Ronald, thanks for the support! It is difficult to answer your question, like you said, we are a small nation of around 16 mio inhabitants, but still always remain among the top regarding football, although if you look at field hockey, we are among the best nations (men/women). I have to say that it is not only Ajax that has a good youth academy, most top league clubs have a good to outstanding youth academy, even exporting the concept to other countries, Ajax being the main one, setting up academies in Ghana, South Africa, China etc. Important key factor is atracting former players to train the youth; the Dutch football organization has set up a trainer/manager course which is mandatory for everybody who wants to train a professional team. So even Van Basten who is a icon, could not train the Dutch Oranje squad or Ajax, without having the proper curricula. For many sports there is a good infrastructure (organization/funding/interest/youth/trainers) in the Netherlands (even baseball/softball is popular to play, however not to watch that much). And if you are a talented player, the Dutch schoolsystem has the flexibility to set up a different schedule for the talented student, hereby not placing a burden on the student and his/her talents, but also making sure education is key. Johan Cruyff has set up the Cruyff University, especially for youth sporters, combining their talent (sport) with education, making sure they also have an other future after sports. That I find fascinating and the strenght of the approach of sports and talent in The Netherlands. Hup Holland!