The Unchartered Ajax Experience: The Smit-Cruyff Partnership

By Eric Beard, finally concluding my Ajax Experience series.

The Ajax vs AZ Alkmaar match at Amsterdam ArenA was on Sunday, which meant the flight from Amsterdam would have to be delayed until Monday evening. One more day. Well, classes could wait.

It was a weekday, not to mention our 5th day in the city, so no partying or anything of that nature was on the cards. Our hotel was just next to the Museumplein, so we decided to see the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House and then just wander the streets for a bit. After the Anne Frank House, we went searching for a decent place to grab lunch around De Negen Straatjes, but found a treasure trove of Ajax memorabilia just a couple of blocks away where not too long ago a boy named Johan Cryuff worked as a cashier a few times a month.

Elandsgracht 98, home of the Smit Cruyff Sportspecialisten. What was the story, the history behind this retro football shop? I had to know and was always going to look inside.

Smit was a business man and founder of Smit Sportzaak, which was founded in the 1940s. Johan Cryuff was a young footballer everyone in Holland was already beginning to love. From there, the idea sprouted. Smit would use Cryuff’s name to create one of classiest football shops in the country. Cryuff was obviously too busy with training sessions at Ajax and becoming the best Dutch footballer in history to be too involved with the shop, but he did help out as a cashier every so often and remained in contact with Smit throughout his career. Apparently just last year he kicked around with the two brothers that are currently in charge of the day to day operations at the shop.

Before the age of the internet, the Smit Cryuff store was legendary throughout Amsterdam. If you were a footballer in Holland, you went there to find boots that would fit you perfectly. Business was booming, especially given the fact that it was a time when every parent wanted their child to be the next Cryuff. Sadly, the years of plenty couldn’t last forever. Soon those same parents would their children’s boots fitted and then go and buy the same pair online for cheaper. Call it business, call it globalization, but Smit Cryuff’s best days have inarguably passed the store by. The brothers working there share the same mentality about Ajax and the Dutch league. I told them I went to see Ajax the day before and they said they hardly go to the Amsterdam ArenA anymore. They prefer watching Barcelona, the modern brainchild of Johan Cryuff, the team that is financially strong enough to keep all of their stars.

Despite the passing of a Golden Age, what remains in the Smit Cryuff store is invaluable to the history of Dutch football and could not have been a better finishing touch on my Ajax Experience. The store exists as a museum of football memorabilia as much as a place selling shoes and shirts. The shelves have hundreds of unique items and the store shares an essence of the humble beginnings Cryuff’s career, yet is filled with the aura of greatness that became of the man’s life.