Jasper Juinen for The New York Times
AMSTERDAM — Last summer, seven of Ajax’s brightest stars were summoned to a room at the Dutch club’s training facility. Edwin van der Sar, the goalkeeper-turned-chief-executive, and Marc Overmars, once a jet-heeled wing and now the Ajax sporting director, had a video to show them.
Its premise was simple. Each of the players was paired with an iconic figure from Ajax’s illustrious history, one who shared a position, a nationality or (in one case) a bloodline. Goalkeeper Andre Onana, in one example, had van der Sar. Forward Kasper Dolberg got Zlatan Ibrahimovic.