JAX IT IN
Inside the curse of 2019 Ajax world-beaters who stunned Real Madrid from Ten Hag’s Man Utd horror show to transfer flops
See what happened to the talented team of teenagers who struggled to make the grade
THEY were the best Ajax team since Louis van Gaal's mid 90s outfit that landed a Champions League title.
That team featured the De Boer twins Ronald and Frank, Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids at the heart of midfield and more.
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But the spirit of those incredible talents seemed to resonate through the likes of Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Donny van de Beek, Hakim Ziyech, and Andre Onana.
Led by up-and-coming manager Erik ten Hag, they played some of the best football in Europe during the 2018-19 season.
Domestically, they went double Dutch - winning the league and cup.
In the Champions League, they earned plenty of admirers for destroying Real Madrid 4-1 at the Bernabeu in the last 16 and beating Juventus in Turin in the quarter-finals.
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Their journey ended in the semis, losing on away goals to Tottenham.
As is almost always the case, Europe's top dogs cherry-picked Ajax's best talent - paying huge fees.
De Jong went to Barcelona for £65million, de Ligt to Juventus for £75m, and manager ten Hag was hired to bring his flair to an ailing Man Utd team.
However, as that team disbanded the worst was to come for those promising youngsters, and their boss.
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So, where did all go wrong?
The kids
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Forget the old saying, 'You won't win anything with kids.' This Ajax team did, and they swept aside most teams before them.
Steadied by Daley Blind at the back, who struggled in the Premier League with Man Utd, they had a youthful vibrance about them.
De Ligt, the recipient of the 2018 Golden Boy trophy given to the best player under 21, was the first-ever defender to ever win the award.
De Jong had plenty of swagger, controlling possession in the midfield and driving the tempo of the side.
Astonishing stats from December to February of that campaign showed that De Jong had completed 354 of his 390 passes, while making 53 ball recoveries.
That prompted former Dutch international Rafael van der Vaart to call De Jong the best player in Europe with the ball at his feet.
Cameroon goalie Onana - who came through the Ajax academy - was also excelling himself between the sticks as a carbon copy of Edwin van der Sar with his handling and distribution praised.
In Van de Beek they had a playmaker who starred in the No10 role and was drawing comparisons with Dennis Bergkamp.
Moroccan Ziyech also provided a threat on the wing, in a breakthrough season that saw him score 22 goals in all competitions.
Alongside Dusan Tadic, goals were flying in everywhere - 119 in 34 league games, plus plenty in Europe including the four that shook the Bernabeu in that famous Champions League massacre.
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The manager
They were led by the emerging ten Hag, who grew up on a diet of a Johan Cruyff's Ajax and Barcelona teams and studied Pep Guardiola, whom he worked alongside at Bayern Munich.
He once revealing of his Spanish mentor: "Every day I get to work with him, I look forward to it. He inspires me."
On the wall of his modest office at the club's De Toekomst training ground ten Hag hung photos of past greats Cruyff, Louis van Gaal, and Rinus Michels.
An ode to history that would act as a basis for his own ideas.
The club would play a free-flowing 4-2-3-1 formation - it wasn't total football but it was an organised chaos.
His approach to training was player mentality focused. Ten Hag would note down how each individual responds to minor errors, losing the ball or committing a foul.
Then, he would pick a team based on the mentality of his team and the opponent they were facing.
It was the manager who decided to address the balance of youth and experience by bringing in Blind and Tadic. A masterstroke, if ever there was one.
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What happened next
In 2019, that Ajax team mostly disbanded.
A combination of lofty ambitions, and Europe's top clubs descending upon the Dutch giants like vultures to a dead carcass, saw its two best youngsters de Ligt and de Jong depart for pastures new.
De Ligt moved to Juventus for £75m, with legendary Marcelo Lippi lauding his ability and comparing him to Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta.
He struggled to adapt to Italian football, and came under fire for lapses of concentration and occasional errors.
Playing a zonal marking system under Maurizio Sarri also didn't suit the natural man-marker.
Three seasons later, he was sold to Bayern Munich for another huge fee - around £56m.
Again, he struggled. Injuries didn't help, as well as a strained relationship with Thomas Tuchel who reportedly didn't like the way he played the ball out of defence slowly.
Two years later, the jury is out whether the £42.7m Man Utd have spent on him will help rediscover his and his club's fortunes. It hasn't been perfect so far.
De Jong's transfer to Barcelona came at a time when the Catalan club were heading for financial ruin.
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In fits and spurts he's shown his qualities, but not in the way the club's fans have hoped.
While it may be unfair to call him a flop, the club have certainly seen him as surplus to requirements in the past.
To ease their economic concerns, de Jong was offered to Man Utd in 2022. The deal reportedly fell through due to personal terms, but his situation has seemingly changed under new manager Hansi Flick and he is happier.
Van de Beek suffered the biggest career collapse of them all, but is slowly rebuilding himself at Girona.
He was bombed out of Old Trafford in 2024 for £500,000 to the Spanish club, after unsuccessful loans at Everton and Eintracht Frankfurt.
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United's £40m investment went down the pan there, with the midfielder scoring just twice in 62 games. Even ten Hag couldn't get a tune out of him.
Ziyech, who left in 2020 for Chelsea for £37m, also couldn't rediscover the goalscoring touch that made him so feared in Amsterdam.
His bad luck continued after the Blues submitted the wrong documents on transfer deadline day in 2023, blocking a loan deal to PSG.
A move to Al Nassr to link up with Cristiano Ronaldo collapsed, when the Saudi Arabian giants withdrew their contract offer after a reported failed medical, which he later denied.
He's now with Galatasaray, after finally leaving in the summer but seems to be a shadow of the player he once was.
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Following a nine-month ban from the game after a doping scandal, Onana restored faith in his abilities by starring at Inter Milan and guiding them to the 2023 Champions League final.
United paid £47.2m for him, and although he struggled last season, there are signs of improvement.
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As for Ten Hag, he has now been pushed from the Man Utd hot seat - sacked after two seasons that brought a League Cup and FA Cup, but just an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League last season and a worst-ever start to this term.
You better believe it, the curse of Ajax's 2019 world beaters is very real.
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