History
Ajax CT was formed in 1999 by Rob Moore, and John Comitis via the amalgamation of two Cape Town-based teams, Seven Stars and Cape Town Spurs, as AFC Ajax expanded their worldwide talent-feeder network to South Africa.
Ajax Cape Town played their first official game against Kaizer Chiefs in the Iwisa Charity Spectacular on 17 July 1999. Ajax caused an upset when they beat Chiefs 1–0 with Sam Pam, the Ajax Cape Town captain, scoring the winning goal.
As of 2010 Ajax Amsterdam own 51% of Ajax Cape Town with the remaining 49% owned by the Comitis and Efstathiou families.
The Ajax CT project had limited success in the seasons leading up to 2006–07, the club winning a solitary title – the Rothmans Cup in 2000 – with Steven Pienaar being one of the few talents to make the grade for a move to Amsterdam, back in 2002. However, in 2006–07, under the guidance of new coach Muhsin Ertuğral, Ajax CT claimed fourth place in the PSL and won the ABSA Cup – beating league champions Mamelodi Sundowns 2–0 in the final.
Gordon Igesund, South Africa's most successful club coach, who won league titles with Manning Rangers, Orlando Pirates, Santos and Sundowns, coached the club from 2002 until 2006.
In January 2007 Ajax CT managed to beat their mother club AFC Ajax 3–1 in a friendly game held in Cape Town. The next friendly, played in Amsterdam, ended in a 3–2 win for AFC Ajax in July 2009.
Read more about this topic: Ajax Cape Town F.C.
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“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“History takes time.... History makes memory.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)