Stekelenburg pens contract renewal until 2012
21 February: Several foreign clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, were interested, but Maarten Stekelenburg ain't going nowhere: the Ajax goalkeeper penned a contract renewal at the Amsterdam ArenA today, which will make him an Ajacied until 30 June 2012. His previous deal would have expired in the summer of 2010. "To me, this feels like the right choice," De Steek said.
Maarten Stekelenburg (born Haarlem, 22 September 1982) played for amateur clubs Zandvoort '75 and Schoten as a young boy. Ajax scouts spotted him as a teenager and at the age of 13 he entered the Ajax youth system. He made his first team début on 11 August 2002 in the Johan Cruijff Shield match against PSV.
Stekelenburg did not immediately conquer a starting slot in Ajax-1. He had stiff competition from goalkeepers such as Bogdan Lobont, Henk Timmer and Joey Didulica in his first seasons, and picked up a few injuries at highly unfortunate moments, but the tall Haarlem native has been Ajax's undisputed number one goalkeeper for nearly three seasons now. So far, Maarten Stekelenburg had 162 official appearances for Ajax's first team. He also won 10 caps for Oranje, although he is normally Holland's #2 behind Edwin van der Sar.
"Committing to my club for a few extra years feels like the right thing to do," Stekelenburg told Ajax.nl. "I think we can achieve a lot in the near future."
Added technical director Martin van Geel: "Maarten is an excellent goalkeeper and he's made major progress in recent seasons. He's only 25 years old, so his best years are still ahead of him. That's one of the reasons why we're very happy with his decision to stay at Ajax. We find it very important that a few boys from the current squad will stay for a few more seasons, and Maarten is one of them." (Menno Pot)
Source: Ajax.nl
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