Ajax has just confirmed the arrival of new head coach Maurice Steijn. On Monday it was already leaked that the 49-year-old Hagenaar signs a three-year contract in Amsterdam. Steijn had a one-year contract with Sparta Rotterdam, which was bought off by Ajax.
On Ajax’s website, director of football affairs Sven Mislintat says: “Maurice has now been active as a trainer in professional football for roughly twenty years, of which more than twelve years as head coach. He has achieved much better results than expected at all clubs where he worked. So he has shown several times with his teams to be a real over-performer. He is ready for the step up, I am convinced of that.
Assistants
Said Bakkati becomes one of Steijn’s assistants. He was previously an assistant coach at Jong Ajax and last season worked as an assistant to Dick Advocaat at ADO Den Haag. Ajax is looking for another assistant. The name of former Ajax player Hedwiges Maduro has been mentioned in recent days, but Almere City FC, which has just been promoted, does not want to lose its assistant coach. Maduro still has a contract for one season in Almere.
The German Max Lesser comes over from VfB Stuttgart and becomes head of analysis for the first team. The technical staff also consists of Richard Witschge, Anton Scheutjens (goalkeeper coach) and Alessandro Schoenmaker (performance coach).
John Heitinga
It is not known what John Heitinga will do next season. Heitinga finished last season after Alfred Schreuder was fired due to disappointing results. Ajax says nothing about the future of Heitinga in the press release.