Liverpool and Ajax are among the best European football clubs, not only today but throughout modern football.
They had great and bad periods, challenging periods, but they remain among the European giants that write football history.
These are the teams that shaped modern football, invented new formations and tactics, and also, through their academies, developed some of the best players ever.
Even today, Liverpool and Ajax are among the most popular teams worldwide, and their academies produce incredible players.
Throughout history, these teams have shared some amazing players. They were mostly going in a direction from Ajax to Liverpool, but they left their mark on both teams.
Jan Molby
Molby started his professional career as a young teenager in Ajax. There, he played alongside some of the greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff and Van Basten.
In the 1982/83 season, he was one of the main players in the team who won the Eredivisie. It was enough for Liverpool to buy him next season in 1984.
This Danish player spent 12 years in Liverpool, making 292 appearances, winning three league trophies and 2 FA Cup trophies. His best season in Liverpool was in 1986, when he scored 21 goals, and the team won the domestic double.
Jari Litmanen
Litmanen in Ajax had a challenging task, to fill the “shoes” of Denis Bergkamp, and he did it very well.
In his first season at the club, he won The Dutch Player of the Year award, scored 26 goals, and the team won the title. He was a very dangerous attacking midfielder or second striker, and in 159 appearances, he scored 91 goals.
In Ajax, he won 4 league titles, and he became the European Champion in 1995, winning the UEFA Champions League. In 2001, he signed for Liverpool, where he made 43 appearances and scored nine goals.
Ryan Babel
Babel is a “product” of the famous Ajax Academy. Even as a teenager, he showed a lot of skills and talent. He was promoted to the senior team, where he made 111 appearances and scored 24 goals as a teenager.
In his first season at Liverpool, he scored ten goals and had some impressive matches, but still, it wasn’t his full potential.
However, in the following seasons, he was mostly on the bench or injured, and for Liverpool, he had 146 appearances and scored 26 goals.
Christian Poulsen
Poulsen is the only player on the list that didn’t make a transfer directly from Ajax to Liverpool.
He played in European teams such as Schalke 04, Seville, and Juventus before joining Liverpool in 2010. However, he didn’t adapt to England, and soon, he transferred to Evian in France.
From there, he moved to Ajax, where he had the best seasons of his career and won two domestic titles.
Luis Suarez
Luis Suarez is undoubtedly the most famous name on the list. In 2007, Ajax bought him from Groningen, and he started to dominate from the first season there.
In 2009/10, he scored 49 goals in 48 appearances, and every bigger European club wanted to sign him. In 2011, he moved to Liverpool, where he adapted very quickly.
In the 2012/13 season, he played his best football, scoring 31 goals and making 12 assists in 33 appearances in the Premier League. However, he failed to bring the league title to Anfield.