The claim by Arthur Beck, agent and co-owner of AKA Global, that Maurice Steijn initiated the Deadline Day transfer from Borna Sosa to Ajax is incorrect. Journalists Freek Jansen and Tim van Duijn report this Football International in an extensive analysis of the transfer. The technical staff still hoped for the arrival of Nicolás Tagliafico (Olympique Lyon) on Deadline Day, but technical director Sven Mislintat decided to go his own way. According to the journalists, Steijn thought Sosa was a good alternative to Tagliafico.
Beck’s claim that Steijn single-handedly arranged Sosa’s transfer is incorrect VI. “Inquiries show that the truth is different. The technical staff, led by Steijn, worked hard for the arrival of Nicolás Tagliafico in the summer. Mislintat had a different opinion and came up with Borna Sosa several times, whom he knew from his time at VfB Stuttgart.” As a result, decisions had to be made on Deadline Day.
“On the last day of the transfer period, Steijn once again indicated that his preference was still to bring Tagliafico back. However, the technical director refused to go along with this,” he wrote VI. “The coach would then welcome the arrival of the Croatian international Sosa, whose name the technical director had come up with two weeks earlier, as an alternative, because he thinks he is a good player.” Mislintat and Beck then completed the transfer. Ajax paid a total of around 8 million euros to Stuttgart for Sosa’s services.
According to ICM Stellar Sports, Sosa’s old management, there is a strange smell about the transfer. “They refute Beck’s statements and provide an interesting insight into the course of events. For example, Mislintat already expressed interest in Sosa to the Croat in mid-August, but asked to keep this to themselves, because they only wanted to sign him in the last two days of the transfer period. An earlier transfer was not an option and the deal had to go through Beck. VfB Stuttgart was very surprised about this, and there were also persistent voices that Beck did indeed have a mandate from Ajax and therefore also negotiated on behalf of the Amsterdam club.”
According to VI This makes various parts of the research into Mislintat extremely important. If these reports are correct, the important follow-up question is whether financial director Susan Lenderink and the Supervisory Board were aware of this. In that case, Global’s agent was both an intermediary from Ajax and at the same time an advocate for the player to finalize the contract, which again raises some questions.” According to the weekly, there have been doubts about Mislintat’s actions in Germany for some time. “According to those involved in Germany, it was noticeable that Mislintat often referred two agents for transfers: Marco Liechtsteiner and the now much-discussed Arthur Beck.”