Ajax

Founded in 1900, Ajax are Amsterdam's most decorated football club and a central institution in Dutch sporting culture. Known as de Godenzonen, or the Sons of the Gods, they play in white shirts with a broad red central panel. Their home is the Johan Cruyff Arena in south-east Amsterdam, named for the player whose ideas became inseparable from the club's identity.

Ajax have won 36 Dutch championships, 20 KNVB Cups, four European Cups or Champions Leagues and the UEFA Cup once. Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff made Total Football the defining language of the club, leading to three consecutive European Cups from 1971 to 1973. Louis van Gaal's youthful 1995 European champions later renewed that tradition through positional discipline, pressing and academy-developed technique.