Ajax settled without problems with RKC on Sunday, 3-0. Striking was the performance of debutant Mohammed Kudus, a 20-year-old Ghanaian.
He walked across Ajax's midfield as if he had been playing there for years. With the calm and charisma of a veteran, Mohammed Kudus made a successful debut in an official Ajax match. With every touch of the ball, the 8,500 spectators rebounded.
With seventy percent of the votes, they chose him as man of the match. The Johan Cruijff Arena has another crowd favorite. Rightly so: Kudus got the ball a lot and did almost everything right.
When he came over from Danish FC Nordsjaelland for nine million euros this summer, he must have counted on more resistance in the premier league than RKC offered on Sunday. The one-sided duel with the relegation candidate from Waalwijk offered Kudus the opportunity to profile himself as an asset with physical strength, a refined left foot and insight into the game.
The football academy in Accra
'Right to Dream' is the fitting name of the football academy in the Ghanaian capital Accra where Kudus originates. Football training started in 1999 on a dusty terrain, as a form of development aid, to offer underprivileged boys the perspective of a better life.
The professionalized project has already resulted in twenty professional players. Kudus ended up in Denmark two years ago, where Ajax scout John Steen Olsen kept an eye on him. This summer, many clubs in England, Germany and Italy wanted him. Kudus chose Ajax. "On instinct, I felt it in my stomach that I had to do this," he said on Sunday after the game.
The 20-year-old was said to be a dribbler, in keeping with the tradition of the Amsterdam School. In the Danish Superliga, he was a winger but mainly an attacking midfielder. T gene RKC he showed that he can be in more areas of value for Ajax. Coach Ten Hag mainly sees him as a defensive midfielder.
Ten Hag put the Ghanaian in that role on Sunday left in midfield, as controller and playmaker, replacing the absent Gravenberch. “This is a new position for me. I am actually ten, but I am always looking for new challenges to develop myself ”, Kudus said afterwards. Had he been nervous? "I believe in myself."
Frivolity
Ten Hag had occasionally seen him searching in the field. But the Ghanaian was almost always playable and remained almost flawless in his passing. Occasionally he allowed himself a little frivolity, to the delight of the audience.
One of his technical qualities, quickly turning away with the ball, Kudus showed after 34 minutes. Suddenly swinging from the left to his 'lesser' right foot, he put the ball exactly to size at the far post, where the in-coming Mazraoui striker offered Labyad an unmissable chance: 2-0. Tadic had scored the first goal in the tenth minute.
From time to time, Kudus showed that he could also physically stand his ground. He got yellow when he had to defuse an impending outbreak of RKC. With a goal, he could not crown his baptism of fire at Ajax.
A hard shot with - surprisingly enough - to the right ended up on Lamprou's fists. The third goal from Ajax came anyway: a striking header from Martinez. RKC was then already with ten men; Wouters got red from referee Nijhuis after an intervention by the VAR. He also rejected two Ajax goals.