Ajax' Members of Merit

Hein Delsen

Born on : 1895-01-13
Died on : 1954-11-13
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Frans de Haan

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Henk Hordijk

Born on : 1893-09-19
Died on : 1975-12-19
Henk Hordijk played for Ajax from season 1914-15 until 1927, mainly as a midfielder (with players such as André de Kruijff and Joop Pelser). During the season 1923-24 Henk Hordijk temporarily lost his place in the first team squad (he did play for the second team), but later came back and in season 1926-27 he was the central striker of Ajax 1, scoring 17 goals and becoming that season's top scorer for Ajax. During his long active carreer at Ajax Henk Hordijk was part of the second promotion of Ajax to the first division and the first domestic championships.
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K. Kooiman

Died on : 1939-10-20
K. Kooiman was in teacher in Amsterdam with soccer as his greatest pasttime. Amonst other things he was for many years the secretary of the school soccer committee of the Amsterdam soccer association and he wrote on sports for the newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad. For Ajax he was mostly active for the youth, but he wrote for the clubmagazine as well.

Jan de Natris

Born on : 1895-11-13
Died on : 1972-09-16
Jan de Natris played in three different periods at Ajax. His longest and most successful time was during his first period from season 1914-15 until 1920-21. He played as the right winger with Wim Gupffert leftwinger and together they were a very important factor in the successes that were achieved during this period, such as the promotion to the first division, the first Dutch Cup win, and the first two domestic championships. Jan de Natris also became international during this period. Afterwards he left for De Spartaan where he only played for one season. He went to Blauw-Wit where he also played only one season before returning to Ajax. After two seasons he left for Vitesse. As a reason he gave that due to new additions to the squad he could no longer play as winger and would have to play on an inner forward position, which was not his strong suit. After more than 3 seaons at Vitesse Jan de Natris returns to Ajax during the 1928-29 season where he finishes that season.
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P.J.M. van Os

Born on : 1884-12-13
Died on : 1954-03-31
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Fons Pelser

Born on : 1893-12-28
Died on : 1974-07-03
Fons Pelser was from 1913-14 until 1925-26 player of Ajax, first as attacked, but mainly as defender. Fons Pelser was the youngest of 4 brothers (together with Adriaan, Jan and Joop) that joined Ajax via its merger with Holland. After first Jan (as goalkeeper) and Adriaan became active for Ajax 1, later both Joop and Fons became long time pilars of Ajax 1. Fons formed the defense together with Frans Couton for many years, with his brother Joop as Spil.
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Simon Tump

Born on : 1893-07-01
Died on : 1975-12-05

Piet van Reenen

Born on : 1909-01-17
Died on : 1969-06-08
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Cor de Vlieger

Born on : 1903-11-19
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Gerard Ziegeler

Born on : 1894-07-28
Died on : 1985-06-04
Gerard Ziegeler was the goalkeeper for Ajax during the first three seasons in the first division and the two seasons afterwards in the second division. Together with Frans Schoevaart, Joop Pelser, Joop van Dort, Frits Terwee and Theo Brokmann Sr. he belonged to a small group of players that stayed loyal to Ajax after the relegation. Henk Schutte (who replaced Jan van Dodeweerd) was the first choice as goalkeeper in season 1911-12, but when his performance was not satisfactory and also Jan Schindeler did not seem the right choice as his replacement, Gerard Ziegeler got a chance which he took. Ultimately Gerard Ziegeler was replaced by Jan Smit in season 1916-17. Gerard Ziegeler also was able to play as a fieldplayer and stayed with the lower teams of Ajax as such in later years and also played in few cup matches while the first team squad was playing other matches.
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Joop Bieshaar

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Theo Schetters

Born on : 1896-04-21
Died on : 1973-12-08
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Tjerk de Munnik

Henk Anderiesen

Born on : 1898-12-03
Died on : 1980-04-01
Henk Anderiesen moved to Ajax from 't Gooi together with his brother Wim and Henk Twelker at the start of season 1925-26. With the exception of season 1929-30, when preference was given to Theo Schetters, Henk Anderiesen was part of the regular lineups for seven seasons, mostly as a rightmidfielder, sometimes as a back. Later his position as right midfielder was taken over by Piet van Deyck.
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Henk Blomvliet

Born on : 1911-02-24
Died on : 1980-03-14
Appointed : 1953
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Piet van Deijck

Born on : 1906-08-27
Piet van Deyck player from 1925 until 1937 for Ajax. He was not first choice during all seasons, but did play over 150 matches for the first team. Van Deyck played both in defense and midfield, together with players such as Dolf van Kol, Henk Anderiesen, Wim Anderiesen Sr. and Jan van Diepenbeek.
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Gerrit Keizer

Born on : 1910-08-18
Died on : 1980-12-05
There are some great stories about Gerrit Keizer's early years, which try to make us believe Gerrit Keizer played for years at both Ajax and Arsenal, flying between the Netherlands and England each weekend to play for both teams, while the Dutch Soccer Association benefitted Ajax by allowing this against regulations. The reality is not that spectaculair. When the season 1928-29 is coming to an end, Ajax lets Gerrit Keizer play a few matches in Ajax 1 as a replacement for the injured Jan de Boer. Gerrit Keizer is at that time already a member of Ajax for several years and goalkeeper of Ajax III. One of the opponents, VUC, who have heard Keizer is also playing soccer in England, asked the Dutch soccer association to investigate whether Keizer is elligible to play. This had nothing to do with professional soccer, but had to do with the regulations that required a team to ask for dispensation if they wanted to use a player that had played matches in a foreign amateur competition. Ajax made clear that it was not the case that Gerrit Keizer had played any official matches in England. It is unclear whether the Dutch Soccer Association did any investigation on its own, but it seems the issue was closed. It seems Gerrit Keizer spent more of his time in England in the subsequent season (1929-30), and started to play official amateur matches. He did make such a good impression that he was asked by Arsenal to sign up with them as a professional soccer player in June 1930. It is unclear how long he has been under contract exactly, but this was very likely a very short period, at most a couple of months, because government bodies took action to prevent foreigners to get professional soccer contracts. He continued as amateur and was goalkeeper in several matches during the 1930-31 season. This is the period that, according to stories, Keizer would fly back and forth weekly between Netherlands and England playing for both Ajax and Arsenal, but we haven't found any indication this actually happened, and if it happened, it was not for Ajax 1. In theory it could have been that he was playing for a lower Ajax team, but it is unlikely it were official matches organized by the Dutch soccer association, because since Gerrit Keizer was a paid soccer player at Arsenal, it took according to regulations 3 years, until the start of season 1933-34, before Gerrit Keizer was allowed to play official matches for Ajax 1 again, and it seems unlikely to us that regulations would have been different for other matches organized by the Dutch Soccer Association. During the preparation for season 1933-34 Keizer was competing with Joop Vis to determine who could follow Jan de Boer, which Keizer quite easily won. From that moment onwards he was the first choice goalkeeper until the start of 1948, totalling 302 official matches for Ajax 1.
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Jan Koomen

Wim Gupffert

Born on : 1894-10-18
Died on : 1958-12-27
Wim Gupffert joined Ajax from Blauw-Wit at the start of seizoen 1915-16 and formed for years the wing attack together with Jan de Natris, with Gupffert as leftwinger and De Natris as rightwinger. They played an important part in the (second) promotion to the first division and the first championship. They also both played for the Dutch national squad. Wim Gupffert was faced with various injuries, missed a large part of the 1919-20 season, and decided to stop at the start of season 1921-22 after once again dealing with an injury. Wim Gupffert played 127 official matches for Ajax in which he scored 62 times according to our information, and this is undoubtedly more because especially concerning the period Ajax played in the second division we do not have complete information. Still he does not appear on Ajax&39; Club of 100 list, possibly because the second division matches are not counted.
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