Sjaak Swart

1956/73 Ajax Amsterdam (HOL) 591 games, 212 goals

(Dutch Championship: 461 games, 170 goals)

(Dutch Cup: 65 games, 22 goals)

(European Champion Clubs' Cup: 43 games, 12 goals)

(UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 2 games)

(UEFA Cup: 10 games, 6 goals)

(International Football Cup: 6 games, 2 goals)

(UEFA Super Cup: 2 games)

(Intercontinental Cup: 2 games)

With the National Team :

31 caps, 10 goals

(Friendly matches: 22 caps, 8 goals)

(World Cup qualifiers: 3 caps)

(Euro qualifiers: 6 caps, 2 goals)

1st cap: June 26, 1960 against Mexico (1-3)

Last cap: August 30, 1972 against Czechoslovakia (2-1)

Jesaia "Sjaak" Swart

Born July 3, 1938 in Amsterdam (HOL)

Dutch, Right Winger, 1m75

Nickname: "Mister Ajax"

Born on July 3, 1938 in Amsterdam. The player began his career with the first team during the 1956-57 season, at the age of 18. However, Swart could have never been a football player. Indeed, Sjaak was born into a Jewish family, he and his father witnessed the German occupation during the Second World War and the Nazis' hunt for Jews. Pretending to be non-Jews, both individuals came out traumatized.

At the end of the war, the young boy dedicated himself to football and joined the ranks of Ajax Amsterdam. For his first season with Ajax Amsterdam, he won the Dutch championship. In a championship shared between Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV, the competition was tough and the level quite high.

Sjaak Swart will experience the golden age of his club after the arrival of a new generation, notably Keizer who will be a perfect complement to Swart as a winger on the other side. He won the championship in 1967 as well as the Dutch Cup. On the international level, he is one of the strong men of this team which is gaining momentum.

The 1968-69 season will be a pillar of Ajax's career and of Swart's career who reached the Champions League final but lost in the final. A bitter 4-1 defeat against AC Milan and a Pierino Prati who scored a hat-trick that evening.

From the 1971-72 season, Swart's role will increasingly be to be a rotation player with Johnny Rep who is a promising young winger. He will therefore see his favorite team live its golden age sometimes on the bench and sometimes on the field.

In the national team, Swart played 31 matches for 10 goals, but did not play in any major competition. At the end of the 1972-73 season and a third Champions League won, Swart retired. The winger who had distributed many pinpoint crosses left his club. Fast, good with his head, very good finisher, he was this talented winger, often at the level and capable of magnificent gestures.

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