Jesaia Swart (born 3 July 1938), commonly known as Sjaak Swart, is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a winger for Ajax. During his career at Ajax, he amassed a total of almost 600 matches, a record for the club.

Sjaak Swart
Swart in 2011
Personal information
Full name Jesaia Swart
Date of birth (1938-07-03) 3 July 1938 (age 86)
Place of birth Muiderberg, Netherlands
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Position(s) Winger
Youth career
OVVO
Amsterdam
Ajax
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1956–1973 Ajax 461 (170)
International career
1960–1972 Netherlands 31 (10)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Biography

edit

Swart is Jewish[2][3] and was born in Muiderberg, a fishing village about 20 kilometers east of Amsterdam.[4][5] His Jewish fisherman father sold herring at the market.[5][3] As a child, he and his father concealed themselves as non-Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945, hiding from Germans and Dutch colluders, who rounded up any Jews; nearly 75 per cent of the Dutch Jewish population was killed in those years.[5]

Nicknamed Mr. Ajax, he played for Ajax a total of almost 600 matches, a record for the club, starting in 1956.[3][4][6] He was part of their European Cup victories in 1971, 1972, 1973.[5]

For the Netherlands national team, Swart earned 31 caps, scoring ten goals.[7]

Career statistics

edit
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Europe Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Ajax 1956–57 Eredivisie 5 0 1 0 0 0 6 0
1957–58 19 3 0 0 2 0 21 3
1958–59 7 3 5 4 0 0 12 7
1959–60 34 18 0 0 0 0 34 18
1960–61 33 7 7 3 2 1 42 11
1961–62 33 5 2 1 10 4 45 10
1962–63 28 5 2 0 3 1 33 6
1963–64 30 12 5 0 1 0 36 12
1964–65 29 11 1 0 0 0 30 11
1965–66 30 10 4 3 0 0 34 13
1966–67 34 23 5 3 6 3 45 29
1967–68 32 11 7 1 6 2 45 14
1968–69 32 13 3 2 10 3 45 18
1969–70 31 13 6 1 10 6 47 20
1970–71 31 16 6 1 8 1 45 18
1971–72 33 11 5 3 9 3 47 17
1972–73 25 9 1 0 3 1 29 10
Career total 461 170 65 22 70 25 596 217

Honours

edit

Ajax

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Sjaak Swart". www.footballdatabase.eu. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  2. ^ Buchheister, Hendrik (4 October 2013). "Football: Why Tottenham and Ajax Fans Have a Jewish Identity". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  3. ^ a b c Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest ... - Simon Kuper
  4. ^ a b Quixano, Jordi (2 November 2014). "Escribimos parte de la historia del fútbol" [We wrote part of the history of football]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d "Sjaak Swart: the forgotten genius of an Ajax legend"
  6. ^ Mister Ajax: de eeuwige jeugd van Sjaak Swart - Raymond Bouwman
  7. ^ Stokkermans, Karel (5 February 2010). "Sjaak Swart – International Appearances". RSSSF.