As told by Dutch media, the legendary Marco van Basten offered himself to Ajax last season to work with misfiring forward Brian Brobbey, but a collaboration never came to fruition.
The former Ajax and AC Milan legend recently explained the story on the Ziggo Sport talk show ‘Rondo’. On the show, Brobbey’s poor form in front of goal was a topic of conversation, and Van Basten pulled no punches when describing the forward who has failed to score in six Eredivisie games this season.
“You have all kinds of different types of strikers. You have big, small, fast strikers. But there are basic principles. He doesn’t master the basic things. He just argues with everything and everyone.”
Alex Pastoor, former manager of Almere City, asked whether Van Basten had been contacted as a striker mentor at Ajax. The three-time Ballon d’Or winner replied:
“In the beginning with John van ‘t Schip I was asked that. Then at a certain point I said, okay, I want that. But he didn’t do that. I’m not going to do that anymore. But I did offer it then. I don’t think he was interested in me.
“I offered it to John, because it came up that way. And then he said: well, don’t do it. And I don’t know if Brobbey said it that way or if John didn’t want it, he might have thought I would be too strict, I don’t know. I’m done with it now.”
The 22-year-old Brobbey failed to score for Ajax again on Sunday against Heracles Almelo as the Amsterdam club prevailed 4-3. In twelve official matches this season, he has only managed to find the net at home in the 3-0 win over Polish outfit Jagiellonia Bialystok in the Europa League. With 18 goals in last season’s Eredivisie, there will be hope that the forward can pull himself out of this rut.
