De Mul signs new deal and joins Vitesse on loan
23 August: Tom De Mul will play for Eredivisie side
Vitesse this season. The Flemish Ajax youngster
has been loaned out to the Arnhem side until 30 June 2006,
effective immediately. De Mul's contract at Ajax would have
expired at season's end. For that reason Ajax only wanted to
loan him out if he extended his deal. Last Wednesday, 17
August, De Mul penned a new contract at the Amsterdam,
which made him an Ajacied until 30 June 2008. After
that his temporary move to Vitesse could be finalized.
Tom De Mul (born Kapellen, Belgium, 04 March 1986) was added
to the Ajax-1 squad by head-coach Ronald Koeman in
December 2003. Koeman's choice for De Mul, a junior for
Ajax A1 at the time, came as a major surprise: it was
generally expected that Young Ajax's Daniël de Ridder
would be the first right winger from De Toekomst to
make the jump to the first team. De Mul saw action in a few
winter break friendlies in January 2004 and made his official
first team début on 25 January 2004 in the Eredivisie
home game against NEC.
De Mul also started the 2004-2005 season as an Ajax player,
but returned to Young Ajax after a brief period as a starter.
The youngster had a few remarkably good games in the first
weeks of the season, but then experienced a 'backlash'
and disappeared from the first squad. Nevertheless, both
Ronald Koeman and his successor Danny Blind seem to regard Tom
De Mul as the most gifted right winger from the Ajax youth
system -- and seem to have more faith
in him than in 'fan favourite' Daniël
de Ridder.
A few weeks ago, in early August, both De Ridder and De Mul
were told that they will not see much action under Danny
Blind this season, who prefers Steven Pienaar and Mauro Rosales
for the right wing. Ajax announced that De Ridder may (and
probably will) be sold, but the club only wished to let De
Mul go on loan -- and only if he renewed his deal.
It underscores that Ajax believe in the Belgian
prospect for the future. So far, Tom De Mul had 18
appearances for Young Ajax and saw action in
10 official matches for Ajax-1, in which he scored
one goal. (MP)
Source: Ajax.nl
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