Defence
Right-Back: Michael Reiziger
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Reiziger had turned 22 just weeks before the 1995 Champions League final. Loan stints at Volendam and FC Groningen preceded his establishment in the Ajax first-team but by the time of the final, he was a mainstay for both club and country.
In 1996 Reiziger became one of the first high-profile players to move on a free transfer due to the Bosman ruling. His destination? AC Milan, the team he helped beat in the 1994/95 final. Unfortunately, he only made 10 appearances at Milan due to injuries and departed after one season to Barcelona, where he’d re-unite with his former coach at Ajax, Louis van Gaal.
Reiziger appeared more than 200 times for the Catalan giants and helped them win back-to-back La Ligas in 1997/98 and 1998/99. As he hit his 30s he moved on to Middlesbrough, before heading to PSV Eindhoven in 2006/07 where his career ended. Since then, he’s gotten into the world of coaching, most recently serving as an assistant coach at Sparta Rotterdam.
Left-Back: Frank de Boer
Recognised as one of the finest defenders of his era, De Boer – alongside his twin brother Ronald – went on to become the most capped outfield player for the Netherlands with 112 caps.
De Boer stayed with Ajax for three seasons after the Champions League triumph before moving to Barcelona in January 1999. There, he had mixed results – he won La Liga with the Catalans in his first season, but then went on to test positive for nandrolone in 2000 and received a 12-month ban.
After a successful appeal allowed him to return, he spent two more seasons at Barca before moving to Rangers and then Galatasaray, before finally ending his career in Qatar. After retiring, De Boer moved into the world of management and interestingly, his first job was at his old club Ajax.
De Boer led the club to four successive Eredivisie championships before a downturn in form saw him resign in May 2016; he was then appointed the manager of Internazionale. A disastrous start meant that he was fired after just 85 days in charge, and hasn’t re-emerged in football since.
Centre-Back: Danny Blind
Ajax’s captain at the time of their Champions League win, Blind was one of the senior members of the side at 33 years old. One of the few Ajax players from that great team to not move elsewhere, he stayed at the club until his retirement at the end of the 1998/99 season. Blind also won five Eredivisie championships with the club.
After retiring, Blind went into coaching and acted as Director of Football at Sparta Rotterdam and then took the same role at Ajax for a short period. After leaving Ajax in 2012, he went on to become the assistant coach for the Netherlands, and finally took the top job in July 2015.
Unfortunately for him, the Dutch side suffered a massive downturn and after failing to qualify for Euro 2016 and with their qualification for the 2018 World Cup in doubt, Blind was fired just eight weeks ago.
