Sevilla and Ajax finalize De Mul's five million euro move
09 July: It was 'in the air' for a few weeks, and now
it's official: Tom De Mul has left Ajax and will sign a five
year contract at Sevilla FC, the Spanish UEFA Cup winners
of 2006 and 2007. As usual, Ajax.nl does not reveal the
transfer fee paid for the right winger, whose Ajax contract
would have expired next summer, but according to reports in the
Spanish press Sevilla will pay Ajax some
five million euros for the speedy Flemish youngster.
Tom De Mul (born Kapellen, Belgium, 04 March
1986) joined Ajax in the summer of 2002, coming from
the youth system of Germinal Beerschot Antwerp, the Belgian top
flight outfit Ajax had a majority's stake in at the
time. He developed well at De Toekomst and was, rather
surprisingly,
added to the Ajax-1 squad for the winter break
friendlies of January 2004. De Mul's first team
début ('unofficially' in the 07 January 2004 friendly at
Heracles Almelo, soon followed by his official début
against NEC on 25 January) came as a surprise: head-coach
Ronald Koeman was generally expected to give the nod to Young
Ajax's Daniël de Ridder, but he chose De Mul, two
years younger than De Ridder, and playing for the Ajax A1
youth team.
De Mul was a starter in the first weeks of the 2004-2005
Eredivisie campaign, but then started to struggle, lost his
starting spot and was moved back to Young Ajax. He
finished the 2004-2005 season with only six first team
appearances behind his name. Ajax underscored their faith in
the teenager by
extending his contract 'til 30 June 2008 on 23 August
2005, just before loaning him out to Eredivisie side Vitesse.
De Mul had 27 Eredivisie appearances and scored two goals for
the Arnhem club in the 2005-2006 season. The season hadn't even
finished yet when Ajax announced that De Mul was to return
to the ArenA that summer.
The 2006-2007 was Tom De Mul's breakthrough year in
Ajax-1. At the start of the campaign there were 8
Eredivisie appearances and 1 goal behind his name. At the end
of the season those figures had changed quite a bit: 52
official Ajax-1 matches and 5 goals in total.
It was a good year for Tom De Mul. That's why his
remarks in the media, towards the end of the 2006-2007
campaign, came as a surprise: De Mul stated that he did
not like the "atmopshere in the dressing room" at Ajax. De Mul
later claimed that he had not said anything like that. In
the weeks that followed Sevilla appeared on the scene and his
agent announced that De Mul did not wish to renew his
contract.
All in all, Tom De Mul was an Ajax-1 player for hardly more
than one season. He has left Ajax for a
Spanish (and European) powerhouse in football at the
tender age of 21. At Sevilla FC he will be re-united with
his former team-mate, Julien Escudé. Ajax USA wishes him
well. (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl
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