Business of Sport: Edwin van der Sar on leading an iconic football club
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2021
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mark Chapman & The Athletic's Matt Slater are joined by Edwin van der Sar to discuss his journey from being a hugely successful player to leading one of European football's most famous football clubs as CEO of AFC Ajax.
We also hear how Edwin's work at Ajax is being noticed from other clubs including his former side Manchester United.
In a wide ranging discussion, Edwin also details the every day challenges he faces in his role from recruitment, managing finances and creating an authentic connection with fans through the club's unique culture and Bob Marley.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic. |
| 0:13.2 | Hello, I'm Mark Chapman. |
| 0:14.6 | Welcome to the Business of Sport podcast on The Athletic. |
| 0:17.2 | Matt Slater with us, as usual. |
| 0:19.1 | And our guest today is Edwin Van Dazara, |
| 0:21.7 | a legend on the football pitch as a player winning the Champions League at both |
| 0:24.9 | Manchester United and Iax. |
| 0:27.1 | And since retiring, he started a charity foundation, |
| 0:30.7 | picked up a master's degree in sport management from the Johann Croyfe Institute, |
| 0:34.7 | and then went back to Ayax to take on the role of sporting director. And then in 2016, he took on his current role as CEO of the club. Welcome to the pod, Edwin. Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you, Mark. And hi, Matt. Hi. Hi. How are you? Not too bad, to be fair. It's, yeah, we're playing a cup match tonight and looking forward to the rest of the season. |
| 0:57.4 | It's been interesting so far. |
| 0:59.4 | And it's positive. |
| 1:01.5 | And let's hope we can move on for the rest of the season. |
| 1:05.0 | That's some career path since retiring from playing football. |
| 1:09.9 | How much was that in your plans as you came to the end of your |
| 1:14.2 | career? Not really, to be fair, because I think the moment I was 34, when Alex Ferguson gave me a call |
| 1:23.8 | to talk about a possible move to United. |
| 1:30.1 | I didn't really see that one coming. |
| 1:32.8 | Then I hope, let's say, okay, I was at United for two years. |
| 1:37.1 | Let's hope to win a Premier League title and then retire at 36. |
| 1:41.5 | But finally, it was 40 when I ended up my career. |
| 1:44.0 | Yeah, just before the end, I got a call from Johan Krive. |
... |
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