Luís Campos has expressed his interest to Ajax in becoming the new director of football affairs, Mike Verweij reports in the podcast kick off from The Telegraph† The 57-year-old Portuguese, currently active as a consultant at Galatasaray, built a good name in top football as sporting director of AS Monaco and Lille OSC and as a scout of Real Madrid. “The interest of Campos has been officially reported to Ajax through his Dutch agent”, Verweij knows.
Behind the scenes, Ajax is carefully thinking about the succession of Marc Overmars, who left at the beginning of February due to sexually transgressive behaviour. “We are not working very hard on it yet, because the need is not there yet,” says Verweij, who sees Campos as a serious option. “Apparently a club like Ajax attracts such people. That man has a past at Real Madrid, AS Monaco and Lille, he has also done very well there. He really wants to do it, but I don’t think you can foreigner must go.”
Campos previously worked as sporting director at AS Monaco (2013 to 2016) and Lille OSC (2017 to 2020). At Monaco, he was responsible for the arrival of the likes of Radamel Falcao, João Moutinho, James Rodríguez, Fabinho, Anthony Martial, Bernardo Silva, Tiémoué Bakayoko, Geoffrey Kondogbia and Thomas Lemar, laying the foundation for the 2017 league title. brought players like Nicolas Pépé, Jonathan Ikoné, Renato Sanches, Victor Osimhen, Jonathan David and Sven Botman to Lille, before leaving in December 2020 after the club got new owners. Six months later, Lille also became champion of France, partly thanks to the work of Campos.
There are many more names singing around in Amsterdam. That is also what Max Huiberts is called, but Verweij thinks that the technical director of AZ is not interested. “Everyone you speak to who knows Max Huiberts a little, says that he doesn’t like Ajax at all,” said the journalist, who nevertheless keeps his arm. “Toby Alderweireld once said that people who hate Ajax the most come to the club by bike as soon as they get the chance. But I think that Huiberts, who is doing really well at AZ, still has to take steps to get a top club like Ajax.”
Clarence Seedorf, who has no experience as a technical director, also sees Verweij as an option. “If you choose to put Seedorf there, then you have to put someone next to it. Look, for Seedorf all doors open in the world, that is a very big advantage for a technical director. That can help to get someone to a club. There has to be someone next to it; I have already said that it could be an agent or a former agent. I would think that would be a very nice candidate.”
“And Patrick Kluivert is mentioned,” continues Verweij. “Of course he was technical director at Paris Saint-Germain (in the 2016/17 season, ed.) and head of training at Barcelona (from 2019 to 2021, ed.). That was also a function at PSG to open doors and that Arabs had a lot of faith in him.” Jordi Cruijff could also be an option for Ajax. The Barcelona technical adviser has an expiring contract in Catalonia and had previous experience buying players from AEK Larnaca (2010 to 2012) and Maccabi Tel Aviv (2012 to 2017).