2019-04-01 World Soccer

PEOPLE AND PLACES IN THE NEWS

board member, asked his son Daley
to return from Manchester United,
scout Henk Veldmate had the task of
convincing Tadic. Veldmate, who also
discovered Luis Suarez in Uruguay, was
the man responsible for Tadic’s arrival
at Groningen in 2010.
In the end, Ajax paid Southampton
€11.5m and made the Backa Topola-
born Serb the best paid player in

Holland, on a salary said to be €2m.

There was an early dressing-room

clash, with Tadic wanting the number 10

shirt. Ajax agreed, expecting Hakim

Ziyech to leave, but with the Moroccan

staying there was a problem – although

it was quickly solved and Tadic was

handed the shirt.

Winning that prestigious fight shows

the importance of Tadic to Ajax. To his

team-mates he is a role model. Ask any

Ajax player where you can find him and

they all have the same answer: in the

gym. Just like he was at his former clubs

Vojvodina Novi Sad, Groningen, Twente

and Southampton.

“Nobody is more demanding for

himself than Dusan,” says Robbert

Schilder, a former Ajax player who was

Tadic’s team-mate at Twente. “With that

attitude he inspired the rest of the team.

He was a winner.”

He was always striving to improve,

sometimes in unconventional ways. In

Enschede, chairman Joop Munsterman

once had to drag him off the pitch when

he refused to leave despite not being

fully fit. He also once played with a fever.

And despite shaking all over his body he

was one of the best players on the pitch.

Considering all the hard work he has

put in in the past, his two sublime games

against Real Madrid could be seen as his

just reward. They also caused some wry

smiles overseas. There are English

pundits who claim the Premier League

didn’t see the real Tadic. But during his

four seasons with Southampton he was

in the top five of the league’s assist

providers three times. Not a bad record

for a player from a team that never came

close to being top six material.

By defeating Real Madrid, Ajax and

Tadic received worldwide praise. However,

arrogance is also part of the club’s DNA

and there is some talk in Amsterdam that

winning the Champions League is now

just a matter of time. With clubs like

Barcelona, Manchester City and Juventus

still in the competition, that might just

be a bridge too far.

But who is to say that Ajax can’t pull

off this trick again? Or that Dusan Tadic

can’t grab the headlines again?

After all, it was for nights like these

that he came to Ajax.

Klaas-Jan Droppert

Saint...at Southampton