90s, When Ajax Ruled the World - with Nigeria's Finidi George and Nwankwo Kanu

How Louis van Gaal nurtured somewhat schoolboys into a glorious empire. Majorly homegrown youngsters and largely two unknown import from Africa, Finidi George and the young Nwankwo Kanu, herald a generation who moved from a reputation of being Giant Killers to Crowned Champions of the mid 90s. Nobody saw it coming then and may be now in 2019 - A deja Vu!

"What goes round must come around" they say, why I think Ajax is favorite to win this years Uefa champions league. They dethroned champions Real Madrid, and then stopped favorites Juventus Cristiano Ronaldo in his tracks, so what else is left to fear? Just a reminiscence of Ajax class of 95, Erik ten Hag side is set to repeat history this year, 2019 edition.

The Cruyff-inspired ‘70s team may have been their greatest AFC Ajax in history – but in the early ’90s a new golden generation helped to make Amsterdam the capital city of Europe for a second time.

The biggest surprise was the manner in which Ajax’s Class of ’95 conquered Europe. They weaved beautiful patterns as they performed choreographed attacking moves. Every pass, sprint, shimmy and shot had a purpose and was carried out at breakneck speed. The seamless blend of elegance and athleticism was summed up by the Real Madrid coach Jorge Valdano.

“Ajax are not just the team of the ’90s, they are approaching football utopia,” he admitted. “Their concept of the game is exquisite, yet they have physical superiority as well.”

Ajax’s golden boys had overthrown football aristocracy and nobody knew quite how they’d done it.

The reality was that the club were ahead of their time, and so was their boss. When Louis van Gaal replaced Leo Beenhakker in September 1991, he faced resistance from fans and the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, which called him “arrogant” and launched a campaign for the return of Ajax icon Johan Cruyff.

The 41-year-old had relatively little coaching experience, aside from a three-year spell as their assistant manager, but his vision for the club was crystal clear.

Louis’ philosophy was based on a turbo-charged version of the Total Football style pioneered by Ajax’s legendary coach Rinus Michels. The system required players to be able to occupy any role on the pitch, so the players maintained their structure at all times. Out of possession, they would be instructed to hound opponents collectively, to retrieve the ball as quickly as possible.

It was a style that demanded technical quality, tactical intelligence and supreme athleticism. Only the most talented and selfless players could thrive in Van Gaal’s system, and he set about forming his football factory to put together a production line of players who would be a perfect fit.

His initial step was a new approach to developing Ajax’s youth and first-team players. He created an innovative three-man performance party, designed to make recruits fitter, faster and stronger than their rivals. He brought in experts from different sports whose knowledge he believed could be applied to football.

Physiologist Jos Geysel, whose methods had enjoyed success in hockey, dispensed with long-distance running training and developed more short-distance, multi-directional sprinting sessions and tests.

Running coach and ex-basketball player Laszlo Jambor was hired to improve running technique, footwork and coordination, and was held in such regard that he sat in the dugout during games. But it was the last of this trio who contributed the most colourful methods to their ambitious project.

Van Gaal was forced to start from scratch. But it proved a blessing in disguise as he opted to place his faith in the club’s next generation of talent, who he believed were even better than those who had left. Out of the ashes of one gifted group, a great one was formed over the following three seasons.

Ajax’s youngsters had spent three years being schooled in the Van Gaal talent factory and now there was a unique bond between them. There were, of course, the De Boer brothers, while Patrick Kluivert and Suriname-born Edgar Davids were childhood friends who grew up on neighbouring streets in Amsterdam. Davids was even scouted by the club on the personal recommendation of Lidwina, who had noticed his talent while he was playing with her son.

Another skilled starlet, Clarence Seedorf, was born in the same region of Suriname as Davids, while the homecoming of legend Frank Rijkaard – back after a successful five-year spell at Milan – offered vital nous as well as a father figure for the younger players to look up to in the dressing room.

Many of them still looked like schoolboys, but they were streetwise beyond their years and their coach was eager to listen to any creative ideas. During one training session, Ronald de Boer suggested borrowing a move from basketball, known as ‘picking’, to enhance their threat from set-pieces.

At the moment a corner-kick was whipped in, he would sprint towards an opposition player who was marking one of his team-mates and deliberately block him. More often than not, this left a forward free, as De Boer’s marker fell into the trap of tracking him as he made his dart across the penalty area. Van Gaal loved it and swiftly added it to his team’s repertoire. In listening to his players, he created an environment which encouraged innovation and creativity.

Their first season together was one of transition, as holders Ajax were knocked out in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals by Auxerre and then came third in the Eredivisie. But they did at least end the 1992/93 campaign by lifting the KNVB Cup, hammering Heerenveen 6-2 in the final.

The following year they won their first league title in three years, but it was in 1994/95 that Van Gaal’s work really came to fruition with the smart acquisitions of Nwankwo Kanu and Finidi George proving to be the last pieces in his puzzle.

In the league, Ajax were unbeatable, retaining the title with a record of 27 wins, seven draws and no losses. They scored an incredible 106 goals at an average of 3.12 per game.

In Europe, it soon became clear they were ready to disrupt the status quo. Holders Milan were beaten twice in the Champions League group stage, 2-0 in Amsterdam and 2-0 at San Siro a couple of months on. After the first contest, the youngsters queued up outside the Milan changing room to swap shirts with their heroes, but after the second there had been a mindset shift.

“It’s quite embarrassing when I think about it now,” says Ronald de Boer. “Ruud Gullit gave us access to the away dressing room and we were like little kids when we met up with the players after – but after the second match, we didn’t ask them for their shirts!”

The finalists had the same ambitions, but the players from the two teams could not have looked more different as they arrived at Vienna Airport within minutes of each other the night before the game. Ajax’s bashful youngsters looked on as Milan’s stars strolled through the arrivals lounge with their array of stunning girlfriends.

Fabio Capello had also hatched a cunning plan to catch their Dutch foes by surprise. Marcel Desailly, operating in a holding midfield role in a diamond formation, was tasked with man-marking Jari Litmanen. Striker Daniele Massaro was handed the task of stopping Frank de Boer from spraying his forward passes into midfield and forcing him to feed right-back Michael Reiziger, who was then pressed in possession.

For the first 45 minutes the ploy worked to perfection as Van Gaal’s men struggled to keep the ball in an untidy contest.

At half-time, Rijkaard had the first word. “I want the ball to be played around faster and a number of you need to play better in possession,” he said. A heated debate soon followed between Danny Blind, Clarence Seedorf and Ronald de Boer. Van Gaal happily let them go at it before making a key tactical tweak, which saw Rijkaard drop back five yards to give him more space to play key passes.

The tide began to turn in Ajax’s favour.

Eight minutes after the break, Kanu was introduced in place of Seedorf, and his pace forced Franco Baresi and Milan’s defence to retreat to the edge of their 18-yard box. With their dominance growing, Van Gaal – perhaps influenced by his knowledge of Lidwina’s premonition – introduced Kluivert for Litmanen after 70 minutes.

It was quite possibly the best decision of his career. Fifteen minutes later, a flowing passing move saw Overmars pick the ball up on the left wing and feed Rijkaard on the edge of the penalty area. His pass found Kluivert, who slipped past Baresi with one touch and stabbed the ball past Sebastiano Rossi with his second. Ajax were champions of Europe for the first time since 1973.

It was an astonishing accomplishment, turning most members of the team into household names. Upon their return to the Amsterdam, Kluivert was filmed greeting his mum at the airport and bursting into tears – at 18 he was the darling of the Dutch media.

Back in Africa, the Nigerian duo were the toss of the media. They were celebrated heroes like no other. Kanu won the Africa footballer of the year and finidi given chieftency in his hometown Bayelsa.