Ajax USA featured in Champions magazine
11 May:
Champions, the official magazine of the UEFA
Champions League, has published an extensive story about
Ajax USA's annual visit to Amsterdam in April 2006. The
article, titled 'Total Worship', spans six pages and features
numerous photos of Ajax USA's attendees over two days during
our trip. It appears in the June/July issue, the magazine's
17th edition.
The story is written by Stephanie Jones, a production editor
for the U.K.-based magazine. Jones and photographer Adam Davy
spent two entire days with the Ajax USA travelers and
participated in all of our activities during that
time, interviewing every member of our group. As a result, the
story is full of personal anecdotes and details that give a
true sense of the fans' experience.
"I really appreciate that Stephanie made the effort to join
us for everything - everything - we did for two days,"
said Jim McGough of Ajax USA. "Let's face it: our History
Tour might be a bit tedious if you're not obsessed
with Ajax and Amsterdam, but Steph seemed to really enjoy
herself and, more importantly, made a real effort to get to
know us. And she was obviously paying attention."
Indeed, the article goes into some detail about the
unavoidable sub-plot of the History Tour: the unique and tragic
story of Amsterdam's once-vibrant Jewish community and it's
indelible connection to Ajax.
The article's title plays on the
Dutch concept of 'Total Football.'
"All clubs revel in a colorful history," Jones writes, "but
few are as poignant as Ajax's." She goes on to detail the
destruction of the community during Nazi occupation: of 104,000
Dutch Jews killed in the Holocaust, almost 80,000 were from
Amsterdam.
As Jones notes, the History Tour visited Hollandse
Schouwburg, the Amsterdam theatre used by the Nazis
as a detention place for Jews before deportation to
Westerbork, as well as the Dockworker statue just off
Waterlooplein and Jan Wolker's 'Nooit Meer Auschwitz'
monument in Wertheimpark, which is pictured in the article.
Jan Wolker's 'Nooit Meer
Auschwitz' monument in Wertheimpark. [Photo: Adam
Davy]
"It would have been easy to ignore that aspect of
the tour," added Jim. "But she understood how
important it is to us, how intertwined it is
with Ajax itself. And she didn't belittle it or sidestep it. I
think that's remarkable."
Menno Pot, Editor of Ajax USA, was also pleased with the
article. "It's great. Very, very nice indeed. Stephanie very
obviously wrote it with a lot of love, and it
has great pictures. It was great to have those two along.
Our groups are always 'male-dominated' to say the very least
and Stephanie was definitely one of the guys."
The article is chock-full of
pictures of the group,
during Arena Day and the History Tour.
This isn't the first time Ajax USA's annual trip has
garnered some attention in the media. In addition to the
occasional mention in several Dutch newspapers, the group's
second trip, in 2001, was documented extensively in an article
written by Menno himself in the Dutch weekly magazine Nieuwe Revu. And in 2004,
fledgling English-language newspaper the Amsterdam Times
published an article about the trip. But unquestionably, this
is the most prominent exposure we've received. Let's hope it
doesn't go to our heads. (JM)
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Champions magazine is published every other
month, and is available at Smith's and other newsstands
throughout the U.K., as well as in select locations
throughout Europe and Asia.
If you would like to send comments to Stephanie
Jones at Champions Magazine, send email to webmaster@ajax-usa.com
and we'll forward them along for you.
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