Sjaak Swart
Swart in 2011
Personal information
Full name Jesaia Swart
Date of birth (1938-07-03) 3 July 1938
Place of birth Muiderberg, Netherlands
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Position(s) Winger
Youth career
OVVO
Amsterdam
Ajax
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1956–1973 Ajax 461 (170)
International career
1960–1972 Netherlands 31 (10)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Jesaia Swart (born 3 July 1938), commonly known as Sjaak Swart, is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a winger for Ajax. During his career at Ajax, he amassed a total of almost 600 matches, a record for the club.

Biography

Swart is Jewish[2][3] and was born in Muiderberg, a fishing village about 20 kilometers east of Amsterdam.[4][5] His Jewish fisherman father sold herring at the market.[5][3] As a child, he and his father concealed themselves as non-Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945, hiding from Germans and Dutch colluders, who rounded up any Jews; nearly 75 per cent of the Dutch Jewish population was killed in those years.[5]

Nicknamed Mr. Ajax, he played for Ajax a total of almost 600 matches, a record for the club, starting in 1956.[3][4][6] He was part of their European Cup victories in 1971, 1972, 1973.[5]

For the Netherlands national team, Swart earned 31 caps, scoring ten goals.[7]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Europe Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Ajax 1956–57 Eredivisie 50100060
1957–58 1930020213
1958–59 735400127
1959–60 341800003418
1960–61 33773214211
1961–62 335211044510
1962–63 2852031336
1963–64 301250103612
1964–65 291110003011
1965–66 301043003413
1966–67 342353634529
1967–68 321171624514
1968–69 3213321034518
1969–70 3113611064720
1970–71 311661814518
1971–72 331153934717
1972–73 25910312910
Career total 46117065227025596217

Honours

Ajax

See also

References

  1. "Sjaak Swart". www.footballdatabase.eu. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  2. Buchheister, Hendrik (4 October 2013). "Football: Why Tottenham and Ajax Fans Have a Jewish Identity". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest ... - Simon Kuper
  4. 1 2 Quixano, Jordi (2 November 2014). "Escribimos parte de la historia del fútbol" [We wrote part of the history of football]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Sjaak Swart: the forgotten genius of an Ajax legend"
  6. Mister Ajax: de eeuwige jeugd van Sjaak Swart - Raymond Bouwman
  7. Stokkermans, Karel (5 February 2010). "Sjaak Swart – International Appearances". RSSSF.
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