50 Fun Facts About Ajax

Ajax's 1970s style, in which outfield players freely swapped positions, became known around the world as what?

Total Football let any outfield player step into a teammate's role mid-move, and the side built on it won the European Cup three years running.

Ajax is named after a hero from which mythology?

Greek: the club's namesake is the giant warrior of Homer's Iliad, who fought the Trojan champion Hector in single combat and was rated second only to Achilles.

Which Ajax captain was branded the "Cannibal of Ajax" by a Dutch newspaper after biting an opponent in 2010?

Luis Suárez bit a rival's shoulder late in a goalless league match, accepted a seven-match ban and was sold to Liverpool before it had run its course.

Which Englishman managed Ajax in three spells between 1915 and 1947?

Jack Reynolds won eight national titles across those spells, and in the last of them gave a debut to the young striker who would later coach the club to its first European Cup.

Why did Ajax change to a white shirt with a broad red stripe in 1911?

Sparta Rotterdam had the same kit of red and white stripes, and under league rules it was the newly promoted club that had to find something different.

Which Bob Marley song have Ajax fans made their anthem?

Three Little Birds: Ajax fans were being held in the stands after a 2008 friendly in Cardiff when the stadium announcer played it, and they have sung it at matches ever since.

What did Ajax bring back in 2025 for its 125th anniversary?

Classic crest: the detailed 1928 portrait of the hero Ajax returned to the shirts after 34 years because, the club said, most fans had wanted it back for years.

Which manager, appointed in 1965, led Ajax to a first European Cup?

Rinus Michels inherited a team that had flirted with relegation, won the league in his first full season and left six years later as a European champion.

Which club did Ajax beat 2-0 in the 1971 final to win their first European Cup?

Panathinaikos went behind to a Dick van Dijk goal after five minutes and held out until the 87th, when an Arie Haan shot deflected in off a defender.

Which Romanian coach took over Ajax in 1971 and won two European Cups?

Ștefan Kovács arrived from Steaua Bucharest, won the league, the Dutch cup and the European Cup in his first season, kept the European title in his second, then left to manage France.

Where was the 1972 European Cup final, in which Ajax beat Inter 2-0, played?

De Kuip, Rotterdam: Ajax lifted the trophy in the home stadium of their fiercest domestic rivals, with Johan Cruyff scoring both goals after half-time.

Ajax's 1971-73 hat-trick made them the first club to win three straight European Cups since whom?

Real Madrid had won the first five European Cups in the 1950s, and Ajax's third straight title earned the Dutch club the right to keep the trophy for good.

Ajax's 122 league goals in 1966-67 helped win the club's first what?

The double: Ajax added the Dutch cup to the league title, and Johan Cruyff, who turned 20 that spring, was the division's top scorer with 33 goals.

What did Ajax's players take from Johan Cruyff in a secret ballot in 1973, weeks before he left the club?

The captaincy went to winger Piet Keizer instead, and a stung Cruyff was gone within weeks for a world-record transfer fee.

Which shirt number did Johan Cruyff make famous at Ajax?

14: he first wore it on his return from injury in 1970 and refused to give it up, at a time when the authorities expected starting players to be numbered 1 to 11.

What tribute did Ajax announce for Johan Cruyff's 60th birthday in 2007?

Retiring his shirt number: no Ajax player would wear it again, whereas the stadium took his name only eleven years later, after his death.

Which rival did Johan Cruyff join in 1983 after a dispute with Ajax?

Feyenoord signed him at 36, and in his one season there he won both the league and the cup before retiring as a player.

Which European trophy did Johan Cruyff win as Ajax coach in 1987?

Cup Winners' Cup: a 20th-minute Marco van Basten header beat Lokomotive Leipzig 1-0 in Athens, and the striker left for Milan that summer.

Ajax lost a 1988 European final to KV Mechelen, a club from which country?

Belgium's KV Mechelen were coached by Aad de Mos, whom Ajax had dismissed three years earlier, and a single Piet den Boer header was enough.

Whom did Ajax beat on away goals in the 1992 UEFA Cup final?

Torino were held 2-2 at home by goals from Wim Jonk and Stefan Pettersson, and a goalless return made Ajax only the second club to have won all three major European trophies.

Why did Ajax play 1991-92 UEFA Cup home ties in Düsseldorf?

A fan's missile: an iron rod thrown from the terraces struck Austria Wien's keeper in 1989, and UEFA banned Ajax from Europe for a year before sending their next home ties abroad.

Who scored Ajax's winner against Milan in the 1995 Champions League final, aged 18?

Patrick Kluivert came off the bench and scored five minutes from time, which made him the youngest player to have scored in a Champions League final.

Who managed Ajax to the 1995 Champions League title?

Louis van Gaal's young side went through the whole 1994-95 league season unbeaten and beat Milan in the group stage before beating them again in the final.

Which club beat Ajax on penalties in the 1996 Champions League final?

Juventus led early through Fabrizio Ravanelli, were pegged back before half-time and won the shoot-out 4-2 in Rome to end Ajax's reign as European champions.

Which Ajax number 10 was the top scorer of the 1995-96 Champions League?

Jari Litmanen scored nine goals in that campaign, the last of them in the final, having inherited the playmaker's shirt from Dennis Bergkamp.

Which Ajax goalkeeper of 1995 won the Champions League again with an English club in 2008?

Edwin van der Sar saved the last penalty of the 2008 final shoot-out, then went back to Ajax after retiring, first as marketing director and later as chief executive.

Which Italian club did Ajax sell Dennis Bergkamp to in 1993?

Internazionale took his teammate Wim Jonk in the same deal, but Bergkamp, the Dutch league's top scorer three seasons running, stayed only two years before leaving for Arsenal.

Which manager won Ajax a record 30th title in 2010-11 and then three more in a row?

Frank de Boer took over in December 2010 and won the title on the final day, when Ajax beat the reigning champions FC Twente in a straight decider.

Which coach led Ajax to the 2017 Europa League final with the youngest line-up ever seen in a major European final?

Peter Bosz sent out a team with an average age under 23, lost the final 2-0 and within a fortnight had left for Borussia Dortmund.

Ajax won 4-1 at which stadium to knock the holders out of the 2018-19 Champions League?

Santiago Bernabéu: Ajax had lost the first leg at home, then ended the hosts' run of three straight European titles, and Dušan Tadić earned a rare 10 out of 10 from L'Équipe.

Who scored the winner in Turin as Ajax reached the 2019 Champions League semi-finals?

Matthijs de Ligt, Ajax's 19-year-old captain, scored the winner after the hosts had taken the lead, and three months later he signed for the club he had just knocked out.

Whose added-time hat-trick goal eliminated Ajax in the 2019 Champions League semi-final?

Lucas Moura scored all three of his goals after half-time, the last in the 96th minute, to wipe out a 3-0 aggregate lead and send Tottenham through on away goals.

Which Ajax player agreed a €75 million move to Spain in January 2019?

Frenkie de Jong signed in January but stayed until the summer, helping Ajax win both the league and the cup and reach a Champions League semi-final before he went.

Which club did Erik ten Hag leave Ajax for in 2022?

Manchester United hired him after three league titles with Ajax, and that summer paid a Dutch-record €95 million to bring his winger Antony along.

Which club beat Ajax 6-1 in Amsterdam in the 2022-23 Champions League group stage?

Napoli fell behind to a Mohammed Kudus goal after nine minutes, scored six without reply, and eight days later beat Ajax again, 4-2 in Italy.

A 5-2 defeat at which club left Ajax bottom of the Eredivisie in October 2023?

PSV won 5-2 in Eindhoven to leave the record champions last of 18; Ajax named a new coach the next day and recovered to finish fifth.

Ajax were knocked out of the 2023-24 KNVB Cup by Utrecht amateurs named after which mythical hero?

Hercules, a fourth-tier side, led 2-0, were pegged back to 2-2 in the closing minutes and still won it with a goal in the 93rd.

Who became Ajax's first foreign head coach since 1998 when hired in 2024?

Francesco Farioli, an Italian aged 35, had Ajax nine points clear with five matches left, finished second and resigned days after the season ended.

What was Ajax's stadium called when it opened in 1996?

Amsterdam ArenA stayed the name for 22 years, until the stadium was renamed in 2018 in honour of Johan Cruyff, who had died two years earlier.

Which feature of Ajax's stadium made the turf so poor that it was replaced 45 times in the first decade?

Its retractable roof: even when open it left the pitch short of sunlight and fresh air, and the grass only settled once growing lamps were brought in around 2008.

Which ground was Ajax's home from 1934 to 1996?

De Meer Stadion was demolished after the move, and the housing estate built on the site has streets named after famous grounds where Ajax played and bridges named after club greats.

What is the name of Ajax's training ground?

De Toekomst, Dutch for "The Future", opened in 1996 because the academy's fields behind the old stadium were being cleared for housing; the reserve side plays its league matches there.

Which winger, known as Mister Ajax, holds the club's record for most appearances?

Sjaak Swart joined the club as a boy and played 603 official matches between 1956 and 1973 without ever turning out for another team.

What is the name of Ajax's fixture against their Rotterdam arch-rivals?

De Klassieker, "The Classic", is so volatile that when the two clubs met in the 2010 Dutch cup final it was split into two legs, each played in front of home fans only.

What did Ajax do in 1998 that no Dutch football club had done before?

Listed on a stock exchange: the shares went on sale at 25 guilders each, but the price later sank far below what the first buyers had paid.

In which South African city did Ajax set up a satellite club in 1999?

Cape Town: the satellite club was created by merging two local sides, and when the Dutch owners sold up in 2020 it took back one of the old names, Cape Town Spurs.

What is the name of Ajax's most famous supporters' group, behind the south goal?

F-Side took its name from Vak F, the block of terracing at the club's old ground where the group formed in 1976, and kept it after the move to a new stadium.

Which bat-and-ball sport did Ajax also field a top-flight team in from 1922 to 1972?

Baseball: Ajax won four national titles, and a young Johan Cruyff preferred the sport to football until the club's coaches made him choose at fifteen.

Which club paid a world-record fee to sign Johan Cruyff from Ajax in 1973?

Barcelona broke the world transfer record for him, and with Cruyff in the side they won the Spanish league in his first season there.

What does each of the three stars on Ajax's shirt stand for?

Ten league titles: the third star arrived with the 30th championship in 2011, and by 2022 the count had reached 36, four short of a fourth.