It’s 2001. Rafael van der Vaart has just broken through at Ajax. Co Adriaanse is the coach and Leo Beenhakker is responsible for the technical side of things. In that summer, Ajax also brought in some new, relatively unknown players: Maxwell, Mido, Hatem Trabelsi. And there is a young star from Sweden: Zlatan Ibrahimovic is his name.

In this podcast, guest presenter Sam van Raalte covers the Swede’s first years in Amsterdam for Ajax. He speaks with Priscilla Janssen who helped guide new, young players as well as team manager David Endt and players like Maxwell and Nikos Machlas. This story is not a simple football fairy tale, but a reconstruction of the sometimes difficult path that Ibrahimovic had to walk to become the big star he is today.