Recommended Reading: De Toekomst

Here's a June 2010 New York Times Magazine article on the youth development program at Ajax:

The youth academy of the famed Dutch soccer club Ajax is grandiosely called De Toekomst--The Future. Set down beside a highway in an unprepossessing district of Amsterdam, it consists of eight well-kept playing fields and a two-story building that houses locker rooms, classrooms, workout facilities and offices for coaches and sports scientists. In an airy cafe and bar, players are served meals and visitors can have a glass of beer or a cappuccino while looking out over the training grounds. Everything about the academy, from the amenities to the pedigree of the coaches--several of them former players for the powerful Dutch national team--signifies quality.

- John C.L. Morgan