Bart Sanders

Ajax signed him on a free transfer in the summer of 2009. He was 30 years old, it was his eleventh club. He struggled to score in his opening weeks, and became convinced that manager Martin Jol and assistant Danny Blind were seeing him as a bad buy. In his very first Klassieker, away at Feyenoord that November, around the half hour mark, still scoreless, he spotted a substitute warming up and assumed he would be subbed off and that was the end of his Ajax career. Then he set up three goals in 40 minutes and Ajax won 5-1. From there, he became a cult hero like Amsterdam hadn't seen before. Fans adored his personality as much as his output, his enthusiastic thumbs-up after every single touch regardless of how it turned out, theatrical over-the-head applause toward the crowd and his own teammates, and a level of self-belief Dutch fans called arrogance and still loved him for it. He was immortalized by street art collective Kamp Seedorf with a mural and merch of that same image, and there is an Ajax fan-podcast that carries his name still today. He left after one season over contract issues, and finished his only season with 21 goals in 39 appearances and a KNVB Cup before he left for Olympiacos. Happy birthday, Marko Pantelić.