Ryan Gravenberch would like to stay at Ajax ‘if the feeling is good on both sides’, the nineteen-year-old midfielder said in conversation with The Telegraph. Club and player are in talks to upgrade and extend the current contract until mid-2023. Gravenberch says it doesn’t feel like he’s done in Amsterdam yet.
‘I am accompanied by Mino Raiola, so I am not signing up’ is the statement that Gravenberch is presented during an interview with the newspaper. The Ajax player responds in the negative: “The choice lies with the player himself and my family also has a very strong say in this, my parents and my brothers. I am a child of the club, have been playing here for ten years and would love it if Ajax also earns something from me,” said Gravenberch, whose current market value is Transfermarkt is estimated at 33 million euros. “We have had an initial meeting and are working hard to see if we can work it out. If the feeling is good on both sides, I would like to stay at Ajax. I’m 19 and it doesn’t feel like I’m done.”
Mike Verweij, Ajax watcher on behalf of The Telegraph, stated last week in the Kick-Offpodcast that the club will have to agree to a limited transfer fee when the Gravenberch contract is broken. Because a limited transfer fee is a ‘hard requirement’ from Raiola, Ajax will probably have to give in. “It will be a big challenge at Gravenberch, because I think it’s not so much about the money,” says Verweij. “Everyone can see that he is a very great talent and earns more than he gets, while he already has a great contract by youth standards. It’s more about the conditions in the contract, the clause that Mino Raiola wants in it. In principle Ajax does not do that and I think they should now tack and there will be a limited transfer fee in the contract.”
“Then the question becomes what an interesting limited transfer fee is”, Verweij continued. “Donny van de Beek left for 39 million euros, Matthijs de Ligt for 75, Frenkie de Jong for 86. If there are thirty million, I think Ajax is a big deal for a youth player. If you have to clash with Mino Raiola, what do you think you’ll get out of it?” He thinks that Ajax will eventually agree to a limited transfer fee ‘with great pain’. “Because Ajax wants to remain the boss in its own house. Clauses are always included in the contract in the interest of the player and especially the agent. Normally that is a hard requirement from Mino Raiola.”