“I have had a season ticket for 35 years. Even when AZ was still playing in Alkmaarderhout. I used to be in the rain or in the snow along the line more often. Bad weather doesn’t stop us,” says AZ-Fan Robbert Alkmaar, who has taken free from his work and son Stein especially for this game, which has previously picked up from school. “Deregistered a few hours earlier. Don’t tell!”
“This Youth League is just the Champions League for youth teams,” adds youth friend Martijn, who, together with their sons, stand along the line for the duel against Benfica’s peers. “Last season we also visited all the home games of the Youth League. Here the talents of the future play. You still want to see them at work.”
Talent factory
“These are the men who move on to the first team and later perhaps play in the Italian Serie A,” Hints Martijn to the youth exponents Tijjani Reijnders (AC Milan) and Teun Koopmeiners (Juventus).
Whether it is AZ 1 or the under 19 that loses, Ayden will have the plague in a defeat anyway. “It is and will remain AZ. It may not be the first team that plays in the Eredivisie, but it is still disappointing if they lose.”