Former Cape Town City star Peter Leeuwenburgh has revealed how good Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was during their time together at Ajax Amsterdam and how his love for the Dutch club started.
The FC Groningen goalkeeper played for Ajax Amsterdam from a young age, where he shared a football pitch with the likes of high-profile Netherlands internationals Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt.
This was a dream for the Dutchman, who had grown up supporting his local club which so happened to be Ajax.
Leeuwenburgh's journey with the Eredivisie giants saw him rise from the youth academy to the first team, but the shot-stopper was not able to climb the pecking order ahead of Jasper Cillessen, who was the club's number one at the time.
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He eventually made the switch from the Netherlands-based side to the Citizens in 2018 where he spent three seasons in South Africa.
During the 29-year-old's time in the first-team setup at Ajax, he found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of Huntelaar and Leeuwenburgh has given insight into why the Dutch striker was so special.
"I trained with him a couple of times when I was still playing at Ajax before I joined Cape Town City. He was almost retiring when we played together so he was training with us to just stay fit but he was so hungry to score goals. In training he would do everything to get on the end of a ball so you could see that he was a top professional and played at such a high level. He knew exactly where to be to finish a cross for example and how to press defenders," the player said to KickOff.
"He was so smart, it really made a difference for him as Huntelaar was not a fast player and he did not have the best technique but his mind and his strength made him so unique and any half chances he would take."
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Leeuwenburgh also spoke about the teams he prefers to watch and shed light on how his love affair with Ajax started.
"Here in Netherlands we support our local clubs and are not really that interested in teams from other leagues. Yes I will watch certain teams like Barcelona and Manchester City because of the football they play or Manchester United because they have Dutch players and manager. My love for Ajax started because my parents were fans of Ajax and funny enough we closer to their biggest rivals Feyenoord Rotterdam," the footballer revealed.
"When I went to Ajax academy after receiving an invitation, I had the chance to join Feyenoord but i went against it because I was an Ajax fan. My favourite players from Ajax when i was growing up has to be John Heitinga, Wesley Sneijder, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and my personal best was Maarten Stekelenburg as we were both goalkeepers. He still plays for Ajax and was the goalkeeper for our national team during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Also because I really like his style and he was a tall goalkeeper like me while also coming from the academy like me. I always looked up to him and saw him as the ideal goalkeeper together with Edwin van der Sar."
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