Former Juventus, Manchester United, and Dutch national goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar will be speaking at the Soccerex Global Convention, 26-28 September, Manchester, lifting the lid on philosophies which underpin the all the activities of AFC Ajax – the club where he is now a Director – including its world famous academy.

The Amsterdam based club is the most successful team in the history in Dutch football and over the years, has produced many of the world’s best players in the world such as van der Sar, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Kluivert and of course the late, great Johan Cruyff who was part of the clubs most successful era leading the club to three successive European Cups between 1971 and 1973.

Ajax has always been synonymous with developing young talent. Van der Sar describes Ajax in 2016 as “a club that focus on producing young players” with the club’s academy built on Cruyff’s football ideology and the club as a whole prioritizing youth where possible.

After calling time on his playing career, van der Sar did a masters degree in sports and brand management at the Johan Cruyff Institute before joining Ajax in November 2012 as Marketing Director. He is part of a cadre of former players now working at the club to implement the club’s philosophies on the next generation including Marc Overmars who is the Technical Director and Denis Bergkamp who is part of the coaching team and member of Ajax’so called ‘technical heart’.

Commenting on van der Sar’s involvement, Soccerex CEO Duncan Revie, said:
“It is an honour to welcome Edwin back to Soccerex, undoubtedly one of the finest goalkeepers of his or any other generation. With the sad passing of Johan Cruyff earlier this year, I glad we will in a small way showcase Cruyff’s legacy at Ajax, the club where it all began for him and Edwin’s insight on this will be fascinating”.

Van der Sar will be part of a thought-provoking conference programme at the Soccerex Global Convention 2016,designed to deliver unique business insight across a variety of key sectors and subject matters ranging from sponsorship and fan engagement to the technological innovations and stadium development.