Saïd Ouaali will leave Ajax after this season, the team from Amsterdam announced in a press release. The head of youth academy has informed the management of Ajax that he does not want to extend his contract, which expires on June 30, 2023. Technical manager Gerry Hamstra and chief scout Henk Veldmate also left Ajax earlier.
“Together with colleagues, I have worked for more than eleven years for our youth academy, which in my view is still the lifeblood of the club,” says Ouaali. “In those years, we have been able to guide many youth players in their individual path to Ajax 1, something I am very proud of. I have come to the conclusion that it is time to hand over the baton. I thank the club and all colleagues for all the confidence in recent years and of course always stay connected to Ajax from a distance.”
Edwin van der Sar is grateful to Ouaali for his years of dedication. “Year after year, self-trained players make their debut in Ajax 1 and that is partly the merit of Saïd and his colleagues in our training. Too bad he has decided to leave, we would have loved to continue with him. I look back on a pleasant cooperation of eleven years in which we have experienced a lot. We thank him for what he has done for Ajax and I wish him every success.”
Ouaali started midway through the 2011/12 season as a trainer in Ajax’s youth academy. From 2014 he worked as coordinator of the superstructure, a position that he combined from 2015 with that of head of youth academy ad interim. In 2016 he was officially appointed as Ajax’s head of youth academy. Ouaali is the longest-serving head of youth academy in Ajax’s club history.