Most teenagers would hesitate to jump on a microphone in front of a crowd of more than 100,000 people, but each and every person packed into Amsterdam’s Museumplein square were well aware that Matthijs de Ligt was no typical 19-year-old.
As Ajax’s players, staff and supporters celebrated their 34th Eredivisie title and another KNVB Cup success in May 2019, their precocious, young captain rallied the masses in a deep, booming voice beyond his years, drawing the link between his generation and that of Johan Cruyff.
Advertisement
“What’s more important is that we have shown everyone what Ajax is about, what kind of city Amsterdam is,” De Ligt said. “We have shown everyone what we stand for and that is attacking football. We’ve shown everyone what the big man above us wanted to see and what he expected from us.”
It was a note-perfect speech and as if to only add to the sense that this was a young man who could do no wrong, he even caught a can of beer thrown from the crowd mid-air before it hit the mayor of Amsterdam.
Ask anyone involved at the elite level of European football at the time and they would agree that De Ligt, now of Bayern Munich, was at the very start of a career that would see him become one of the preeminent centre-halves of his generation. Not least his then-manager, Erik ten Hag.
“I don’t know if De Ligt has shown 60-80 per cent of his potential,” Ten Hag said later that year, “but we are talking about one of the best defenders in Europe and I have no doubt that he will soon be number one in this position.”
And yet despite regularly turning out for two of Europe’s great clubs in the time since, winning Serie A (with Juventus in Italy) and Bundesliga titles and having moved for a combined transfer fee of €162.5million (£137m), there is still a narrative of potential unfulfilled, perhaps the need for fresh start.
Ten Hag may be able to help with that. Manchester United are seeking a new centre-back as a priority and their manager’s admiration for De Ligt is no secret. But more significantly, that admiration is now shared by senior Old Trafford officials, with the two clubs in talks over a move for De Ligt.
And while independent of the pursuit of fellow defensive target Jarrad Branthwaite, a deal for De Ligt is thought to be more realistic. Should a deal prove possible, United will be signing a defender — still just 24 years old — whose potential has never been in doubt.
De Ligt stood out in Ajax’s fabled youth setup from a young age, benefiting from his early physical development when compared to his peers, and figures at the Amsterdam club quickly earmarked him to be fast-tracked through the system.
“The goal with Matthijs was to bring him to the first team as soon as possible, at a young age, at as good a level as possible,” says one source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships. Yet playing as a centre-half against much smaller boys was not especially challenging.
Advertisement
The solution? To play him in midfield. While still only 14 years old, he moved further up the pitch and was given more responsibility in possession, so as to improve his range of passing. “For a long time, he was a No 6; just to make sure he’d be comfortable with the 360 (playing with pressure from all directions),” adds the source.
A month after his 17th birthday, De Ligt was handed his senior debut and scored in a 5-0 win over Willem II, becoming Ajax’s second-youngest-ever goalscorer. It was the first of several records tumbled or milestones passed, all of which marked him out as a unique talent.
Before the season was out, he was the youngest player to ever start a European final but could not prevent his side falling to a 2-0 defeat in the Europa League final to Jose Mourinho’s United. The following year, he became the first defender to win the Golden Boy award.
And by that point, he was already the youngest captain in Ajax’s 118-year history, thanks to Ten Hag.
In an interview with The Athletic last year, De Ligt described the United manager as the coach who had the single greatest impact on his development. “Even at 18, he saw me as someone who could lead a team, who could lead by example, who could be a good captain.”
De Ligt demonstrated those abilities and more in Ajax’s extraordinary run to the Champions League semi-finals under Ten Hag, which enhanced his reputation as one of the brightest young talents in Europe and all but ensured that the 2018-19 campaign would be his last in Amsterdam.
Able to have his pick of just about every major European club that summer, De Ligt joined Juventus in a deal worth up to €85.5m (£72.4m). The most expensive teenage defender of all time was, according to the Serie A club’s then-chief football officer Fabio Paratici, also the best investment Juventus had ever made.
Advertisement
The idea was that De Ligt would be given the opportunity to play alongside, learn from and eventually succeed Giorgio Chiellini, extending Juventus’ long lineage of defensive greats into another generation. Juventus’ succession planning had to be accelerated somewhat, however, with Chiellini rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament at the start of De Ligt’s first season.
Partly because of Chiellini’s absence, partly because of that grand tradition of defending, but largely because of the heightened expectations around Juventus in the age of Cristiano Ronaldo, De Ligt found himself under the microscope in Turin to a greater extent than he ever was at Ajax.
Errors were amplified and mistakes magnified, contributing to a sense that he was not yet quite living up to his potential, but criticism generally ignored the wider context.
Despite a rotating cast of head coaches from Maurizio Sarri to Andrea Pirlo and then Max Allegri employing him in a variety of roles across a number of different defensive systems, De Ligt rarely looked undeserving of his status as Chiellini’s ultimate successor.
Yet ultimately, it was not to be. As he entered the final two years of his contract, negotiations over a renewal stalled. Remarks made first by the late Mino Raiola, then by De Ligt himself while away on international duty, hinted at a parting of the ways. A move to Bayern, in a deal worth up to €77m (£65m), was struck that summer.
De Ligt left Juventus with only one scudetto but still completed a clean sweep of domestic honours in his three years in Turin, the last of which was arguably his best on an individual level, playing more minutes than any other outfield player in the squad that year.
Bayern’s pitch to the player was simple. “We don’t want you as a defender,” executives told De Ligt. “We want you to be the boss of the defence.” Much was made of his leadership qualities by a club that had lost senior dressing-room figures like David Alaba, Javi Martinez and Jerome Boateng in recent years.
Advertisement
As a former manager of Bayern’s reserve side, Ten Hag had recommended De Ligt pick the Bundesliga giants before his departure from Ajax three years earlier. When De Ligt eventually took up his former mentor’s advice, Ten Hag called to congratulate him.
There was excitement in Bavaria at the time, yet it has been a challenging couple of years for De Ligt amid a challenging couple of years for Bayern. There have been mistakes — not too many but enough not to earn the absolute trust of supporters and fans.
Again, however, that is not easily separated from the wider context of a team missing vital ingredients and managerial changes.
Julian Nagelsmann was an admirer of De Ligt and the pair shared a strong working relationship, to the extent De Ligt messaged the outgoing Bayern head coach in March last year to thank him for everything he had done to help him adapt to life in Germany.
By contrast, De Ligt could not always count on the same support from Nagelsmann’s successor, Thomas Tuchel. Although complimentary in public, Tuchel more often preferred Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae at the heart of his defence. When Eric Dier joined in January, De Ligt at times appeared to slip even further down the pecking order.
For the pivotal trip to Bayer Leverkusen in February, Tuchel switched to a back three yet dropped De Ligt, leaving him among the substitutes as Bayern collapsed to a damaging 3-0 defeat. De Ligt won his place back shortly after and was a more regular presence during Tuchel’s final months in charge, but still started less than half of Bayern’s games in all competitions last season.
That is partly due to an injury record that will give some United supporters pause. Having been almost ever-present under Ten Hag at Ajax, knocks and niggles have been a bother ever since. But before his sidelining last season under Tuchel, De Ligt was still averaging around 27 games’ worth of league minutes each year.
Advertisement
He is far from an automatic starter at international level, in some ways still recovering from being scapegoated for being sent off as the Netherlands exited the last European Championship at the hands of the Czech Republic, and De Ligt was an unused substitute in all three of their group games this time around. Competition to partner Virgil van Dijk at the heart of Ronald Koeman’s defence is stiff.
If he does not take to the pitch in his adopted country this summer, he will use the time wisely. De Ligt is an avid reader, revealing to The Athletic last year that he leafs through the autobiographies of defensive greats from the past.
“I’ve read autobiographies from Per Mertesacker, Jaap Stam, Sol Campbell, John Terry… you name them, I’ve read them,” he said. “It helps me improve my game, drawing on their experiences. They sometimes say things that make you think you’re not alone.”
De Ligt may still emulate them one day. His reputation as one of the best young centre-halves in European football has dimmed slightly in recent years but was not earned without merit. Ten Hag, for one, is a believer and it appears he is not the only one at Old Trafford, either.
Additional reporting: James Horncastle, Jacob Whitehead and Seb Stafford-Bloor
GO DEEPER
Ten Hag set for coaching staff reshuffle at Man United
(Top photo: Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)