Barcelona and Ajax: They wore both shirts
As Ajax and Barcelona prepare to face each other in Champions League Group F, Adam Bate looks back at the players who have represented both of these clubs whose history and philosophy is so intertwined.
Tuesday 4 November 2014 17:44, UK
A little over a year ago, Barcelona and Ajax met for their first ever competitive fixture against each other. Such is the way of things, Wednesday’s game in Amsterdam will be the fourth between the sides in just 14 months.
But it didn’t require this glut of games to forge a bond between the two clubs. That was established many years ago when Ajax icon Johan Cruyff turned up in Catalonia and reshaped the future of Barcelona. “Our model was imposed by Cruyff,” says Xavi, Barca’s current captain. “It’s an Ajax model.”
As a result, Cruyff’s impact as both player and manager has been built upon at Barcelona ever since. There have been the coaches – Rinus Michels, Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard each arriving at the club having been ensconced in the Ajax tradition. And there have been the players. Lots of them. Here we take a look at some of the famous names who’ve featured for both Barca and Ajax…
Johan Cruyff (Ajax 1964-1973, 1981-1983; Barcelona 1973-1978)
Arguably the most significant figure in defining how both clubs now perceive themselves, Cruyff made his name at Ajax and in the process turned them into one of the greatest teams the world has ever seen. Ajax won the European Cup each year from 1971 to 1973 with Cruyff as the on-field architect – not only bringing glory to the club but doing so with an exciting new style of play.
A head-strong character, Cruyff left Amsterdam after the third of those triumphs, following Michels, his former Ajax coach, to Barcelona where he was immediately feted as a superstar. In February of his debut season, Cruyff named his son Jordi after the patron saint of Catalonia and shortly afterwards led the team to a first La Liga title in 14 years.
After time in the United States, Cruyff returned to Ajax in 1981, helping them to two further Eredivisie titles as a player and Cup Winners’ Cup glory as a manager before continuing his curious dual love affair by transforming Barca’s fortunes once again – this time in a coaching role. His ‘Dream Team’ won Barcelona’s first ever European Cup in 1992 – creating a template that remains to this day.
Johan Neeskens (Ajax 1970-1974; Barcelona 1974-1979)
While Cruyff and Michels are commonly regarded as the architects of Total Football, Neeskens could justifiably be considered its greatest exponent. After all, the Dutchman won his first European Cup against Panathinaikos at Wembley playing as a right-back – a one-man example of Ajax’s remarkable ability to interchange positions.
Of course, Neeskens later flourished in the centre of midfield in Ajax’s great side of the early ‘70s providing the catalyst for some of their finest achievements. Team-mate Jan Mulder is in no doubt as to the significance of the man’s contribution. “The position switching, the fluid game? It didn’t come from Michels. It came from Cruyff and Neeskens,” said Mulder, quoted in Brilliant Orange.
Neeskens once again linked up with Cruyff and Michels after the 1974 World Cup, where he’d top scored for the Dutch, by joining Barcelona. Five years later he left the club in style, helping them to win the 1979 European Cup Winners’ Cup with a 4-3 extra-time victory over Fortuna Dusseldorf. Without Cruyff, Neeskens was centre stage and there were tears in his eyes the following day as the fans chanted his name during the celebrations at Placa Sant Jaume. A Barcelona hero.
Ronald Koeman (Ajax 1983-1986; Barcelona 1989-1995)
Koeman played under Cruyff at Ajax but enjoyed his biggest success in his homeland after switching to PSV in 1986. It was in Eindhoven that he boasted an astonishing goalscoring record of 51 goals in 98 games – better than one in two from a deep-lying role and helping the club lift the European Cup in 1988 under Guus Hiddink. That summer he was also an integral part of his country’s European Championships win under Michels.
Koeman reunited with Cruyff in Barcelona a year later as part of Cruyff’s Dream Team and enjoyed further success. Indeed, Koeman will always be a part of the club’s history as the man who scored the winning goal in the 1992 European Cup Final at Wembley – arguably Barca’s greatest ever night.
Since retiring as a player his association with both clubs has continued, having worked as an assistant under Van Gaal for two years at Barcelona before spending four years as coach of Ajax.
Michael Laudrup (Barcelona 1989-1994; Ajax 1997-1998)
Koeman got the glory goal against Sampdoria in 1992 but few doubted who the key man really was at Barcelona during that period. The sublimely gifted Laudrup was the man who made Cruyff’s Barca tick. Team-mates such as Romario, Koeman, Hristo Stoichkov and Pep Guardiola all hailed the great Dane as the best in the business with his apparent ability to create at will.
Cruyff was also an admirer but grew frustrated with Laudrup’s mercurial tendencies and controversially omitted his playmaker from the 1994 Champions League. Only able to field three foreigners, he opted for Koeman, Stoichkov and Romario. AC Milan won 4-0. "When I saw Laudrup wasn't playing, I relaxed," said Milan coach Fabio Capello. “He was the one that worried me.”
Laudrup decided to look elsewhere and crossed the divide to Real Madrid, promptly helping them win La Liga at the first time of asking after four consecutive titles for Barca. It was five in a row for Laudrup. As his career wound down, he spent a final season at Ajax - a beautiful fit – and predictably helped them to a league and cup double before retiring after the 1998 World Cup.
Patrick Kluivert (Ajax 1994-1997; Barcelona 1998-2004)
In 1995, just 12 months after Milan’s demolition of Barcelona, substitute Kluivert scored the winning goal for Van Gaal’s Ajax in the Champions League Final against the Rossoneri. He was just 18 years old at the time. The young striker scored more than 20 goals in his first season as a professional and followed it up by repeating the feat in his second year as Ajax once again reached the final.
After a move to Milan didn’t work out, Kluivert reunited with Van Gaal at the Camp Nou and enjoyed plenty of success, scoring 120 goals for the club in a six-year stay. The Dutchman’s time at the club didn’t bring too many trophies but he did finish among the top 10 goalscorers in La Liga for five consecutive seasons from 1998 to 2003 and is regarded fondly at both clubs.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Ajax 2001-2004; Barcelona 2009-2010)
The unique talents of Ibrahimovic first captured a pan-European audience during his time at Ajax when he scored more than 20 goals for the club in the 2002/03 season. The following year, he fired Ajax to the Eredivisie title and then – in one of his last acts for the club before moving to Juventus - scored one of the most memorable goals ever seen in Dutch football, twisting the blood of the NAC defence in stupendous style.
Five years later he arrived at Barcelona as one of Europe’s most celebrated strikers, having won three consecutive Serie A titles with Inter. Ibrahimovic was seen as the sort of player who could add a new dimension to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and while he scored over 20 goals, winning four trophies that season, he struggled to embrace the culture at the club and the breakdown of his relationship with Guardiola meant his stay was a brief one.
And the rest…
The aforementioned players represent just some of the links between the two clubs. As well as Kluivert, seven other members of that Ajax squad from 1995 later pitched up at Barcelona before too long. Marc Overmars, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, Jari Litmanen, Michael Reiziger and Winston Bogarde were all part of Barcelona’s apparent desire to sprinkle some Ajax stardust on their team.
Moves in the other direction have been less common with Gabri and Oleguer low-key arrivals at Ajax but the loan deals that saw Cuenca and Bojan move to Amsterdam act as further confirmation that the Catalans continue to regard the club as the finest of finishing schools. Evidently, when the two teams face each other on Wednesday evening it will be far more than an ordinary European meeting between Dutch and Spanish opponents.
Ajax face Barcelona in the Champions League this Wednesday (Sky Sports Red Button, 7.45pm kick off)