Brian Brobbey is increasingly knocking at the door at Ajax 1. The eighteen-year-old attacker will be part of the match selection for the home game with Fortuna Sittard on Saturday evening, according to the words of Young Ajax coach Mitchell van der Gaag prior to the Keuken Champion Division match against Almere City on Friday evening.

Brobbey was in the Ajax 1 match selection for the first time this week. He replaced the absent Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, but stayed on the bench for ninety minutes. In the Kitchen Champion Division he scored five times in nine matches for Young Ajax this season. “Because he will not be there tonight, you can decide for yourself what will happen to him”, Van der Gaag tells FOX Sports.

“Brian comes a long way. Because he is physically strong, you quickly forget that he is still a young boy”, says the coach of Young Ajax. His pupil had to work on his stamina, among other things: in the first 6 games of the season he played an average of 56 minutes. “Fortunately, last week he played ninety minutes against Young AZ, Young FC Utrecht and almost ninety minutes against MVV Maastricht. That is very important to him, because he almost couldn’t keep up before that.

“The Kitchen Champion Division is still very important to him in that respect. But he is getting stronger, better and will score more”, continues Van der Gaag, who is happy with the development of Brobbey. “But it is not only Brian: there are several guys who experience this development, who fall between shore and ship, occasionally train or play soccer with the former. But we must not forget that they are very young and still have to take steps. “