AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS - MARCH 4: 1-1 players of Ajax celebrate goal, Ashleigh Weerden of Ajax, Isa ... [+]
This week, the most famous club in the Netherlands, AFC Ajax become the first-ever Dutch team to play in the group stage of the UEFA Women's Champions League.
Their first match at home to seasoned French competitors, Paris Saint-Germain will also see them play at the nation's largest stadium, the 55,865-capacity Johan Cruijff ArenA, named after the country's most influential player.
Cruijff (or Cruyff) was a three-time winner of the men's European Cup (now Champions League) with Ajax in the early 1970s before departing to play for FC Barcelona. Such was his impact in Spain, the Catalan club also named their new stadium, built for their women's team in 2019, Estadi Johan Cruyff.
Therefore, with defending European champions, FC Barcelona Femení also playing at home this week, two women's Champions League matches will be staged at venues named after soccer's Dutch master.
This week's match will only be the second time, that the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam has staged a women's soccer match. On March 4, Ajax hosted an Eredivisie game against the club's historic rivals Feyenoord at the ArenA watched by 33,742 spectators.
That attendance broke the Dutch national record for a women's game and was a higher figure than the crowd that witnessed the Champions League final played in the Netherlands three months later. On that occasion, 33,147 saw the game between FC Barcelona and VfL Wolfsburg at the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven.
Both of those figures exceeded the highest attendances when the Netherlands hosted and won the UEFA Women's Euro in 2017. Then the final was played in front of 28,182 in Enschede but the country's biggest city Amsterdam was not utilized as a host city.
Now, as the Dutch lead, a three-nation bid to host the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup alongside neighbors Belgium and Germany, the Johan Cruijff ArenA is in contention to host several matches at the tournament which will be confirmed once the joint-bid's submission book is presented to FIFA next month.
After narrowly missing out on the group stage last season - going out to former European champions Arsenal 3-2 on aggregate - Ajax this year overcame the champions of Belarus, Dinamo Minsk, and Switzerland, FC Zürich, in the qualifying rounds. They previously reached the last 16 of the competition in 2018 when it was played in a straightforward knockout system, suffering a crushing 13-0 defeat to eventual champions Olympique Lyonnais.
In spite of their famous name in Dutch soccer, only one Ajax player, national team captain, Sherida Spitse was part of the latest Netherlands squad. That is not to say they are without recognized international talent. Striker Romée Leuchter scored twice for the Netherlands at UEFA Women's Euro 2022 and with seven goals in the UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying stages, she is currently the top scorer in this season's competiton. Added to the seven goals in six league games she has scored in the Eredivisie, she has already found the net fourteen times in just nine matches in this campaign.
Netherlands' striker Romee Leuchter celebrates scoring her team's second goal during the UEFA ... [+]
Uniquely, apart from the United States-born Lily Yohannes, the entire Ajax Women's Champions League squad is Dutch maintaining their tried and tested formula of bringing through home-grown talent made famous by Cruijff's European champions.
In a competition made up of multi-national squads, Ajax are an exception, only fellow competition debutants, Paris FC Féminines are comparable with just four foreign nationals in their squad. In comparison, 17 of Chelsea's 24-player squad are foreign, hailing from 14 different countries.
In the best traditions of the club, current head coach Suzanne Bakker previously worked for four years with the Ajax women's academy, the so-called Talent Team, bringing through many of the players now preparing to make their Champions League debuts on Wednesday. 17 members of the squad were born in the 21st century.
The club was founded only twelve years ago. The general manager of the team Daphne Koster, previously played for Ajax for five years before taking up her current post. One of her first acts was to negotiate a tailor-made collective labor agreement which ensured the same employment conditions for the men's and women's teams.
AMSTERDAM - (lr) Daphne Koster and Simon Tahamata during the Women's UEFA Champions League match ... [+]
Speaking to the club website, Koster struggled to contain her emotions when looking forward to her team playing in the group stage of the UEFA Women's Champions League this week. "Now I find it very normal," she said, "but I think I will only realize it when the time comes. Then I see all the people, the colleagues who are at work, the management who are present and the live broadcast. Then I realize: how much has changed in the past twelve years. Not only with us, but also in society. I hope that colleagues also feel that we achieved this together."
"It's unbelievable, but I feel like I've always believed in this. The question was when it was going to happen. The fact that we're realizing it with Ajax is great."
