08/02/2014 MOTD Kickabout

Hello and welcome to a very special episode of MOTD Kickabout. This week

we come to you from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Known

for its cycling, canals and... Ajax Football Club!

This is a club whose youth academy has produced some of the greatest

players of all time. Footballing superstar is and teams that have

dominated European football from the likes of Johan Cruyff and Marco van

Basten to those who have lit up the Premier League Lake Dennis Bergkamp

and Edwin van der Sar and they are still producing top-flight

footballers today. How is it possible for only one club to

produce so many world-class footballers? I have come to

Amsterdam to answer that very question and to find out how the

Ajax Youth Academy is simply one of the most successful and the world.

Coming up on to the's shall dash -- coming up: I get access to the Ajax

youth system. One of the greatest players of all time, Johan Cruyff,

shows me how to do the Cruyff turn. Have I got the skills to make it at

Ajax? A Premier League legend puts me to the test.

Ajax of Amsterdam is one of the biggest names in European football.

This is a club that has won the Champions League, UEFA Cup and the

Dutch league 32 times, all with players mostly brought through its

own youth academy. At the heart of its success is this place. Where the

future generation of Ajax players are made. Before you can play in the

Amsterdam Arena, they have a long journey to go. And it all begins

here. Let us take a look around. How are you doing, a pleasure to meet

you. I can show you around. Brilliant. Like lots of the coaches

around, Wim Jonk is a former Ajax player but he is now in charge of

the youth academy. Wim Jonk, what is the aim of this

youth academy? We aim to be the best academy and the world. That is our

biggest goal, to reach the top in Europe again. What would the youth

academy look at and young children, what do they look for to get into

the top? We focus of the hall on the technical side. We give them a ball

and teach them tricks. We give them lots of things to learn, we give

them homework so that they can work at home with a football and had it

against a wall. What ages do we begin at? Seven or eight years old.

From then on we build the academy. Ajax has 12 youth teams plus the

second youth team. At every level the play and train in exactly the

same way. They all focus on what they call tips, which stands for

technique, insight, personality and speed. We always play with a 4-3-3

formation. This way we can find the holes and the opponents defence.

That is the main thing for us to focus upon. Our philosophy is to be

aware that there is always space. Ajax are not just interested in

looking after the football skills of children, they try to look after

their school work as well. Ajax really is a club for life and

many of the coaches and backroom staff are former players themselves

and I am not talking Sunday Week. -- Sunday week. That is Manchester

United's former goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, he is in charge of

marketing. Marc Overmars as a coach and that is Frank de Boer, the

former Dutch international who is the current manager. He was also

responsible for this amazing past to set up Dennis Bergkamp for one of

the greatest World Cup goals of all time. What legal! My name is Frank

de Boer. I am the first team coach at Ajax Amsterdam. We are depending

upon our youth academy. It is important that every year or every

two years they are to or for nuclear is that come through that into the

first team because we know that when someone is developing that well and

the first team after two years at a big club in England or whatever big

leagues in Europe, they will come to buy those players. We must be

prepared to fill that gap once more with quality players. There are 215

players in this academy, all hoping to make it into the first team. One

such hopeful is this 18-year-old goalkeeper. My name is Xavier. I am

the goalkeeper and the youth team since the age of ten. There are a

lot of good goalkeeper trainers. We do not have this quality at other

clubs I do not believe. Hopefully if everything goes right I would get

into the first team year and possibly move to the Premier League,

for me, it is the best league. For players like Xavier to make the step

into the first team, Frank de Boer has fitted a close eye on what is

going on at the academy. It is very important that the first-team coach

is involved and interested in how things are going with the youth

teams. In two years time they could be part of the first team, so I must

know what the development is of the players.

Frank de Boer, what an absolute legend! He is not the only great

player to have led this incredible club and then left to go on to do

fantastic things. Some of their best exports have played in the Premier

League. Here is my top five. A dangerous run, and it goes into

the net. Anelka and Overmars! He scores. If

anyone deserved a goal it was Marc Overmars.

It has come to Steven Pienaar! What a fantastic strike.

That was an absolutely terrific save from Edwin van der Sar.

Yes, he has done it. What a fantastic moment for Dennis

Bergkamp. There are some huge names and that's

top-flight. Many players that stranger will one day hope to play

in the Premier League. A man who did that was Christian Eriksen. He spent

five years before being signed by Tottenham Hotspur. I recently caught

up with him to relive those Ajax fees.

It's driven by Christian Eriksen, well-hit.

Christian, you have played for Ajax and no gardening for Tottenham in

the Premier League. What was it about the Ajax Youth Academy that

made you choose that? It was a long way from Denmark. My first choice

was always Ajax. As a technical player like myself, I thought Ajax

would be the best option. All of the people, everything there, for a

young player it is fantastic. What is a day in the life at the Ajax

Youth Academy like? I would strain for four hours in the morning. At

2pm we had further training. One or two times each week you would have

two players and the trainer working on your passing. It is incredible.

You try to pick up a lot of hints and tips. After one week I was not

allowed to speak English because they wanted me to speak Dutch. So

they teach you how to be a man and not just a footballer? That is

correct. We have heard about the rich history

of the club and seen some of the players and you get an impression

that he will continue to make an impression on the Premier League.

They learned their trade on the pitch. As soon as they are brought

into the first team they must have the skills required. At that only

comes with years of coaching. One of the guys whose job it is to train

the stars of the future is the former Nottingham Forest winger

Brian Roy. What better way to find out about the skills than to give it

a go myself. My cat is on, let us do it!

What winners tend to do always as they always want the ball into their

feet. -- wingers. It is much easier to get in front of the goal without

the ball than with the ball. OK, I am a midfield player. We're the

cameraman is, that is your opponent. Most players will stay where you are

at the moment and passed the ball here. But the thing is, the opponent

are high up in their own half and you have to run into this space. So

you are going to run, run, run, run! You get into the space and you

score! When the winner gets hold of the

ball, he goes straight at the opponent. The higher you get, the

older you get, when you get into this position, and you are running

straight against your opponent, you will never win your one V1. Frank de

Boer, you will never beat him when you go straight at him. So what you

must do is when you get the ball put it into that position. I can then

look up to see if I can make an early cross. If I cannot, then I do

my thing again. I thought you were going to teach me a trek but what

you are teaching the is how I can be part of the team rather than just

being an individual. That is correct, excellent. Very good

answer. The Ajax skills masterclass does not

end there. Now, I genuinely cannot believe I'm

about to say this, but to put this into some sort of context, if you

ask any football expert who the greatest footballers of all time

are, they'll mention Pele, Diego Maradona and they'll mention the man

standing to my right, his name is Johan Cruyff. Thank you very much.

This is an absolute pleasure to meet you. Cold, eh? It's very, very cold!

Johan, we're at the Ajax Youth Academy, what does Ajax mean to you?

Well, my whole youth I have been here, until the age of 26. Then when

I was 33 I came back. I played for a few more years and I enjoyed myself.

And it was on the training pitches of Ajax where Johan mastered

possibly the most famous trick of all time, the Cruyff Turn. He left

him for dead! Now, I am in my Ajax kit, I have got

a football here and I am standing next to one of the greatest players

of all time, I'm going to have to ask you, could you tell me the best

way to learn the Cruyff Turn? First of all, in my opinion, you play

football with your head and you use your feet. So it is always, the

situation is what you see and then react with what you can do. So it is

always fooling the opponent, which means you want him to do what you

want and then you can do what you want. It's always the same thing,

use your eyes and fool the opponent. Right, here we go. That's a little

too far, but... But you must be alone on the field,

because... Thank you so much, it's been an absolute pleasure. It's

freezing and you have come out to speak to us, thank you. You're

welcome. Children start that the Ajax academy

as young as seven years old and for a lucky few their dreams can come

true right here and the Amsterdam Arena with a capacity of well over

50,000 people. It really is an incredible stadium. This, for me,

has been an incredible journey. I have met some absolute legends and

it has been a privilege to be here. This is a club that is determined to

develop their players from an early age.

For generations they have produced some of the best players in the

world. It is so clear to me that many of the future world stars will

begin their career that year, and do you know what, they may even end up

playing in a Premier League club as well.

Steven Pienaar, going alone, what a fantastic strike! Terrific save from

Van der Sar! Ed Orr davits, one of the great midfielders of his

generation. Bergkamp,