As reported on the V's board, Matt Lam of Edmonton has joined the Ajax Amsterdam Youth Academy. He's an 89 born player and will join the Ajax U19 squad as of Aug. 1st. *** The article from the Edmonton Journal was posted without a link and i was unable to find the article on the EJ website.
Tks to James at Vs for headsup Local player impresses his way from fan to farm team: Ajax opens its doors to teen; Scott Petersen Edmonton Journal 07-13-2006 Accessed through ejournal EDMONTON - There's going overseas to play soccer, and then there's going overseas to play soccer for your family's favourite team. Matt Lam can claim the latter as he prepares to fly to Amsterdam alongside one very proud grandmother and join Ajax. She will be moving back to her home country with her 16-year-old grandson to purchase a home and help him adjust to life in pursuit of a dream in a foreign country. "It's great. I'm just really excited to get over there and start playing right away," said Lam, who leaves Edmonton July 27, and joins one of the powerhouse Dutch club's youth teams Aug. 1. "They just said I could fit in with the Under-19s when I'm there, so they're just going to put me in right there." Lam's grandparents on his mother's side are direct from Amsterdam, the heart of Ajax country. So he grew up clad in the team's red and white, followed any televised games he could and even got to drop in to watch a live match while on a vacation in Holland a few years ago. Now to enter their developmental system? It's much more than he figured possible before he first caught the eyes of talent scouts overseas with a tryout for Middlesbrough, an English Premiership team, last year. "After I went to England, I kind of used this status to bring myself closer to home and my agent helped me get a trial with Ajax," said Lam. "It was a dream come true because that's my family's club, we're big Ajax fans. So I just went over and tried out there." Agent Edmund Chu used his contacts overseas to fly Lam out at the beginning of May and have him spend two months training and playing with the Ajax Under-17 team. Despite separating his shoulder twice during the try out and having to fly home for surgery and rehab of the recurring injury, he impressed team officials enough to get invited back. "I felt pretty confident actually," said Lam. "The first day I was already put into a game situation and it just felt very comfortable. The pace of the game over there is so much higher, so that is a pretty big jump from here to there, but I thought I coped with it pretty well." Upon his return to Holland, Lam will be slotted in with the Under- 19 team, just two steps removed from the first team. It's unusual for Ajax to recruit foreign players, preferring to develop local products, but something caught their eye with Lam. Now he already has the full team kit of training gear and a dream of playing in the 52,000-capacity Amsterdam Arena, where he got to see the wild atmosphere of a game on a previous visit. "Just being in the crowd with all the fanatic fans, it was just an amazing experience," said Lam, a five-foot-10 midfielder who starred for the Edmonton Juventus Under-16 team last year. He turns 17 in September and will begin hashing out a formal contract with the team at that time.