Michael Valkanis, until today head coach of Hapoel Tel Aviv, will be appointed as assistant trainer. The Australian (Melbourne, 23 August 1974), who previously worked with Van 't Schip at the Greek national team, Melbourne City, and PEC Zwolle, signs a contract until 30 June 2024. Hedwiges Maduro, who took on the role of head coach this week, returns to his role as assistant trainer. Temporary assistant trainer Dave Vos will resume his duties as head coach of Jong Ajax as of today.
Van 't Schip (Fort St. John, 30 December 1963) played in the first team of Ajax from 1981 until 1992, after which he left to the Italian club Genoa. After his active career in football, he was youth and assistant trainer in Amsterdam from 1997 until 2001. After one season as head coach of FC Twente, he returned at the club as trainer of Jong Ajax (2002-2004). In the summer of 2004, the former international (41 caps) was appointed assistant trainer of the Dutch national team. In 2008 Van 't Schip made another comeback at Ajax, this time in the role of assistant trainer of the first team. From the end of 2009 he was technically responsible at the then newly found club Melbourne Heart and after that he was head coach at Chivas Guadalajara and Melbourne City. In 2017 he came back to the Netherlands to work as head coach of PEC Zwolle. From 2019 until 2021 he worked as head coach of the national team of Greece.
Jan van Halst: "John is a real Ajax man, who has a lot of national and international experience, on the field and next to it. To us he is the right person to give a positive turn to our performances. First as head coach of the first team, for the long term we see a different technical role for him. John has already successfully worked with Michael Valkanis as assistant trainer, and we think that Michael is a welcome addition to our technical staff."
Van 't Schip: "I'm very happy that the deal is done and I'm eager to start at the club where it once all began for me. The conversations with all people involved resulted in a great feeling for me. Ajax needs to find the way up again and I'm happy to help in that matter."
