Duncan Stutterheim, a lifelong Ajax supporter, is currently co-owner of the A'DAM Tower and seventeen buildings of the Westergasfabriek media and hospitality complex in Amsterdam, among others. He is an entrepreneur who belongs to the outside category and is intensely engaged in his core business on a daily basis, often reaching far beyond the country's borders. In this special reportage, BV Nederland shows another love: their soccer club.
Text: Jaap de Groot
Image: Lin Woldendorp
What does the Ajax shirt mean to you?Â
Duncan Stutterheim: "It really is a beautiful shirt. So beautiful. I've thought so since the 1970s, when it was still without logos and advertising. It's a shirt to be proud of. Only when I put it on is it different. Then I become a warrior and an indefinable over-my-body feeling arises.
I also buy the away shirt every year and have a nice collection by now. Those shirts are a memory lane for me, like that first one with TDK on it. When I travel, I always buy a few shirts as well. Nice for kids or for the people I visit. Everyone thinks it's a great gift. Just the other day with a friend in Australia. Two years after I gave him the shirt, I looked him up and he had put it on again. Surely that has something of a preacher preaching the faith. Instead of the Bible, you give someone the Ajax shirt.
I put it on once. In a match then. On behalf of Ajax at De Toekomst. It still gives me chills. Sjaak Swart had put together a BN'ers team and I had also been asked. I stood there in full uniform, in a real match and on the Ajax pitch. Not normal. So I didn't trade that shirt."
When did you get involved with Ajax?
"That was on August 5, 1977. I was six years old and my father was treating to Ajax - Liverpool at the Amsterdam 702 tournament. We brought our own drinks and sat on wooden bleachers. Ajax won 2-1 and I was immediately sold.
At a young age I decided to go, because I also liked AZ. I come from Landsmeer, which although very Amsterdam-oriented, is also close to the Zaan region. Although I still feel sympathy for AZ, Ajax has remained my club. From the age of 14 I always went to De Meer and between the ages of 16 and 21 I stood on the F-Side and later Vak M. After the move to the ArenA in 1996 I had my first business seat and when I started organizing Sensation I got a skybox. I cancelled that this year, by the way, and now I have three business seats again."
What feels like the most precious moment?
Duncan Stutterheim: "Real Madrid away, that 1-4. The match it was ready and waiting for us to lose. That this didn't happen and what did happen then, is still very deep. Even deeper than winning the Champions League in 1995.
The same thing happened with the championship match against FC Twente on May 15, 2011. That unprecedented tension before the match and how nervous everyone was. Then it happened anyway and Ajax finally grabbed that third star. The discharge was insanely beautiful explosive; I can't remember ever having so much fun in the skybox.
In contrast, the 2-3 against Spurs was the ultimate proudest moment. Missing the final in the last second and after such a sequence. I was absolutely devastated. Not only that night, but for a long time afterwards. After the death of my brother, nothing has touched me like that, which shows what soccer does to you.
Soccer is a man's moment, in which you can drown completely. At home, they don't understand any of that. I have three daughters and a wife who didn't even watch the 2010 World Cup final. I am now pinning my hopes on my youngest daughter, who is six. I am trying to instill in her a little love for soccer and, of course, Ajax. I hope it works out."
Do you still have a dot on the horizon with Ajax?Â
"We smelled the international top in 2019 and are still not far from it. I am currently comfortable with the vision and transfer policy. The gap is bridgeable, moreover, another golden generation is looming and there is money. Once that dot was very far, now it is closer and almost tangible. Hahaha, we are even better off financially than FC Barcelona! I therefore hope that we will soon return to the situation of 2019. That everywhere in the world Ajax is spoken about in awe and you are apetrically proud of your club."
MASTERS #45
