Sonny Silooy guides us in the Ajax world: doping? We were good, but not enough to win
- Emanuele Giulianelli @EmaGiulianelli
I’ve spoken, in exclusive for Calciomercato.com, with Sonny Silooy, a man who has won everything with Ajax (just to mention: Champions League, Cup Winners Cup, Intercontinental Cup, Uefa Cup, Uefa Super Cup, 7 Eredivisie and much more) between 1981 and 1996. And, after stopping his career on the pitch, he has become one of the managers of the famous Ajax Academy and still works inside the club. I’ve had a long talk with him, speaking not only about the secrets of Ajax system, but even about the next match against Juventus and the accusations of David Endt to the Italian side about doping in 1996. Sonny played that final and is the right man to speak with about all these topics: the right man to guide us inside the Ajax world.
Are you surprised by the great things Ajax are doing in Champions League? Did you expect to reach the quarter finals?
In the beginning of the season, nobody expected something from Ajax in the Champions League, because we needed to play a couple of rounds of qualifications. Everyone was surprised that we reached the quarter finals, especially because we had to pass Real Madrid and we did it in a real special way. That was surprising for everyone, I think for Real Madrid more than for everyone.
Former Ajax player David Endt has told today that the match against Juventus would be a sort of revenge. He says Juventus in 1996 were doped. What do you think about these accusations, having played that final?
He told this kind of things because a couple of years ago someone published some researches about what happened in Turin about Juventus and the doping scandal. For me, at that time, I didn't know and didn't see anything about that. When a couple of years ago the press came to me and told me about these researchers, I told them "I don't care". We've lost that game, we were tired in that time and we made more mistakes than Juventus. That's why we've lost the game. When they want us to tell yes or no about that doping allegations, I tell that it's FIFA or UEFA that have to judge. We are only players. And I tell them, about their accusations: if you have proofs, show them, if you'll find. My answer is that we were good, but not enough to win that final.
Every time Ajax launch big talents, then they sell them to the big clubs in Europe. In that moment we always think that a cycle is ended, that Ajax are downgrading, but you always surprise us with new talents and new incredible results: which one is the secret of Ajax?
Ajax always produce young good players: some years four, some years just one or two; but it's not a thing concerning the last four or five years. It's sixty-five years that we work like this. Johan Cruyff was one of the players from the Academy, and so Frank Rijkaard or me. A lot of players, from Kluivert to Seedorf and the two De Boer brothers: all of them played in the Ajax Academy. Why? Our philosophy is: lead up players for the first team and hopefully you're going to sell them to the big clubs. And now, at this time, we have even more money than in the past; when I played in the Academy, I had to by myself the bag and the training kit. Now, with Adidas, our guys receive a bag full of training shirts, they have three pairs of shoes every year to train, and they can receive a new pair when they are not good anymore. This is the new generation: it's much easier today to get stuff and to get a contract. Everything is much easier. But the philosophy of Ajax is to sell the young players when they are good enough: Frank de Jong came to us for something like 50k euro and now we will sell him for 86 mln euro; de Ligt was in the Academy and we will sell him for 80 mln euro, I know for sure.
You work for the youth sector, the key of Ajax successes. Can you explain to us how it works? Which one is the Ajax method for the youth system, to grow up all these talents at top levels?
From 2003 to 2008 I was in the Academy and I had in my team players, especially when they were 11 or 12 like Quincy Promes or Davy Klaassen; and when I got to work with the 19 years old I had the like of Toby Alderweireld, Daley Blind, Vurnon Anita or Siem de Jong who played whit Ajax in the first team and now are in the National team. What do we do with them? We bring them up to a level that's good for our first team, we give them the basic elements to survive in the league so that the first team coach can easier bring them to a higher level, having they more informations. What's the secret of Ajax? There's no secret. There are two people we take inspiration from and they are Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff. And Johan Cruyff is Ajax. We are still working with his philosophy and I'm lucky to have worked with him from 1985 to 1987 and played with him from 1981 to 83. So maybe for me is easier to tell about Cruyff and Ajax philosophy, but there's nothing difficult in it: Cruyff is simple.
Do you think that Ajax model could be copied? Or it's good only for Ajax? And could it be good even to win a Champions League or just to do well?
Yes, it could be copied and it's good for Ajax. Because, if they want to copy, they have to pay us money for it. For example, I'm working for the ACA, the Ajax Coaching Academy and China is paying us 10 million for a 5 years project: 6 Ajax coaches are now there to bring our philosophy.
Are you changing your philosophy, with some players bought and not just from the Academy?
When you are in the Champions League, every player becomes interesting for other clubs. We want to be champions, but when a club gives us much money for a player, we sell them: we need to survive, as well. Now we have much money to buy big players, not stars but this is not, as I have already explained, our philosophy. In this generation we have not enough good players from the Academy: that's why we have to buy someone. But in my period, we played with all guys grown up in our youth system. What killed our system was the Bosman law, with all that amount of money coming especially from the Premier League.
Dusan Tadic: he is not a young player, but a talent that has lost many chances in his career and now seems to have found his environment. How do you explain his explosion?
Tadic is a big player. He grew up in the Netherlands too, then he went to England where I played well and then he's back with more experience. He needs to be one of the leaders of the team and he's doing it well, scoring goals, making assists and always being one of the best players of the match. But what's more important for a club like Ajax, he's leading the team, his young teammates. It's not so easy; maybe now he is the right club for him, and this can help him grow as a player and as a person. Not every player is able to stay with the young colleagues, because sometimes it's annoying: but he's showing he can do it well and maybe he will lead us to the next Champions League.
Juventus: which one is your opinion of the Italian side?
Juventus currently have a good team; when you are able to eliminate Atletico Madrid starting from 2-0 behind, it means you are good. They have Ronaldo, one of the biggest players in the world together with Messi: he's still in fit and scores goals; but, above all, they have a good balance in their team. I hope that Ajax could be a difficult opponent for Juventus, but it will not be easy for us to win because the Italians have more quality this time. Then they have more experience then we have, especially in the back line, while we are very young. But I hope that experience won't be enough for them, because we are technical and tactical very good.
Could be the right year for them to win the Champions League?
I hope that, if Juventus beat Ajax, they will win the Champions League.
Emanuele Giulianelli