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Three year contract for youth striker Nando Rafaël

04 June: Central forward Nando Rafaël has signed a professional contract with Ajax which will make him a member of the Ajax-1 squad for three seasons. The contract includes an option to extend for two more seasons.

Nando Rafaël [Photo: Ajax.nl]

Nando Rafaël (born in Angola on 10 January 1984) had a spectacular 2001-2002 season. He started the season as the striker in coach Danny Blind's Ajax A1 team, for which he scored 20 goals in 23 games. He also got to make his debut for Young Ajax, coached by Jan Olde Riekerink. Both Ajax A1 and Young Ajax finished the season as Dutch champions.

Football fans all over The Netherlands first got to know him when he was brought on as a substitute during Young Ajax' Amstel Cup semi final against FC Utrecht. Young Ajax was two goals down as Rafaël entered the match. The teenager levelled the score for Young Ajax by scoring two fine header-goals.

It was not easy for Ajax to contract Rafaël, who went through the entire Ajax youth system and developed in spectacular style. He came to The Netherlands as a refugee in 1994. The 10 year-old boy had lost both his parents in the bloody civil war in his native country of Angola. He had no passport and therefore no official status, which made it impossible for Ajax to sign him.

After a long legal procedure, he was granted an Angolese passport and his status of inhabitant of The Netherlands was finally made official. (MP)