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Cedric van der Gun to return to Ajax next season

15 April: Striker Cedric van der Gun will return to the Ajax-1 squad for next season. Ajax's technical director, Leo Beenhakker, confirmed this in football TV magazine Voetbal Insite on RTL5 television. Van der Gun is currently loaned out to Eredivisie side Willem II from Tilburg.

It is the second time for Van der Gun (The Hague, 05 May 1979) to return to Amsterdam after having spent a period elsewhere on loan. As an Ajax-2 player he was loaned out to FC Den Bosch in the latter half of 1999-2000. He played 10 games for FC Den Bosch but was summoned back to Amsterdam by new Ajax head-coach Co Adriaanse, who wanted more youth players to play in Ajax-1.

Van der Gun made his Ajax-1 début on 22 August 2000 and had a very promising first season. In total he played 45 official games for Ajax (inclouding 35 Eredivisie games) in which he scored 9 goals. At the start of 2001-2002, however, he had to undergo knee surgery, dropped out of the squad for a considerable period of time and never managed to win his spot back.

Prior to the 2002-2003 season coach Ronald Koeman announced that Van der Gun was no longer a member of the first team. The forward, who can play on both wings and as a 'shadow striker', dropped back to Young Ajax and was happy to join Willem II on loan. He played 26 games for Willem II so far, in which he scored 6 goals.

In his RTL5 interview Leo Beenhakker also announced that midfielder Youssouf Hersi, currently loaned out to NEC from Nijmegen, will not return to Amsterdam. According to Beenhakker Hersi is the victim of a "luxury problem": he is up against extremely stiff competition for his position, the 'number ten' (Litmanen, Van der Vaart, Pienaar, Sneijder, Seedorf).

Meanwhile, FC Groningen coach Ron Jans has stated that the northern side would love to extend the loan of Pius Ikedia for another season. Ajax, however, would prefer to sell the Nigerian right winger to FC Groningen. (MP)

(Sources: Voetbal Insite, NOS Teletekst and Willem-II.nl)