Owen Wijndal's Unexpected Ajax Journey
Owen Wijndal was supposed to be gone by now.
Last summer, the left-back had said his goodbyes in the Ajax dressing room. The club were ready to cut ties after four seasons, even exploring the termination of his contract. Two new left-backs, Caio Henrique and Jofre Torrents, had arrived on Jordi Cruyff’s watch. The message seemed blunt: your time here is over.
And yet, he is still there. Playing. Performing. Talking openly about how close it came to ending very differently.
“I've had to fight my way back a few times already,” Wijndal told De Telegraaf. “Of course I'm happy with how things are going now. But at the same time, I know how football works. You're only as good as your last match.”
The pressure was real. When a club of Ajax’s stature signs not one, but two players in your position, it rarely signals a long future. Internally, Ajax were prepared to let him walk away. The situation escalated to the point where terminating his deal was on the table. For a player once considered a long-term solution at left-back, it was a brutal comedown.
Then the move collapsed at the last moment. The door that looked firmly shut creaked open again.
In the background, a different story started doing the rounds: that Wijndal was clinging to his contract for financial reasons, happy to sit on a generous salary rather than move on. It is a narrative he clearly resents.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! The salary, right?” he replied, laughing, when asked about it. “I do hear that a lot, but it really isn't true. I can earn good money at other clubs too. If money had been the most important thing, I'd have left long ago.”
He doubled down, not to polish an image, but to draw a line.
“That story about my salary simply isn't true. I stayed because I wanted to be at Ajax and because I still wanted to show what I can do here. That has always been my motivation.”
The recent upturn in form proves he has not simply hung around. From a position on the brink, he has fought his way back into relevance. The context makes it all the more striking: a player effectively pushed towards the exit, now playing his way into the conversation again.
For Wijndal, this is not a farewell tour. It is a reclamation project.
His contract runs until mid-2027, and he insists his Ajax story is far from finished. There have been no talks yet about an extension, no clear signal from the club that they want to commit beyond the current deal. But he is not closing that door.
“It would be quite funny, considering everything that has happened over the past few years,” he admitted. “Of course I would think about it if Ajax want me to stay.”
There is a hint of irony in that idea: a player who once said goodbye potentially sitting down to discuss staying even longer. From unwanted asset to possible long-term option again — football turns quickly.
“I've been here quite a long time now,” he said. “But I haven't heard anything yet, and as long as that's the case, there's little point in thinking about it too much.”
For now, he plays, he fights, and he waits. Ajax made plans without him once. The real question now is whether they dare to make the next set of plans with him at the heart of them.
