Van der Gun contract extended to 2005

27 April: Within seven weeks time, Ajax has succeeded in significantly extending the contracts of its three most wanted youngsters. Striker Cedric van der Gun has signed an improved agreement until 1 July, 2005. Recently, Cristian Chivu and Rafaël van der Vaart both signed contracts until July, 2006.

"This season with Ajax has been beyond expectation", says Van der Gun (21), "at the beginning of the season I just wanted to play as many minutes as possible, for example as a substitute for Richard Knopper, who seemed to become the number ten in the starting line-up. But we've seen how things can go in football: Richard got injured and I got to play a lot. This contract extension is a nice reward for that. It's good to see that Ajax is working hard to keep this young, talented team together. I have a lot of faith in this squad."

So far, Van der Gun has played 28 games for Ajax-1, in which he scored eight goals. He also played 37 games and scored ten goals for several national youth teams. He is now playing for Holland U21, scoring two goals in his first ten matches for 'Jong Oranje' ('Young Orange'). (MP)(Source: Ajax.nl)

(Source: Ajax.nl)