The retirement of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar at Ajax is ‘very sad’, especially considering the timing, says Mike Verweij. The journalist from The Telegraph reveals in Kickoff that Ajax actually planned to give Huntelaar, who is suffering from a burnout, a more prominent role in the purchasing and sales policy.
“Huntelaar’s situation is very sad,” Verweij quotes in his newspaper’s podcast. “I think he is concerned about the whole situation at Ajax. I don’t know the exact background to his outbursts yet.”
Due to the dismissal of football affairs director Sven Mislintat, Ajax is looking for a solution for its technical policy in the short term. After his active football career, Huntelaar joined Ajax in a management position.
In the summer of 2022, Huntelaar acted as assistant to technical manager Gerry Hamstra, who was primarily responsible for the purchase and sales policy. Hamstra soon had to leave the field after several major purchases fell through.
Huntelaar remained employed by Ajax and now has the title of technical manager himself. In that role he became responsible for the youth contracts at Ajax. Mislintat was appointed sole ruler of technical policy for the first team, but was fired again in September.
According to Verweij, Huntelaar was now seriously in the picture at Ajax to get a leading role again. “To set out the transfer policy under supervision,” said the journalist. That guidance should come from Alex Kroes, the new general manager who will be taken over from AZ.
“I think that if Huntelaar were involved in the transfers together with Kroes, they could take care of that part,” said Verweji. “Only a burnout, I think that could really take months. I don’t know how that will continue at Ajax.”