Huntelaar returns to Ajax to join his coaching staff

Ajax today announced the hiring of former Real Madrid footballer Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, 38, as a member of the club’s technical staff until July 2024.

“I have always been interested in things that happen off the pitch at clubs and I would like to broaden my knowledge in this area,” Huntelaar said in a statement from Ajax on its website.

Following the departure of Marc Overmars from Ajax, the club split the duties of the previous manager between Gerry Hamstra and manager Erik ten Hag. Huntelaar “will support both in these matters with immediate effect,” says the Dutch club.

The former striker will be part of Ajax’s international scouting team and “will play a role in technical consultations on the composition of both the Ajax first team and the reserve team,” Ajax general manager Edwin van der Sar said.

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The ex-madridista will combine these functions with the completion of the coaching course that he is currently taking.

Van der Sar explained that he has been in contact with Huntelaar since his second spell at Schalke 04, starting in January 2021, and that he already knew then of the footballer’s intentions, retired since last summer, to work as a member of the technical staff. of a professional club.

Huntelaar, also known by the nickname ‘the hunter’, began his professional career in the 2002/03 season with PSV Eindhoven and, after passing through several Dutch clubs, he joined Ajax for the first time in 2006. In 2009 he moved to Real Madrid, to Milan and to Schalke 04, from which he returned to Ajax in 2017 until in January 2021 he went back to the German club before retiring.

With the Dutch national team he played 76 times, the last in 2015 and he scored 42 goals. He was the top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie with Ajax in the 2005/06 and 2007/08 seasons, scoring 33 goals in both.