RICHMOND, VA - (Thursday, November 12, 2009) – Richmond Kickers Technical Director, Ihor Dotsenko, recently visited AFC Ajax in Amsterdam, one of the most storied soccer clubs in European history. The invitation was provided by former Kickers Technical Director, Eddie Van Schaick who is now the Head Coach of Ajax’s U-12 youth team.

“Ajax’s youth academy is one of the best player development programs in the world and when an opportunity presented itself to learn firsthand on how the club develops its talent, I jumped on it right away,” comments Dotsenko. 

During Dotsenko’s visit to Ajax, he was able to observe training sessions and games in various age groups.  He gained invaluable insight into the club’s structure, while learning about Ajax curriculum, their use of scientists, psychologists, nutritionists, speed and conditioning coaches, specialized technique coaches, a gymnastics coach and a martial arts coach to provide the best possible environment for youth development.

“l look forward to sharing my unique experiences at Ajax and the wealth of knowledge that I gathered during my visit there with all our youth coaches in the upcoming days, weeks and months,” adds Dotsenko.

A world famous youth academy, the goal of Ajax is to form talented youth players into top soccer players.  Considered the breeding ground for Dutch football, the youth teams are trained in exactly the same way as the first team and are therefore already accustomed to Ajax’s style of play.  Partly dependent on players from its own youth academy, Ajax strives to keep the way of playing soccer recognizable, attractive, offensive-minded, creative, fast, fair and preferably far away from the own goal on the opponents half.  Johan Cruijff, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Wim Kieft, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Kluivert are but a few of the international stars that have successfully completed the training at the youth academy.