Scott finds his groove with Ajax
AJAX midfielder Granwald Scott is fired up for Saturday’s Nedbank Cup final against Mamelodi Sundowns in Port Elizabeth, where he will be eyeing his third major piece of silverware with the club.
There was a steely determination in the eyes of the 27-year-old at Ajax’s Ikamva training base out in Parow yesterday morning. If coach Roger de Sa could package Scott’s desire to win and distribute it among the rest of the Urban Warriors, he would have a winning formula.
Many people think “Scotty” is the club’s most naturally talented player, a footballer’s footballer whose awareness, silky first touch and superb distribution from the middle of the park make him a pleasure to watch.
Now in his 11th season at the club since making his debut as a 16-year old in 2004/ 2005, Scott and Nazeer Allie are the club’s longest-serving players.
It would be unfair to undermine his massive contribution to the team over the past decade, but there are those who feel Scott has not lived up to his full potential, which saw him touted for a move to Ajax Amsterdam in his earlier years.
With just a single national team cap to his name, and fewer than 200 games for Ajax under his belt during a lengthy stay at the club, Kensington-born Scott’s career has been curtailed by a series of injuries, and he has not been able to realise his huge potential.
However, this season, bar a few weeks around the restart of the league in February, Scott has stayed clear of injury and has played in the majority of Ajax’s matches – 26 in the league, and a further five in cup competitions.
Heading into Saturday’s final he has been putting in some increasingly influential performances in the Urban Warriors’ engine room, chipping in with a couple of important goals while also establishing an ever-improving working relationship with fellow central midfielder and 22-year-old captain, Travis Graham. The manner in which De Sa has used Scott lately, allowing the player to reach full fitness while leaving him out of the starting line-up in one or two matches along the way in order to recuperate, suggests the head coach sees him as a vital member of the team.
Now reaching the prime of his career, Scott is very pleased with how things have panned out this season under De Sa.
“It’s been like three seasons in which I have been unsettled, playing five games, missing three games through injury. This season it was totally different,” he said.
“The past few weeks we have got winning goals in extra time. That’s the kind of motivation we can take into Saturday.”