AFC Ajax and international partner clubs hold 1st Club Network Summit

■About the Club Network Summit
For two days from May 28th (Tuesday) to May 29th (Wednesday), AFC Ajax (hereinafter referred to as Ajax) hosted the "1st Club Network Summit" with partner clubs, which was the first attempt of its kind. It was held at Ajax's home stadium, the Johan Cruyff Arena, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. GAMBA OSAKA was invited as one of the partner clubs to introduce the club and exchange knowledge and experience related to football.

Attending clubs
・Ajax (Netherlands)
・CF Pachuca (Mexico)
・Athletico Paranaense (Brazil)
・Sharjah FC (UAE)
・GAMBA OSAKA(Japan)

■Summit Program
The summit highlighted the importance of networking for the future and success of the clubs involved and provided valuable insight into a shared vision of human resource development.

The meeting was officially opened by Ajax Technical Director, Mr. Alex Kroes, who emphasized the importance of this network for the future of the clubs involved, together with Head of the Ajax Coaching Academy, Mr. Corné Groenendijk, who said:

"It is great to welcome all our international partner clubs. With the two-day programme, we have been able to give further direction to the future of our multi-club network."

Following this, Football Director, Mr. Marijn Beuker, gave a presentation on Ajax's philosophy and shared his knowledge on how player talent is recognised. Furthermore, Head of Scouting & Recruitment, Mr. Kelvin de Lang, spoke about scouting at Ajax, highlighting collective decision-making within the team.

"It is great for Ajax and for the other clubs to see us all together for the first time. We have been working on building the network for years to broaden our scouting scope. The wider the network, the more meaningful it will be for both of us and the more we can support each other in terms of the youth academy. "

Mr. Ocyr Azevedo Neto, Board Assistant at Athletico Paranaense, said:

"We are happy to be in Amsterdam and to have had the opportunity to learn from Ajax. This experience will provide valuable insights that we can bring back to Athletico and will foster innovation and positive change within the club. Embracing new ideas from around the world is crucial for our growth.

Learning from the Ajax academy will have a huge impact on our young players. The global hub that Ajax is creating is incredibly positive and we are very honored to have been selected to be part of this network. We believe that this network will become even stronger. "

■Through participation in the summit
Football director Mr. Matsuda from Gamba Osaka, who participated, had this to say:
"As part of our strategic partnership with Ajax, we have already visited each other's cities of Amsterdam and Osaka and have built a strong partnership. In order to further develop this strategic partnership, we were convinced that we needed to learn more, and when we received an invitation from Ajax to attend the Club Network Summit, we immediately decided to participate.
At this summit, we were able to reaffirm the commonality in our football philosophies. We also had concrete discussions regarding the aims of the partnership, such as strengthening scouting, utilizing data, and exchanging players and coaches, and we are particularly looking forward to seeing the benefits in strengthening our academy. We also learned a lot from the business side of things, and we are pleased to have been able to exchange views. We hope that by utilizing this network, we can work hard together as independent clubs, and develop together.

■ Participation in football industry event Soccerex Europe
On Thursday, May 30th, the day after the summit, a football industry event called "Soccerex Europe" was held at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Representatives from the clubs that attended the summit took to the stage for a panel discussion. From GAMBA OSAKA, football director Mr. Matsuda took to the stage and introduced the club, after which he exchanged opinions with each club regarding the significance of the partnership and the development of academies. The event ended with a great success, with many questions from the audience.