Zlatan Ibrahimovic famously called him his real father, thousands of Ajax fans trusted him more than they trusted themselves, and the brightest talents waited to be unearthed by him. Danish scout John Steen Olsen is now retired at the age of 79. Among many others, he discovered Christian Eriksen and Zlatan. Those two talents alone are more than most scouts get to unearth in their lifetime.Olsen had followed Zlatan since he was 16 and was present at every chance he had to see him play. He finally made contact with the Ajax directors and made them go to Malmo to see Zlatan perform, but he had called in sick and didn’t show up at all.John Steen Olsen – the man who, among other things, discovered Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Christian Eriksen & Kasper Dolberg – has been a scout for our club for more then twenty years now. During an annual diner he’s named ‘Official member of Ajax’. Beautiful moment! 🕵️🎖🇩🇰#Ajax pic.twitter.com/Uloaf8STgF— Ajax Youth Academy (@AjaxYA) November 11, 2017 The following week, John went to La Manga in Spain as Zlatan was part of a training camp, and there were many major European clubs present, so Olsen insisted that the Ajax directors fly there to secure his signature. They’ve been close friends ever since. Zlatan went on to win two titles with Ajax in 02′ and 04′ before moving to Juventus and Italy.He thinks very highly of John Steen, and he has invited the Dane to come visit him at every club he’s been at. They regularly speak on the phone and Olsen has accepted an award for footballer of the year on behalf of Ibrahimovic.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Funnily enough, Christian Eriksen and Zlatan’s recruitment was somewhat similar. Olsen had been following Eriksen for many years. Eriksen was playing the Nordic Cup as a 16-year-old kid, and the interest was already high. Chelsea, Manchester United, and Barcelona were among the clubs there looking at the talent playing, so once again, John Olsen insisted the Ajax directors come to secure the signature of the young talent. They did, and a few months later, Eriksen moved to Amsterdam. He quickly achieved success on the U-19s and was moved up to the reserves team – a year and a bit later, he was a starter and went on to win the Eredivisie three years in a row before he was sold to Tottenham Hotspurs for around $15 million in 2013.@AFCAjax’s legendary scout John Steen Olsen will retire after >25 years [on July 1st]. In the course of his career, the 79y old was part of finding players such as Ibrahimovic, Eriksen, Dolberg & Kudus. But also Fischer, Andersen, Boilesen & Grønkjær and more.Source: BT#Ajax pic.twitter.com/yOZ8Yc3oKA— weTalk Ajax (@wetalkajax) June 23, 2022 Olsen and Eriksen also regularly speak together and have a close relationship. They saw each other no more than a month ago. It was a reassuring experience for John Steen, who was in Parken the night of Eriksen’s collapse, to see and speak to Christian face to face and feel like everything was back to normal and even better than before.In 2015 John Steen Olsen was offered and signed a lifetime contract with Ajax, but today is officially his last day as a scout for the historic club.
