Chelsea remain interested in Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana.
The Cameroon No1 is viewed at Chelsea as a replacement for Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Voetbal International says Bayer Leverkusen is entering a tug of war with Chelsea and has offered €20m for Onana.
But Chelsea are still in the picture and are ready to offer Ajax around €30m.
Chelsea have now secured Champions League games for next season, which means a bump in the transfer budget for manager Frank Lampard.
Former Super Eagles player Pius Ikedia has revealed he enjoyed the best part of his professional career at Eredivisie giants Ajax.
Playing at Cote d’Ivoire’s Asec Mimosas at that time, the pint-sized winger was signed by the former European champions on the back of an impressive display at the 1999 Fifa U20 World Cup.
At the tournament, he scored his only goal in the Round of 16 clash against the Republic of Ireland where the Flying Eagles edged the Europeans on penalties after the scores stood at 1-1 after extra-time.
Owing to a lack of playing time at the Johan Cruyff Arena, he was loaned to Groningen and RBC Roosendaal before an outright sale to AZ Alkmaar in 2005 – where he was loaned to another Dutch outfit RKC Waalwijk.
However, he claimed he played his best football at Ajax, although there was not much money to spend.
“For me, Ajax was where I played my best football because they take care of their players,” the 40-year-old said on Brilla FM as reported by Completesports.
“In terms of money they don’t spend that much but you are comfortable, the training is one of the best if not the best in Europe.”
Former Ajax coach Louis van Gaal has no doubts about the quality of new Chelsea signing Hakim Ziyech.
Ziyech officially becomes a Chelsea player on July 1 and Van Gaal, who managed Ajax between 1991 and 1997, believes the Moroccan offers more than just an attacking threat.
“He has developed tremendously at Ajax. Not so much in creativity, but as a team player,” Van Gaal told NOS.
“The public has come to realize that he works very hard for a creative person. And then he also scores goals and gives assists.
“Then you are a special player.”
Eredivisie, highest echelon of professional football in the Netherlands has ended the league’s season, as Ajax is denied the title, without promotion or relegation of clubs.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the decision was made by the KNVB, the Dutch football association on Friday following a club vote after the federation stated that it was not an option to increase the league to 20 teams.
The decision followed an announcement made by Prime Minister Mark Rutte that all matches are forbidden in the Netherlands until September.
With the decision, there will be no relegation, there will be no promotion and leaders Ajax will not be awarded the title this season, TNG learnt.
The Dutch league is the first of the major European leagues to be cancelled due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
UEFA asked the Dutch federation to maintain the current standings of FC to decide which teams are awarded spots in European competition.
With the decision, Ajax head straight to the last round of Champions League qualification despite being level on points with AZ Alkmaar, who will enter in the second round of qualifiers.
Meanwhile, third placed Feyenoord will head to the Europa League group stage, while PSV and Willem II will enter the Europa League in the third and second round of qualifiers, respectively.
Additionally, ADO Den Haag and RKC Waalwijk will remain in the Eredivisie next season after the Dutch federation opted to not promote or relegate any teams based on this season’s results.
With the decision, Cambuur and De Graafschap will remain in the second division despite being on course for promotion to the Eredivisie.
Ajax star, Hakim Ziyech, has now signed a five-year deal with Chelsea.
The Blues triggered a £37million release clause in the Moroccan’s contract and on Sunday evening, they announced personal terms have been agreed.
Frank Lampard is already working on his squad ahead of next season, with the likes of Pedro and Willian expected to leave Stamford Bridge.
“I am delighted and proud to have signed for such a huge club as Chelsea.
“I am looking forward to next season and hope we can achieve great things together,” Ziyech told the club website.
Chelsea director, Marina Granovskaia, added: “We are delighted Hakim will be joining us in the summer, having been a key target of the club’s in this last window.
“We wish Hakim and Ajax all the best for the rest of the season and look forward to welcoming him to Stamford Bridge in the summer.”
Ziyech becomes Lampard’s first signing since their transfer ban was lifted.
The 26-year-old has played 18 times in the Eredivisie this season, scoring six goals and laying on 13 assists.
From captaining a club in crisis in his early twenties through to shining on Europe’s biggest stage, Hakim Ziyech has experienced much on his journey from street footballer to becoming Chelsea’s latest signing.
The Dutch-born Morocco midfielder is poised to head to London this summer after Chelsea agreed a fee with Ajax that could rise to more than £36m.
While any big-money transfer to the Premier League comes laden with expectation, 26-year-old Ziyech has already shown he is no stranger to adversity or pressure.
The youngest of nine children, his father died when he was 10, leaving his mother to raise a large family on a modest income.
Football became a particular focus for the family, with two of Hakim’s siblings holding aspirations of making it in the game.
But as their hopes faded, it instead fell to the youngest Ziyech to keep the dream alive.
He had honed his talents on the streets of the Dutch town of Dronten, eventually graduating to the academies of local clubs Reaal and ASV, before his big chance came when he joined Heerenveen as a 14-year-old in 2007.
He soon made an impression at the Abe Lenstra Stadium – his first-team bow coming at 19 – and before long the club was providing Ziyech with a springboard to success.
However, joining FC Twente in 2014 in the midst of the club’s financial crisis brought unique challenges, as did his 2016 transfer to Dutch giants Ajax, where he would find himself caught up in fan unrest as the club endured a five-year title drought.
“In my eyes he is unbreakable,” says Dutch football writer Marcel van der Kraan. “He’s been through a lot in his life and he then had a difficult start at Ajax, with the fans on his back and confronting him.
“Marco van Basten [his former coach at Heerenveen] didn’t see a great future for him and he let none of that affect him.
“Twente were on the edge of bankruptcy and as the captain at a young age, he had to appear in front of the press every week and answer questions that should not have been addressed to him but the club’s board.
“He let his feet do the talking and handled it all in his stride and I think that has made him.”
BBC
Ajax midfielder, Hakim Ziyech, has reportedly reached an oral agreement with Chelsea.
The 26-year-old’s future at Johan Cruijff Arena remains uncertain ahead of the 2020/21 season.
Ziyech has been impressive for Ajax since he joined the club from Twente in 2016.
According to De Telegraaf, Chelsea and the Moroccan international already has a verbal agreement to move to Stamford Bridge this summer for €45 million (£37.8 million).
The Dutch newspaper reports that the Blues manager, Frank Lampard, is a massive admirer of Ziyech, who gave two assists against the West London club during both side’s UEFA Champions League group stage encounters last season.
Chelsea will take on Manchester United in the Premier League on Monday night at Stamford Bridge following a 2-2 draw with Leicester City in their last encounter.
Ajax and Netherlands defender Daley Blind has been diagnosed with a heart condition after suffering from dizziness during the Champions League game against Valencia on 10 December.
The ex-Manchester United player, 29, has missed the last two matches of the year and will not rejoin training in January as he continues his recovery.
Ajax said Blind had been “diagnosed with heart muscle inflammation” after extensive medical examination.
“I feel good at the moment,” he said.
“I am trying to come back as soon as possible.”
Blind has been fitted with a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator, which sends electrical pulses to regulate abnormal heart rhythms, specifically those that can be dangerous and cause a cardiac arrest.
Ajax defender, Matthijs de Ligt has revealed why he had chosen Juventus ahead of other clubs.
De Ligt said that as a boy, he dreamed of being with Cristiano Ronaldo and he even owned a United shirt with the Portuguese star’s name on the back.
Ronaldo, after Portugal’s win over Netherlands, had told De Ligt to consider joining him at Juventus.
The 19-year-old centre-back has emerged as one of the hottest talents in Europe after a superb season at the back for the Dutch champions.
De Ligt’s current form has brought about interest from across Europe with Manchester United, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain all jostling for his signature.
The defender is closing in on a move to the Serie A giants where he will link up with his boyhood hero.
He has reportedly agreed a five-year contract at Juve and the prospect of playing with Ronaldo clearly appeals to him.
Speaking to Dutch magazine VI recently, De Ligt explained: “It all went quickly, I realise that sometimes. During the season, at the club and during competitions, you don’t really have the time to review everything as a player.
“But sometimes there are times when I realise that it is not normal. Like recently, when I had dinner with some childhood friends.
“We came to the conclusion that I always wanted to be Cristiano Ronaldo when we were playing football in the garden. That was especially in his time when he played at Manchester United.
“My first football shirt also belonged to him from that time. That dinner was just after the meetings with Juventus, in which I had to fight duels with the same Ronaldo.”
Ajax Amsterdam have extended coach Erik ten Hag’s contract till the end of June 2022 after he guided the Dutch side to a league and cup double as well as the semi-finals of the Champions League.
“I’m really happy. We had a good season and I want to build on that,” he told the club’s website (www.ajax.nl)
“The results we have achieved so far were fantastic and it will be a hell of a job to repeat them.
“But we will set ourselves goals and seek to achieve them,” the 49-year-old added.
Ten Hag’s original contract was due to end in mid 2020.
“We are looking forward to the next years with a lot of confidence,” added club director Marc Overmars.
“We think it’s important that after such a successful season the coach stays to work on building on the success.
“That will not be easy, of course, as certain players will leave, but we hope to temper that well. Erik has to create another team to watch out for and we have the confidence he will do so,” he said.
The Dutchman’s young team won a lot of plaudits during their unexpected run to the Champions League semi-finals. En route, they knocked out holders Real Madrid and Serie A champions Juventus.
Ten Hag took charge of Ajax in December 2017 after the club fired Marcel Keizer.
Ten Hag worked alongside Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, where he coached the club’s reserve team, before returning to the Netherlands to take charge at Utrecht in 2015.
During his first two seasons with Utrecht, he guided them to fifth and fourth-place finishes.