Ajax espressed its faith in Jelle Van Damme today by offering him a new contract, until the summer of 2007. Discuss our Belgian giant in this thread!

Good move. Didn't really like him at first (he seemed to have bad technique and was nervous on the pitch), but I'm happy to have been proved wrong lately. I think he'll have a very bright future. Hopefully at Ajax.

I've also had big difficulties with him as a player but as Jakob points out he's developed since. The only live performance I've caught of him helped too I must say. He's young, he's got talent - good signing I think!

I agree fully with the sentiments of Jakob and Per . I would only add that in a team whose height(6'1" and over) can pretty much be measured on one hand; Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Petri Pasanen, Jelle van Damme; this is a welcome move. Also, he can play inside or on the left side.Versatility+Height+ talent+ youth=Good player for years to come.

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Originally Posted by TattooQ
I would only add that in a team whose height(6'1" and over) can pretty much be measured on one hand...

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The story behind Thomas Vermaelen's début is told by Jelle Van Damme in Belgian newspaper De Gazet van Antwerpen today. Very funny.

Quote: "I was not in the squad for the Volendam game, so I drove to Belgium on Saturday morning. However, on Sunday morning Escudé's wife had their baby. Koeman tried to call me, but I slept 'til noon on Sunday. When I woke up four voicemail messages were waiting for me."

Way to go, Jelle!

Weird...I thought that almost all professional football players, if not chosen in the squad, were obliged to follow the game from the stands. If you are in the team, you are in the team. You don't just drive off to Belgium and make yourself unavailable until two hours before the game.

Besides all that, it's quite a funny story given that it all came out well and Tomas got to make his debut.

Just go go on us in the future Jelle!

Time for Jelle to invest in a louder phone or a loud beeper.

According to Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws RSC Anderlecht is currently looking into the option of buying Jelle Van Damme. The Brussels side needs an extra defender, now that Glen De Boeck will be ruled out for a long time. Van Damme, as we all know, does not get to play regularly at Ajax, but he has a good reputation in Belgium, where he is an undisputed starter in the national team. Anderlecht is investigating whether it can pay the (unknown) transfer fee demanded by Ajax.

I don't know. Maybe this would be a good thing... We have a lot of defenders, so I'm not too sure about Jelle's future in Amsterdam.

It's been up and down a lot with Jelle. Seing him in the CL was not good , he displayed flaws on a regular basis there according to me. On the other hand I've seen him tatally dominate both ground and air of the left flank in other games so it's hard to evaluate him purely from CL-games. He is still young and has potential, but with JOB and Maxwell in the team he probably will be third choice for the remainder of their stay.

In my opinion it's up to Jelle, if he wants to stay and try to excel further with Ajax he's more than welcome to me. If he wants to leave to get some regular football and develop elsewhere I'd which him the best of luck.

JOB is unfortunately often injured and I don't think Maxwell will play two or three more seasons at Ajax. So why not lend him for one season ?

I've seen him play against France last week, and I thought he was the better of his team. I don't want to see him leave Ajax definitively so young.

Ajax.nl reports that Jelle has been sold to Southampton. I can't write a news report yet (as Ajax USA is down at the moment), but this is a confirmed fact. The transfer fee has not been revealed, but is said to be "substantial".

I will now close Jelle's thread down. From now on we can discuss him in the Players Leaving Ajax thread...

http://www.soccerpages.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12431