Monday, November 1, 2021 at 08:02• Yanick Vos • Last update: 08:18

Mario Been sees a suitable left back for Ajax in Owen Wijndal. The AZ captain was linked to the club from Amsterdam earlier this year, but there has been no concrete interest for the time being. AZ announced through technical director Max Huiberts that there will be no sale to Ajax, because the Alkmaarders do not want to make the competitors stronger. Been calls that ‘nonsense’ and sees Wijndal move to the Johan Cruijff ArenA if the right amount is on the table.

As a reporter of The Telegraph includes Been Wijndal in his Team of the Week. The former football player saw the the Dutch international play a strong match against PEC Zwolle (3-2). “Owen Wijndal is growing more and more to his old level, after his injury and all kinds of transfer problems,” Been noted in the newspaper. “He shows that he is a very defining player at AZ and also provided the assist on the 1-2, which brought the team back into the game. I would say: that is one for Ajax. I really mean that. It seems to be a problem that AZ does not want to sell to Ajax, but I think that is nonsense. If they just get the desired amount, then it can also be Ajax, right?”

“It is often said that we will never sell in the Netherlands. What we have said ourselves: if you want to play at the top, it is weird to sell your best players to the club from which you want to win. Then you put yourself smaller than you want to be “, said Huiberts last summer in an interview with Football International in response to Ajax’s alleged interest in Wijndal. The technical director does not see Ajax as a step forward for Wijndal. “Here too there is pressure to perform and training is performed at a high level. I look at the resistance at competition level and it is the same at both clubs,” said Huiberts in June. “And Owen is now also playing in the base of the Dutch, how much greater does the pressure from the Netherlands need to be?”

Huiberts made his last statement at the beginning of June, before the European Championship had started. At the time, Wijndal had a basic place in the Dutch national team under then national coach Frank de Boer. The AZ-back lost the competition to Patrick van Aanholt and did not play for a minute at the European Championship. Where teammates such as Teun Koopmeiners (Atalanta), Calvin Stengs (OGC Nice) and Myron Boadu (AS Monaco) received their desired transfer, Wijndal stayed behind in Alkmaar. The back is now in talks with AZ about a new contract. Wijndal’s market value is increased by Transfermarkt estimated at fifteen million euros.