Daley Blind leaves AFC Ajax, terminates contract

Footballer Daley Blind leaves AFC Ajax. The 32-year-old defender terminated his contract in Amsterdam, which ran until the end of this season. Blind played 333 games for Ajax, in which he scored 13 goals.

"We have reached an agreement with Daley in recent days to terminate the current contract," said Ajax general manager Edwin van der Sar. "I hope he will continue at another club to finish the last phase of his successful soccer career nicely."

There is speculation that the 99-time Oranje international could join Antwerp, the club of coach Mark van Bommel and technical director Marc Overmars, in Belgium.

It was already announced on Monday that Danny Blind, Daley's father, will not return to the supervisory board of Ajax. Blind senior resigned from that position last year when he took up his post as assistant to national coach Louis van Gaal at Oranje. It was planned that Blind would return to the RVC after the World Cup, but he refrained from doing so.

Blind junior lost his regular spot at Ajax this season under coach Alfred Schreuder. However, national coach Louis van Gaal continued to rely on the versatile left-back. Blind was in the starting eleven in all games at the World Cup in Qatar and scored a goal in the game against the United States in the round of 16 (3:1). The Netherlands lost to eventual world champions Argentina on penalties in the quarterfinals.

The defender was trained at Ajax and made his first-team debut in late 2008. After a loan spell with FC Groningen in the 2009-2010 season, he won four consecutive league titles with Ajax.

Blind moved to Manchester United in the summer of 2014, but returned to Amsterdam four years later. In his second tenure at Ajax, the defender became champion three times and won the KNVB Cup twice. Blind was an important link in the team that nearly reached the Champions League final in 2019.

After the departure of coach Erik ten Hag last summer and the arrival of Schreuder, Blind's position was slowly but surely questioned. Schreuder preferred Owen Wijndal at left-back in the final weeks of the first half of the season.

"We have agreed with Daley that we will decide together in which game he can say goodbye to the fans in the arena in a nice way," van der Sar said.