Good news: A player who announced his retirement will have another opportunity to play for the Ajax.
Ajax has become a true money-making machine by selling some of their best players for a steep premium.
In terms of business model, Ajax has been among the most successful football clubs in the world.
Even though they have traded their biggest players for impressive figures virtually every summer transfer window, the Dutch powerhouses have not given up on winning trophies.
With arguably one of the top football academies in the world, Ajax has made sure that player sales bring in enormous sums of money because they consistently produce wonderkids, especially in the last ten years.
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Not only that, but they’ve also perfected the art of purchasing outside talent at a discount in order to resell it for a healthy profit.
A number of football players, including Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Hakim Ziyech, Donny van de Beek, and numerous others, joined Ajax as young players but went on to become superstars.
And by offering them to potential purchasers, Ajax made sure they received a significant return on their investment.
They recently sold Antony to Manchester United for €95 million (£85.5 million), bringing their total sales since the 2019–20 season to nearly €600 million (£525 million).
Real Madrid made an offer for Dutch sensation Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in the summer of 2008, and he left Ajax for €27 million (£24.30 million).
In just two seasons, Huntelaar scored 33 goals in 46 appearances for Heerenveen, which propelled him to prominence at Ajax in 2006.
Huntelaar scored 105 goals in 136 games for the Dutch Cubs prior to his incredible January 2009 transfer to Los Angeles.
Huntelaar was only able to play for Madrid for six months before being traded to Milan the following summer.