Mauro Savastano played on behalf of Young Ajax and Young AZ almost a hundred matches in the Kitchen Champion Division, was allowed to join the main force of the team from Amsterdam on a training camp to Austria and was even regularly on the bench with the first team in Alkmaar, but is now more than a year without club. The 24-year-old left back late Football zone however know that he is determined to return to professional football this summer. “My body is ready. I am ready. All I need is another chance. ”
By Thijs Verhaar
You would only have an everyday office job and get messages from top footballers like Donny van de Beek, Noa Lang and Noussair Mazraoui almost weekly via Instagram. Somehow Savastano finds it funny that it is sketched that way, but at the same time it hurts him every day. He doesn’t want to sit behind a desk at all. He should be on the field, just like his famous former teammates. Eliminate attackers and sprint forwards yourself where possible. That is how he, as a promise of Jong Ajax, thought that the world would look like for him for the next ten to fifteen years. However, things turned out differently due to all kinds of circumstances and now the former youth international is sitting in his cousin’s office, hoping that a club will come this summer that offers him a new chance.
“I don’t want to call it a real office job, by the way. My cousin has a thriving clothing line with MyBrand and I sometimes watch what he does. There are a few more family members who work there and now and then I help out a bit ”, says Savastano, who calls fashion one of his biggest interests next to football. Yet for him it is mainly occupational therapy. In addition to his daily private training sessions with a performance coach, he has enough time to spare and when he does nothing, it starts to race in his head. What could he have done differently? Why doesn’t he play at a professional club now, when he has enough talent for it? “It is sometimes difficult to stay positive,” he admits. “Of course I sometimes get through with it completely for a day and say that I want to quit, but luckily I have good people around me. My girlfriend, my parents and my coach help me a lot by talking to me a lot and making sure that I am ready when something comes my way. ”
Savastano was allowed to join Ajax’s training camp with the main force in 2017, but would never make his debut in the Eredivisie.
The former youth international of the the Dutch Under-20 indicates that he trains eight or nine times a week. He works every day to stay fit, but according to him it is very different from football practice. “If you ask me now if I have the right level to return to professional football, I say ‘yes’ and ‘no’. At training level I can go along fine, but after a year without football I naturally miss match rhythm ”, said Savastano, who heard in the summer of 2020 that his expiring contract with Jong AZ had not been extended. “Fortunately for me, at my age, it doesn’t have to take months before you rebuild that rhythm, so I really hope that I will be able to participate in the preparation soon. Preferably in the Netherlands, but I don’t close my eyes to other countries. At the end of last year, for example, I did an internship at a Swedish club, but that ultimately came to nothing. ”
Savastano tells how he flew to the Scandinavian country twice to train with IK Sirius. “The first time they couldn’t offer me a contract because of the uncertainty with corona and the second time they chose a different type of player. Unfortunately. Then there is nothing else to do than continue searching ”, says the left back, who nevertheless sees it as a boost. He is still on the radar of professional clubs and knows that despite his unwanted sabbatical he can still fall back on a lovely resume. “I have had three great clubs with Ajax, Go Ahead Eagles and AZ. I am only 24 years old, was a youth international and have played almost a hundred matches at the second level of the Netherlands. That should be interesting for many clubs, right? ” it sounds hopeful. “When I play football, I still feel that things are going well. So I am sure there is more possible for me. You just have to. ”
What about the talents of Jong Ajax who became champions in 2018?
Voetbalzone recently published an overview of all players who became champions with Young Ajax in the 2017/18 season. Mauro Savastano is currently the only one without a club.
They are words he never thought he would say three years ago. At that time, as a twenty-year-old, he was a valued strength at Jong Ajax and he was allowed to train with the first team every now and then. The U21 team would become champions in the Kitchen Champion Division that year and Savastano played eleven times in the first half of the season. “That was a great time because everyone went through fire for each other. I also had my worth, but I was not completely satisfied, ”he recalls. “You would prefer to play everything at that age, so I wanted to be rented out. I had already submitted the same request a season earlier and then PEC Zwolle wanted to take me over, but Ajax did not agree. They wanted me to go on a training camp and that happened, but unfortunately I could not take the step to join the main force permanently. ”
In January 2018, Ajax eventually cooperated with a temporary transfer to Go Ahead Eagles, as a result of which Savastano consciously passed the remainder of the championship year by. “Of course I didn’t know that then and with the Eagles the prospects were good to play a lot.” The fact that he would ultimately only participate in five duels in five months is mainly due to bad luck. A tear in his thigh slowed him down for a long time, just as he had to recover from cartilage damage in his ankle for six months in the Ajax Under-19s. “So it didn’t get along with me at a few crucial moments,” he looks for an explanation. “Maybe afterwards I shouldn’t have let myself be rented out in the championship year and maybe Ajax should have allowed me to switch to PEC a season earlier, but in the end I don’t blame Ajax. I had a great time there, got to smell the first team and they formed me there into the player and the person I am today. ”
Savastano in the Go Ahead Eagles shirt: “Maybe I shouldn’t have let myself be rented out afterwards in the champion year of Jong Ajax.”
Savastano already joined the team from Amsterdam at the age of eight, who picked him up at Haarlem. Thus, the left back played for years and years with guys like Carel Eiting and Noussair Mazraoui, whom he still speaks every now and then. “I mainly interacted with Instagram Nous and Donny still in touch. For example, Noa Lang also sends a message to ask how things are going. Of course they are busy with their careers, but I still like to hear how things are going and vice versa they are disappointed that I don’t have a club at the moment. Then they say that I have to keep up courage and that it will be fine ”, says Savastano, who sighs barely audibly before continuing. “That does me good. These are only small moments, but it does provide support and vice versa I am very proud of what they all achieve. ”
The left back was cheering loudly in his own living room when Ajax claimed the 35th national title in club history last weekend. After all, it remains his cluppie, although after his six months on a rental basis at Go Ahead Eagles he was told that they did not want to continue with him in Amsterdam. “Of course Ajax is still in my heart after all these years. I have been there for thirteen years and I still try to see as many matches as possible. ” However, he does not see many of his former teammates in action, because most of them have flown out prematurely. “Nous is still there and many others now play at other beautiful clubs. A lot of boys have broken through from our class. Only I have been clubless for a year now ”, it sounds sad. “Those injuries at the wrong times slowed me down and maybe it just wasn’t for me. I was among all those guys who now play at great clubs, but maybe I just wasn’t good enough for the first. ”
After his forced departure from Ajax, Savastano turned up at Young AZ in the summer of 2018, where he was immediately allowed to take a seat on the bench with the first team. “In the end I played everything at Jong for almost a year and a half, so I am certainly proud of that. That is what I have worked hard for every day for years, so it is good to say that all in all I have now already won 84 games in the Kitchen Champion Division ”, said Savastano, who due to his increasing age is not was eligible for an extension at Jong AZ and was found not to be good enough for a permanent transfer to the main force of the Alkmaarders. “I knew I wouldn’t get a new contract, so I looked for a new club with my agent. There was enough interest, but then corona broke out and many clubs were afraid to invest. ”
Savastano made 45 appearances for Young AZ in a season and a half. This puts the counter for him at 84 Kitchen Champion Division matches.
As a result, Savastano missed out on clubs from the Kitchen Champion Division in the preparation for the 2020/21 season and requests to train with something to maintain his fitness level were repeatedly rejected. Not because clubs did not want to help the 24-year-old, but because as an outsider he cannot just be included in the bubble. “The corona really couldn’t have come at a worse time for me, but I persisted and will just try again in the coming weeks to join a club from the Kitchen Champion Division. Of course I would prefer to enter at the bottom of the Eredivisie, but I also have to be realistic and realize that I have stood still for a year. That is why I am very happy if there is a second-level club that I can participate in in the preparation. Hopefully that is an option for me and otherwise I will continue at an amateur level. ”
The meaning of his story is clear: Savastano wants to play football again anyway. “I no longer think that I will be on the podium as where Donny, Noa and the other guys are, but I still want to make the best of it for myself”, it sounds firmly. He misses the football field, the group training sessions, the dressing room humor, the matches and everything that comes with it as a professional. “I really want to experience that again. I continue to find it incredible that four years ago as a player of Ajax I dreamed of Barcelona and have now been clubless for more than a year. It would be such a shame to keep it that way, so I hope with all my heart that there is a sequel for me, ”said Savastano, who concludes his story with a promise to potential new employers. “I already promise that every day will work harder than all my teammates. If I only get the chance to continue my career at a great club, I will take it with both hands. ”