Thursday, December 23, 2021 at 2:45 PM• Tom Rofekamp

Jean-Paul de Jong is the new coach of Ajax Under 18, the club reports through its official channels. The 38-year-old coach fills the vacancy that arose when Dave Vos left for Rangers. De Jong will return to the club where he was already active in the youth academy between 1987 and 1989. He will also be reunited with Erik ten Hag, whose assistant coach he was at FC Utrecht between 2015 and 2018.

Despite De Jong’s Ajax past, the native of Utrecht is mainly an icon in the Dom city. De Jong played for the local FC between 1993 and 2007, before becoming right-hand man to Ten Hag eight years later. When the current Ajax coach left for Amsterdam in January 2018, De Jong was allowed to take over the helm at Utrecht. That was not an undivided success: in September of the same year, the trainer’s contract was dissolved again.

Between 2019 and 2020, the De Jong Roda JC trained for another seven months, before he was fired again in February of that last year. Since then, the new Ajax youth coach has been out of work. De Jong says on the club’s site that he is very much looking forward to the new job: “The years in the youth academy at Ajax have been very valuable for my career as a player and trainer. the role of head coach at Ajax Under 18, to help the current talents one step further towards the first team. I am therefore very much looking forward to working with the team and the staff.”

The head of the youth academy of the Amsterdam team Saïd Ouaali is equally positive. “We are very happy that Jean-Paul wants to join us and that the important position at Ajax Under 18 has now been filled again. Jean-Paul himself played in Ajax’s youth academy and has an affinity with our philosophy and working method, so I know I am sure he will be a valuable addition to our youth academy.”