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Ole Tobiasen to join AZ next season


	Ole Tobiasen

26 April: Eredivisie side AZ, from Alkmaar, has offered departing Ajax defender Ole Tobiasen a one year contract. Earlier this season, Ajax announced that Tobiasen's contract, which expires at the end of this season, was not going to be extended.

The Dane's free transfer to AZ marks the end of one of the unluckiest player careers in Ajax history. In five seasons' time, Ole Tobiasen played only 24 league games in Ajax' first team. For well over three years in total, he's been fighting to recover from a truly incredible string of serious knee injuries.

Ole Tobiasen (26) started playing professional football at FC Copenhagen in Denmark. He moved to The Netherlands in 1995 and had two succesful years at SC Heerenveen.

Tobiasen seemed the perfect modern defender and was called 'the defender of the future': tall, headstrong, but also fast and high skilled, with a lot of offensive impulses. This perfect mix of qualities drew the attention of Ajax. Tobiasen joined the Amsterdam side, then coached by Morten Olsen, in the summer of 1997, signing a five year contract.

His start was impressive: away at FC Utrecht, he scored two superb goals. However, Tobiasen was not going to have the succesful Ajax career that seemed to be waiting for him. He tore his hamstrings after only 13 games, worked on his recovery for a year, returned in Ajax-1, but was amazingly unfortunate: he almost immediately sustained a similar injury once again, after only 11 games in the 1998-1999 season.

He made his comeback in Young Ajax this year, receiving an ovation from the crowd at De Toekomst for his incredible fighting spirit. However, he was not to return in Ajax-1.

Ole Tobiasen's career at Ajax was not to be. All that remains for the amicable Dane is a lifelong top-slot at the all-time 'Bobby Haarms Award' table, the trophy for the unluckiest, most often injured Ajacied of the season.

The games he played for Young Ajax this season showed that Ole Tobiasen can still be valuable for an Eredivisie team. He can finally forget about the past and continue his career as a professional footballer. Every Ajacied will surely keep an eye on him. (MP)

(Source: VI Planet.nl)