Ajax full-back Noussair Mazraoui recently signed with Bayern Munich on a free transfer. He encapsulates everything we love about Ajax: determination against all odds, a pension for highwire-like acts on the sideline, and confidence to throw everything at the opponent. Nous will be missed in Amsterdam and his unique style will add something special to the German champions.
Many years ago, I penned an article listing the 19 most promising youth players in Ajax’s world-renowned youth structure, De Toekomst. The list was naturally subject to my own biases, but I felt it reflected the skill level of many under-20s in the Amsterdam academy. Matthijs de Ligt, Kasper Dolberg, and Noa Lang all featured towards the top of the list, but it was the lanky utility man named Noussair Mazraoui who just barely made the list, coming in at nineteenth.
‘Nous’ Mazraoui was at the time a starting defender for Jong Ajax, the reserve side offering academy players quality minutes against professionals in the Dutch second tier. To call Mazraoui a defender even now would be a bit of a misnomer; only João Cancelo and Trent Alexander-Arnold, of the full-backs I watch often, have a similar calmness in transition, intelligence in their passing choices, and deftness on the ball. It’s this jack-of-all-trades sort of aura that becomes obvious once you’ve seen Mazraoui play for a game or two. The rumours have it that Nous was nearly cut from the academy at multiple age levels, perhaps because of his inability to stand out in one category or position. It’s an incredible stroke of luck that he wasn’t.
I recall a Johan Cruijff quote where he pondered how, with the advances in scouting and data analysis in the modern game, he would’ve never made it to Ajax 1 as a player today. Cruijff was a similarly scrawny kid from the city – he expanded his sporting toolkit by playing one-two’s with the brick curbs, competing on the concrete courts that now sprawl all over greater Amsterdam. One feels grateful to support a club which emphasizes the eye test, and a player’s competitive spirit and intelligence above all else, when deciding who to continue training and who to show the door.