Frenkie de Jong & Matthijs de Ligt: Ajax's defensive pair, worlds apart since

An Ajax defence nobody remembers that way

It sounds almost like trivia now, but it's true: in the 2018–19 campaign, before either man had left the Netherlands, Frenkie de Jong frequently played as a centre-back for Ajax, often standing right alongside Matthijs de Ligt. With Davinson Sánchez gone, Ajax leaned on De Jong's composure in that deeper role, he made 26 first-team appearances the previous season primarily in a back four next to De Ligt. Commentators would later invoke Franz Beckenbauer when describing De Jong's ability to progress the ball from defence, a trait that first showed itself shoulder-to-shoulder with the man who'd go on to become one of Europe's most sought-after stoppers.

By the time of Ajax's fabled 2018–19 run, the domestic double, the demolition of Real Madrid, the gut-punch Champions League semi-final exit to Tottenham, both were central to everything. De Jong was voted Eredivisie Player of the Season and the competition's midfielder of the season in that Champions League campaign. De Ligt, barely out of his teens, was club captain, scored the winner against Juventus in the quarter-final, and picked up the Golden Boy award as Europe's best young player, the first defender ever to do so.

Two exits, two different magnetic poles

What makes the pairing feel almost unbelievable in hindsight is where they went next, and how differently their post-Ajax careers read. De Jong chose Barcelona in January 2019, effective that summer, for €75 million, turning down interest from Tottenham, PSG, Manchester City and Manchester United along the way. He has barely left since: a Copa del Rey final masterclass in 2021, the Barcelona captaincy from 2023, and by 2026 the most appearances by a Dutch player in the club's history, overtaking Phillip Cocu. He is, by his own admission and by the testimony of pundits, a player with "Barça DNA."

De Ligt's path has been a tour of Europe's biggest dressing rooms instead. He also moved for a €75 million fee that same summer, but to Juventus, where he won the Scudetto and the Coppa Italia. Three years later he moved on to Bayern Munich, claiming a Bundesliga title in his first season there too. By 2024, he'd arrived at Manchester United, scoring on his full debut against Southampton and reaching a Europa League final. Where De Jong found a permanent home, De Ligt has kept moving, Turin, Munich, Manchester, never quite settling the way his old Ajax centre-back partner has.

Why this one surprises

Neither man is ever filed, in a modern fan's memory, under "Ajax teammates." De Jong is Barcelona's metronome; De Ligt is the defender who's worn Juventus black-and-white, Bayern red and now Manchester United red, each spell judged on its own terms rather than as chapters of one shared story. But for one season, in one Amsterdam back four, the deep-lying playmaker and the centre-back were literally standing next to each other, building the platform from which Ajax nearly conquered Europe. It's a reminder that before players become symbols of the clubs that made them famous, they are sometimes just teammates, figuring it out together.