If it is up to Johan Derksen, Keje Molenaar will become general manager at Ajax. The analyst states in the program VI Today that Edwin van der Sar’s position has become untenable after his media appearances last Sunday in the Marc Overmars affair. At the same time, Derksen would not appoint Wesley Sneijder or Clarence Seedorf as director of football affairs at Ajax.
“They cannot continue with Van der Sar, because he is so damaged by the media. I would always put Keje Molenaar there. He has settled enough divorces as a lawyer now, he must have seen that by now. Mature guy, legal background, Ajax player: excellent director for Ajax”, says Derksen. After his active career – in which he played for FC Volendam, Ajax and Feyenoord, among others – Molenaar started working as a lawyer. He was also a member of the Ajax Members’ Council in the past and is now involved as an advisor to FC Volendam.
Ajax is currently looking for a successor for Overmars and Sneijder indicated on Tuesday evening that he is open to the position of director of football affairs in Amsterdam. “It’s painful to talk about,” Derksen responds when Sneijder is mentioned. The analyst already mentioned Sneijder last week as a possible successor to Overmars and then spoke about the advantages and disadvantages, but now comes up with arguments why Ajax should not appoint him.
“Wesley would also still have the qualities, but he is always surrounded by somewhat shady friends”, Derksen points out a disadvantage of appointing Sneijder. “The football club where he is (amateur club DHSC from Utrecht, ed.) is continuously involved in incidents. Wesley takes his entire court with him, you get that for free. I think Ajax is a bit wary of that, as a listed company.”
“The name of Sneijder has not yet been concretely mentioned, but they have been focused on the succession of Overmars since Monday,” said Freek Jansen, editor-in-chief and Ajax watcher, who was also present. Football International† “They sat together and looked at which files need to be dealt with in the short term. But they have also expressed that it should not take too long to find a successor for Overmars. They really start from scratch. I don’t think Sneijder is a concrete candidate. Then I think more about Clarence Seedorf.”
“Clarence is a nice guy, but he thinks he’s in control of everything very well. He has never shown that everywhere he has been as a trainer. But he is a boy with flair and who knows his way around the world. You still need to have a bit of business acumen and Clarence doesn’t have that,” says Derksen about Seedorf. The former midfielder was named as a candidate by Valentijn Driessen and according to Mike Verweij he would also be interested in becoming director of football affairs at Ajax.