think about it, just improvisation. It was unfortunate that something like that happened. It was a tragedy for anyone - it happened to him, and it was even more heartbreaking."

At this time, Junginder and Van Leuwen had left Ajax and became one of the 14 resignations.

"Ajax is like a political party, not a single faction, but multiple factions," Junkind said. "Many people don't want Cruyff to come in - when he gets sick (eventually dies of lung cancer), someone takes the opportunity to drive him away and take back power. So when some executives try to exclude (youth training director) Wim Jonk (who knows John will follow up), we decided to be loyal to both of them."

After staying at Eredivisie club Velendan, the two are now working with clubs and soccer associations across Europe, named after Cruyff. Recently, they helped the Greek Football Association develop a new national football program to cultivate the future generation - Greece currently has a group of talented players including midfielder Constantinos Karechas and striker Haralanbos Kostoras.

In addition, the Bodoglint Club in the coastal town of northern Norway miraculously entered the semi-finals of the Europa League and also learned from the many experiences of the Ajax Youth Training Academy.

"They aren't even in the Norwegian top league," Van Leuwen said. "But they come to visit us almost every month, stay for a few days, and interview us non-stop. Not only the youth training supervisors, but also seven or eight coaches. They adopted a lot of ideas to see how they built this small club: offensive football style, giving young players opportunities, selling players at high prices - they became Norway's most dominant team."

Cruyff's legacy is spread like leaves throughout the football world. In terms of player career alone, he is one of the greatest football players in European history. Let’s look at his tactics - all offense and all defense football, and pioneering the use of diamond midfielders. He is closely linked to two clubs, Ajax and Barcelona, ​​and as a consultant and manager, he helped reform the Lamacia youth training camp even before returning to Amsterdam. Today, Barcelona's youth training graduates - Lamin Yamal, Garvey, and Baugh Kubasi - would have been completely different players without Cruyff's pioneering work.

"If we were asked where Cruyff's legacy was reflected, people might expect us to answer from a style perspective," Van Leuwen said, "but it was also reflected in a specific talent development philosophy - to develop special players and give them first-team playing time."

"Through history, especially in Barcelona and Ajax, the model is clear: if these clubs adhere to Cruyff's talent development principles, the results will be revealed. Once they deviate from this path and start spending money, the club will inevitably decline. It is necessary to make this experience deeply rooted in people's hearts."