Edwin van der Sar decided to stay with Ajax when Manchester United contacted him two years ago about the possibility of returning to Old Trafford as Director of Football.
So it’s ironic that the club he served with such distinction as goalkeeper for six years sowed the seeds for his departure last summer when they persuaded Erik ten Hag to become their new manager - and the Dutchman took Antony and Lisandro Martinez with him.
Ajax have just endured their worst season for 14 years, finishing third as bitter bitter rivals Feyenoord took away the Eredivisie title. And Van der Sar handed in his resignation as the Amsterdam club’s chief executive just 24 hours after fans turned on him during a 3-1 defeat at FC Twente.
Ajax’s failure to qualify for the Champions League has been a huge blow.
The club’s demise was started by Ten Hag’s departure to United and hastened by the sale of Antony and Lisandro Martinez to the Old Trafford club. Ajax did not want to lose either player - but both threatened to go on strike to force the issue.
And although the Dutch giants banked £130million for the pair, they were part of an exodus that also saw star names like Sebastien Haller, Ryan Gravenberch, Nicolas Tagliafico, Andre Onana, Perr Schuurs and Noussair Mazraoui leave the club.
Ajax were also rocked when sporting director Marc Overmars was forced to resign over a sexting scandal. Van der Sar and Overmars had worked together to return Ajax to the summit of Dutch football both on and off the pitch.
They helped construct a team that won three successive Eredivisie titles either side of the pandemic and that came within seconds of reaching the 2018 Champions League final before falling to a spectacular Tottenham comeback in the semi-finals.
That was despite raising a fortune in the transfer market that saw them sell top talents like Frenkie De Jong, Matthijs De Ligt, Donny van der Beek and Hakim Ziyech.
Van der Sar has spent the last 11 years on the board of the club that launched his glittering playing career in 1990.
United spoke to the 52-year-old about returning to United in 2021. But the Dutchman did not feel the role came with enough responsibility after working his way up to the top job at Ajax.
Van der Sar had been Ajax’s commercial director before being named chief executive. He will work a notice period that will end in August and sources in Holland believe he will then take some time out of the game to decide his next step. United’s current owners are unlikely to approach him again while the club is up for sale.
But buying rivals Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh bin Hamad al-Thani will both know that the return of Van der Sar would make sense from both a business and PR perspective given his relationship with Ten Hag.
