Jesaia Swart (born 3 July 1938), commonly known as Sjaak Swart, is a Dutch former professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
who played as a
winger for
Ajax
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...
. During his career at Ajax, he amassed a total of almost 600 matches, a record for the club.
Biography
Swart is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
[''Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest ...'' - Simon Kuper]
/ref> and was born in Muiderberg
Muiderberg () is a village in the municipality of Gooise Meren in the Netherlands. It lies about 6 km north of Bussum and 2 km west of Naarden, adjacent to the Naarderbos.
Geography
Muiderberg is in the east of the municipality of Mu ...
, a fishing village about 20 kilometers east of Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
.[">"Sjaak Swart: the forgotten genius of an Ajax legend"]
/ref> His Jewish fisherman father sold herring at the market. As a child, he and his father concealed themselves as non-Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945, hiding from Germans and Dutch colluders, who rounded up any Jews; nearly 75 per cent of the Dutch Jewish population was killed in those years.
Nicknamed ''Mr. Ajax'', he played for Ajax
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...
a total of almost 600 matches, a record for the club, starting in 1956.[ He was part of their ]European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
victories in 1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6).
The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history.
Events
Ja ...
, 1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
, 1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
.
For the Netherlands national team, Swart earned 31 caps, scoring ten goals.
Career statistics
Honours
Ajax
*Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
(7): 1959–60, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1969–70, 1971–72, 1972–73
*KNVB Cup
The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...
: 1960–61, 1966–67, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72
*European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
: 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73
*Intertoto Cup
The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...
: 1962
Events January
* January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
* January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism.
* January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...
*European Supercup
The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...
: 1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
, 1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
* Intercontinental Cup: 1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
See also
*List of Jewish footballers
The following is a list of Jewish footballers (soccer), organised by nationality.
See also
* List of Jews in sports
References
{{reflist
*
Footballers
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different ty ...
* List of select Jewish association football players
References
1938 births
Living people
Footballers from Amsterdam
Association football wingers
Dutch footballers
Jewish footballers
Dutch sports agents
Association football agents
Dutch Jews
Netherlands international footballers
Jewish Dutch sportspeople
Eredivisie players
AFC Ajax players
UEFA Champions League winning players
{{Netherlands-footy-forward-stub