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Real Madrid faces Ajax Amsterdam in the first leg of UEFA Champions League round of 16 tonight in Amsterdam. Those two are among the biggest clubs in the world and have won a lot of silverware between them.
Real are the biggest club in the world and won 13 Champions League titles, whereas Ajax dominated European football in the early 1970s and have won 4 Champions League titles. A lot of Ajax footballers have gone on to play their football in Spain. That list includes the legendary Johan Cruyff, who played very successfully for Ajax and Barcelona.
There have been a lot of footballers who have played for both Ajax and Barcelona. However, very few footballers have actually played for both Ajax and Real. We would take a look at 4 such footballers in this article.
#1 Clarence Seedorf
Seedorf rose to prominence while playing for Ajax under Louis Van Gaal in the early to mid- 1990s. Ajax won the Champions League in 1994-95 and had a very strong team with the likes of Patrick Kluivert, Frank De Boer and Seedorf. Seedorf was a very good attacking midfielder with all-around abilities.
He was very strong physically and also had good passing abilities. He was also a livewire and tireless worker on the pitch. He scored 11 goals in 90 matches for Ajax and played for them from 1992 to 1995.
Seedorf left Ajax in 1995 to join Sampdoria and subsequently joined Real Madrid in 1996. He again became part of a very strong Real Madrid side under Jupp Heynckes. He had the likes of Fernando Hierro, Raul Gonzalez, Predrag Mijatovic and Bodo IIlgner as his teammates and won 1 LaLiga and 1 Champions League title with Real.
Real defeated Juventus 1-0 in the Champions League final in 1997-98 and Seedorf played his part in that victory. He had earlier won the LaLiga title with Real in 1996-97. However, Seedorf left Real in 2000 and joined Inter Milan. He scored 20 goals in 159 matches for them.
Later, Seedorf won a Champions League title with AC Milan too, and remains the only player to do so with 3 different clubs. He remains one of the finest midfielders of his generation, and also among the most successful footballers of all time.
#2 Wesley Sneijder
The talented Sneijder was one of the best midfielders in the world in the late 2000s and early 2010s. He was a versatile player, who could play both as a central attacking midfielder and a left winger.
Sneijder has a great left foot and is very good with his free-kicks too. He played for Ajax from 2002 to 2007 and won 1 Eredivisie title for them. He also scored 58 goals in 180 matches for them.
He joined Real Madrid in 2007 and played there alongside compatriots Arjen Robben and Rafael Van Der Vaart. Real also had players like Kaka and Raul in their team, but could not do very well in European competitions in the late 2000s.
Sneijder managed to win 1 LaLiga title with Real in the 2007-08 season. He left Real for Inter Milan in 2009, and had a very successful stint there. He scored 11 goals in 66 matches for Real, and impressed their supporters with his enviable skills.
#3 Klaas Jan Huntelaar
Huntelaar is a veteran Dutch striker and currently a member of the Ajax squad. He had also earlier played for Ajax from 2006 to 2008. Huntelaar is a physically strong and opportunistic striker, much like Dutch legend Marco Van Basten. He is very strong in the air too.
He joined Real Madrid in 2009 and played there for a solitary season. He could not win any major silverware with either of those two clubs.
Huntelaar was signed by Real Madrid as a potential long-term replacement for Raul. However, Huntelaar struggled to make it to the starting eleven on a regular basis at Real, and could play only 20 matches for them. He also scored 8 goals for them. However, he was sold to Milan in 2009 itself.
Huntelaar had a successful stint with German club Schalke 04 from 2010 to 2017 and rejoined Ajax in 2017. Overall, he has scored 133 goals in 199 matches for the Dutch club.
#4 Rafael Van Der Vaart
Van Der Vaart is yet another Dutch footballer to have come through the youth ranks of Ajax. He joined Ajax's senior team in 2000 and played for them till 2005. He also scored 63 goals in 156 matches for them. He also won 2 Eredivisie titles with them.
Van Der Vaart is very easy on the eye because of his silken touch and astute passing. He is primarily a central attacking midfielder, who also can play on the flanks. He joined Hamburger SV from Ajax and spent a few successful seasons there
He joined Real Madrid in 2008 and spent a couple of seasons there. He played alongside his countrymen Robben and Sneijder at Real, but had difficulties in cementing a place for himself in the starting eleven and could not win any major silverware with them either. He scored 12 goals in 73 matches for Real before leaving the club in 2010.
