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'Soap opera' comes to an end: Sikora joins Ajax

22 July: It seemed a done deal, then it all went wrong, and then no-one knew what was happening anymore. Now, the soap opera, or slapstick act, starring Victor Sikora as the puppet on strings, has reached its conclusion: the 24 year-old Vitesse left winger is moving to Amsterdam. He signed a contract for four seasons with Ajax.

SIKORA - THE STORY

Ajax' interest in the left winger goes way back. Ronald Koeman, being Sikora's former coach in Arnhem, knows the player well and is very fond of him. Sikora and Ajax reached a personal agreement almost immediately when negotiations began early this summer. Then, even while Sikora was quoted in the media saying that his transfer to Ajax was just a matter of time, things went wrong.

His club, Vitesse, was very annoyed by Sikora's premature remarks and played it tough from that moment, demanding a transfer fee of some 6 million euros for the player. Ajax offered 2 million initially, then raised the bid to 4 million, then to 4.5 million. Meanwhile, English Premiership side Fulham showed up, offering the 6 million Vitesse wanted.

Although Sikora himself kept repeating that he preferred moving to Ajax, his club reached an agreement with the English side. Even Ajax.nl reported that the attempts to sign Sikora had failed. The Amsterdammers reverted to their alternatives, inviting Yugoslavijan winger Perica Ognjenovic to Amsterdam on a try-out.

The unexpected reversal of events followed on Saturday 20 July, as Ajax played Emmen in the east of The Netherlands. Vitesse and Sikora negotiated with Fulham. The English unexpectedly announced that they were willing to pay 5.5 to 6 million euros, as promised before, but only in installments, spread over four years. After almost fatal experiences with a similar deal (Pierre van Hooijdonk's transfer to Benfica), chairman Jos Vaessen of the Arnhem club cancelled the deal immediately.

Ajax was contacted the very same night. Vitesse was apparently desperate to sell Sikora, as Vaessen told the Amsterdammers that Vitesse was now willing to accept Ajax' latest bid of 4.5 million euros. It's safe to presume that an agreement was reached instantly, possibly on the phone: Ognjenovic's try-out was terminated almost immediately after the Emmen game. Remarkable, since he had just scored two goals and seemed to have done well.

Ajax' first and probably only major transfer of this summer was a fact just twenty four hours later. As usual, Ajax did not reveal the transfer fee involved, but in this case the sum is not a secret, as Vitesse's Jos Vaessen made no secret of it in the media.

"Ajax was looking for a left winger, and Sikora has always been our number one choice", said technical director, Leo Beenhakker.

"Our budget is no longer unlimited", added general manager, Arie van Eijden. "Therefore, I am extremely happy indeed that we managed to contract Victor Sikora after all."

SIKORA - THE PLAYER

Victor Sikora (born 11 April 1978 in Deventer, The Netherlands) is often compared to Holland and former Ajax star Marc Overmars. Both are fast, both are short, both are left wingers but use their right foot more often than their left, both were born in the central eastern part of The Netherlands, and both started their career as a professional footballer at Go Ahead Eagles, after having gone through the prestigious youth system of the Deventer side.

To be precise, Victor Sikora started playing football at Deventer amateur side DVV Roda, where he soon drew the attention of Eagles scouts. He made his debut as a professional in Go Ahead Eagles' first team, in 1995. In total, he played 107 games in the Eagles' yellow and red, in both Eredivisie and First Division. He scored 34 goals.

Sikora joined Vitesse in the summer of 1999. In three seasons in Arnhem, he played 84 league games, scoring 20 goals. He made his debut in Young Oranje. After 13 games (1 goal) for Holland's U-21 team, he made his debut in the 'big' Oranje on 28 February 2001, quite symbolically replacing Marc Overmars against Turkey, in the Amsterdam ArenA... As of 22 July 2002, Sikora had accumulated six Holland 'caps'.

Victor Sikora's participated in his first Ajax training session today, observed by many sports journalists and camera teams. By now, the Ajax squad, including Sikora, has set off for Glasgow, Scotland, kicking off its pre-season tour of Britain. A friendly game at Glasgow's Celtic Park, against Celtic FC, is scheduled for Wednesday evening, 7:45 PM local time. (MP)

(Sources: NOS Teletekst, Ajax.nl)