Soccer Football - UEFA Champions League - Olympique de Marseille v Ajax Amsterdam - Orange Velodrome, Marseille, France - September 30, 2025 Ajax Amsterdam coach John Heitinga REUTERS/Manon Cruz
(Reuters) -Ajax Amsterdam have sacked coach John Heitinga following a poor start to the season that included four successive heavy defeats in the Champions League, with Fred Grim handed the reins on a temporary basis, the club announced on Thursday.
Assistant coach Marcel Keizer will also depart, while technical director Alex Kroes said he would give up his role before the expiry of his contract at the end of the season if the club found a suitable replacement.
Ajax have won five of their 11 Eredivisie matches this campaign and lie fourth in the table but sit bottom of the standings in the Champions League in what has been a chaotic first few months of the season.
"It's a painful decision," Kroes told the club’s website. "But looking back at the past few months, we must conclude that things have turned out quite differently from what we had envisioned. We’ve seen too little progress and have unnecessarily dropped points.
"We know it can take time for a new coach to work with a squad that has undergone changes. We have given John that time, but we believe it’s best for the club to appoint someone else to lead the team. We hope to present a new head coach together as soon as possible."
Heitinga, 41, is a former Ajax player who featured in 218 matches for the club and was later a youth coach with the team.
He had a caretaker role in charge in 2023 after the sacking of Alfred Schreuder, before moving to England to be assistant coach to David Moyes at West Ham United and Arne Slot at Liverpool, helping the latter to the Premier League title last season.
He returned to Ajax at the start of this campaign following the departure of Italian Francesco Farioli.
Ajax are next in action on Sunday when they travel to Utrecht.
(Reporting by Nick SaidEditing by Toby Davis)
