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Stekelenburg signs contract until summer of 2008

14 January: Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg is currently recovering from a wrist injury, but this did not stop him from putting his signature at the bottom of a new contract with Ajax, which expires in the summer of 2008.

Stekelenburg's current contract was to expire at season's end. An option to extend it for two seasons was included, but club and player apparently believe in one another - and wanted more. The long term contract offered to Stekelenburg seems to underscore that Ajax's technical staff regards the tall, 20 year-old Haarlem native as its 'man for the future'.

Maarten Stekelenburg won the Dutch championship for reserves teams with Young Ajax last season and was added to the Ajax-1 squad this summer. He seeme to be the third man, behind Bogdan Lobont and Joey Didulica, but got his chance as both of them sustained injuries. He made his Ajax-1n debut in the Johan Cruijff Shield game against PSV, on 11 August 2002. He since played 9 Eredivisie games and 3 Champions League matches for the first team.

Stekelenburg has played 13 games for several Holland youth teams, including 3 for Holland U-21, also known as Young Oranje. (MP)

(Source: Ajax.nl)