Editing Marco van Basten (section)

===Ajax===
[[File:KNVB-bekerfinale FC Den Haag tegen Ajax het hele Ajax-team met beker, Bestanddeelnr 934-0064.jpg|thumb|upright|Van Basten lifting the 1987 [[KNVB Cup]] for Ajax]]

[[AFC Ajax|Ajax]] signed 16-year-old Marco for the [[1981–82 Eredivisie|1981–82 season]] after his 19-year-old brother Stanley was rejected. Their father Joop had kept the younger son at another club with the hope that Ajax would take Stanley in professionally. He played his first match for Ajax on 3 April 1982, coming on as a substitute for Johan Cruyff, and scoring a debut goal in the team's 5–0 victory over [[N.E.C. (football club)|NEC]].<ref name="My School Sport">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2430624/My-School-Sport-Marco-van-Basten.html |title=My School Sport: Marco van Basten |work=The Telegraph |last1=Davies |first1=Gareth A |date=11 February 2002 |access-date=19 April 2020 |archive-date=1 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201001924/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2430624/My-School-Sport-Marco-van-Basten.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Games That Changed My Life">{{cite web |url=https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/marco-van-basten-games-changed-my-life |title=Marco van Basten: Games That Changed My Life |publisher=FourFourTwo |date=20 April 2017 |access-date=19 April 2020 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803214155/https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/marco-van-basten-games-changed-my-life |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[1982–83 Eredivisie|1982–83 season]], he competed with the [[European Golden Boot|European top scorer]] and first choice Holland international [[Wim Kieft]] for the position of centre forward, and scored nine goals in 20 league matches. Ajax chose to sell Kieft to Italian [[Serie A]] club [[Pisa Calcio|Pisa]] the following season, and 18 year old Van Basten solidified his position as his team's main attacker similarly in the national team.

He was the top scorer in the league for four consecutive seasons, from 1983–84 to 1986–87, scoring 118 goals in 112 matches. In the 1985–86 season, he scored 37 goals in 26 league matches, including six goals against [[Sparta Rotterdam]] and five against [[Heracles Almelo]], and won the European Golden Boot. He also scored the winning goal in the [[European Cup Winners' Cup 1986–87|UEFA Cup Winners' Cup]] final against [[Lokomotive Leipzig]] in 1987. In total he scored 128 goals in 133 league matches for Ajax.<ref name="FIFA"/> In November 1986 he scored his most famous goal in an Ajax jersey, a spectacular [[overhead kick]] against [[FC Den Bosch]].<ref>[http://www.tvgids.nl/de-omhaal-van-marco-van-basten/youtubevideo/165667/ De omhaal van Marco van Basten] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226195738/http://www.tvgids.nl/de-omhaal-van-marco-van-basten/youtubevideo/165667/ |date=26 December 2017 }} - TV Gids {{in lang|nl}}</ref>