From Cruyff to de Ligt The evolution of Ajax's $500 million football factory

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making way for Patrick Kluivert, Edgar Davids and Clarence Seedorf in the nineties. As well as being some of the most storied names in world football, all were graduates of the Ajax academy -- an institution long-famed for its prolific player output and pursuit of technical perfection. The Amsterdam-based club continues to churn out some of the most exciting talents in world football today. Frenkie De Jong, Matthijs de Ligt and Justin Kluivert are among the most recent to roll off its well-tuned production line. In the past, this trio would have formed the backbone of the next great Ajax side. But maintaining talent has become an increasing challenge with the Dutch league unable to compete with the riches swirling around competitions in England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy. Nineteen-year-old Kluivert moved to Roma for 17.25 million euros ($19.54million) in 2018 while De Jong, 21, will join Barcelona later this year for $85 million. A host of Europe's top clubs are also likely to battle it out for De Ligt, also 19, in the summer.

Ajax All-access: The Past 02:56 While players have always moved on from Ajax, Blind acknowledges that the club's most prized assets seem to leave far earlier than in generations gone by. There is "the risk that they go in two, three or four years" after being brought through from the academy, says Blind, whose son Daley was a product of the club's academy. "That's very difficult because all the time you have to rebuild the team".

Blind captained an Ajax side that reached back-to-back Champions League finals in the mid-1990s, triumphing in 1995 and finishing runners up in 1996. That team stuck together for a number of years and included a plethora of academy talent alongside established players like Blind and the Finland international Jari Litmanen. In the 1970s, Ajax won three consecutive European Cups (the competition that preceded the Champions League) with the likes of Cruyff, Haan and Johan Neeskens in its ranks. Cruyff, the poster boy for Dutch soccer and its philosophy of "Total Football," left for Barcelona in 1973, aged 27. But he did so having won 17 trophies in eight years as a first team player at Ajax.

Ajax's 1973 European Cup winning team. Few of Ajax's top talents hang around that long now. And for Ajax CEO and former goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, the changing reality has forced the club to adapt. These days, Ajax offers an elite finishing school for young footballers as well as a pathway to first team football for the most talented. Those who excel can likely expect to be sold for the right price with the next crop of talented young players progressing to replace those who leave. Other clubs of similar stature and pedigree across Europe -- such as Benfica, Porto, Celtic and Anderlecht -- have adopted similar models. What they lack in commercial or broadcasting riches they look to close the gap in player sales.