Ajax announced the departure of Quincy Promes on Wednesday. The 29-year-old attacker leaves the team from Amsterdam behind for a year and a half to return to Spartak Moscow, where he was previously under contract between 2014 and 2018. Promes says in an extensive farewell interview with Ajax TV that he is leaving Amsterdam with mixed feelings.
“We are at the top, so that makes it even more difficult to leave the club. But now I have had the chance to come home again, if you can put it that way ”, says Promes. Ajax took him over from Seville a year and a half ago for more than fifteen million euros. In the meantime, he played a total of 53 official matches, in which he scored 22 goals and 6 assists. “I was a ball boy here and the feeling that you can return is indescribable. It is normal full circle. That you can play in the stadium and score goals where you were once a ball boy … ”
“The Champions League adventure was very nice, that is the highest podium. It is great that you can represent Ajax on that. I have been able to contribute with my goals, my assists and my bravado. I can look back on a period that was very educational, I am grateful that I had the opportunity to show myself again ”, continues Promes. He was discredited earlier this season, after he was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a stabbing incident during a family party in Abcoude.
“The difficult moments came at the end, with all those media reports and negativity,” says the attacker. “I’ve ended up in a situation where I can’t say much about it, but the truth eventually emerges. I see how people have already finished their judgment, unjustly. I struggled with that. But yes, football is the most important to me. I was also not a basic player. That combination has started to gnaw at me. I went from top scorer to substitute. Every player has a hard time giving that a place. Then you see if it is not wise to look further. With pain in my heart I say goodbye. I just want to be the man again, be important to the team and play, also with the European Championship in mind. ”
The 47-time Oranje-international he had to do more than regularly at Ajax this season with a place on the reserve bench. “I have always been with the Dutch national team, I was part of the group that made it to the European Championship. So it plays lightly in my head, but it is up to the national coach which choices he makes. I have to be ready, get into competition rhythm and make sure I get my form back. ”
“You don’t just exchange Ajax for a club in Europe, I honestly didn’t see myself leaving. Given the circumstances, this falls into place with Spartak. Some things in life have to be like this. I now have to be on my top, so I want to rock out there every week ”, says Promes about his step to Spartak. “It’s not a goodbye, more a goodbye. I am an Amsterdammer, Ajax player until my last breath. I grew up here, this is home. So I will always return to Amsterdam. It has a mixed feeling. It was too short, I wanted to play here all my life. I didn’t achieve all my goals, I wanted to become a champion and win awards. But it is great that I can look back on a good period. Out of sight, but not out of mind. ”