Dutch football club Ajax Amsterdam announced, on Monday, its separation from its coach Maurice Stein due to disappointing results.
According to Agence France-Presse, the former giant of European football, mired in one of the worst crises in its 123-year history, said in a statement: “Ajax and Maurice Stein are separating with immediate effect.”
On Sunday, Ajax fell to the seventeenth and penultimate place in the league, after losing to FC Utrecht 4-3, which was the fourth loss in 7 matches.
For its part, the club management assigned the task of coaching the team to Hedwigs Maduro, Stein’s assistant, and his first task will be fraught with danger, facing its English host, Brighton, on Thursday, in the third round of the group stage of the European League (Europa League).
Stein moved to Ajax from Sparta Rotterdam last summer, and signed a 3-year contract with him until June 30, 2026. His contract was a surprise in the country, and many local media criticized him, especially since the new coach had not previously supervised Big clubs.
“We have come to the conclusion that this is what is best for Ajax, even if I regret it,” Stein said in a club statement.
He added regretfully: “I did everything to restore Ajax to the position it deserves, but I did not succeed.”
Stein, 49, previously coached ADO Den Haag, Venlo and Breda, in addition to the UAE club Al Wahda. Sparta Rotterdam also used his services in April 2022, and he was able to keep them in the Elite League at the end of the 2021-2022 season and then led them to sixth place during the 2022-2023 season before joining Ajax Amsterdam.
For his part, Ajax club interim director Janvan Halst said in a statement: “We have worked together intensively and very professionally in recent months, but the sporting results and team development results have been lagging behind.”
He added: “We decided together that it was better to separate from each other.”
He explained that the current assistant coach, Hedwigs Maduro, will take over the position of coach “in the coming period.”
At the beginning of this month, the former coach of the Dutch national team, Louis van Gaal, announced his return to Ajax in an advisory role.
Ajax has been going through a results crisis since the departure of its former coach Erik Ten Hag to Manchester United in April 2022, and his two successors, Alfred Schroeder and John Hentinga, failed to lead Ajax to the Champions League competition.
Stein led the team in only 7 league matches and two in the European League (a draw at home against Marseille in France and with its host AEK Athens in Greece).
The crisis also affected the club’s management, as Ajax dismissed its sporting director, Sven Mislintat, last month, and announced shortly after the departure of its chairman, Pierre Iringa.
In addition, last year, the club separated from its general manager, former international goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who was criticized for his management during the past two years.
It is noteworthy that former goalkeeper Van der Sar is recovering from a brain hemorrhage that he suffered on July 7, which caused him to spend about 10 days in intensive care.
2023-10-24 11:17:19
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