Marc Overmars announced last Sunday prior to the cup final between Ajax and Vitesse (2-1) that the negotiations with André Onana about a new contract had been stopped. The 25-year-old goalkeeper, who is currently on a one-year doping suspension, is still fixed until mid-2022, making it obvious that he will now leave next summer. Mike Verweij, Ajax watcher for The Telegraph, says in the newspaper’s football podcast that negotiations broke down because Onana’s entourage continued to come up with additional demands.
“He wanted to sign up until 2023, but that was not the biggest problem,” Verweij begins Kick-Off, like the football podcast from The Telegraph hot. “Ajax wanted until 2024 or 2025. Only Onana always had additional requirements. That irritated Ajax quite a bit. Nobody says it exactly, but I have the feeling that Ajax continues to pay his salary during his suspension. If there are always additional requirements, it will be enough at some point. Then they look further and that’s why Pasveer came into the picture. ”
“They have also not agreed on a contract extension for one season. As for Onana’s agent, they’ll figure it out. But I don’t know if Ajax is still open to that. I don’t think so, now that Pasveer has been taken ”, Verweij continues. “Ajax takes its loss, but that loss is relatively limited. If you say he was worth $ 30 million and now zero, it’s a big loss. But he was bought for three hundred thousand euros. You can also reason the other way around: he has done a great job in the Champions League and thus also made millions for the club. ”
“If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. They will try to sell him next summer, although I wonder if the clubs in Europe are eager to buy a suspended goalkeeper. Goalkeepers do not deliver that much anyway, but maybe there is a club that says: ‘Last season he was worth thirty million, now we run the risk for ten, eight or five million’ ”, says the Ajax watcher. The Telegraph. The team from Amsterdam already responded to a possible departure of Onana on Friday by bringing in Remko Pasveer, who comes over from Vitesse transfer-free.
“Of course Onana is better than Stekelenburg and exceptional for Eredivisie terms”, Verweij emphasizes. “But Stekelenburg is also a very good goalkeeper. The more he starts goalkeeping, the better he will get. It has been a conscious choice of Ajax, who will also be the first goalkeeper. It has been said to Pasveer that they will see who will be the first keeper. Normally that will be Stekelenburg. But suppose he gets injured after four games. I hear the name of Jay Gorter, a talented Go Ahead Eagles goalkeeper. Or maybe Scherpen will stay, although I think he will be rented out. Then it is better to have a cannon behind Stekelenburg. ”