The second edition of our Wonderkid Factory save sees Robinho Lazaró bring his youth recruitment prowess to the Netherlands with AZ Alkmaar. The club has plenty of exciting youth prospects ready to play their part in the 2023/24 campaign – go back and meet them in Part 1 – but Lazaró was keen to remove any expectation from his young starlets.
Lazaró was keen to move on older and non-homegrown players to give more time to young prospects and free up cash to one day max out the club’s facilities. That began with selling wantaway midfielder Dani de Wit to Antwerp for £1.8m, centre back Riechedly Bazoer to Wolves for £3.9m before and keeper Hobie Verhuist joined Toulouse and Al-Ain for £425k. Then in January, they lost striker Vangelis Pavlidis, who wanted to leave at the end of his contract, for £17.25m to West Ham and sold backup winger Ibrahim Sadiq to Luton for £4.6m, captain Bruno Martins Indi to Mallorca for £3m and goalkeeper Mathew Ryan to Al-Ain for £850k.
Having assessed the players available to him, Lazaró implemented a 4-3-3 approach. He wanted to capitalise on AZ’s attacking full backs and talented wide players with three holding midfielders offering some solidity and support from deep.
Lazaró’s reign began with the Europa Conference League knockouts, easing past AEK Larnakas 5-2 on aggregate before edging past Osasuna 5-4, thanks to homegrown attacker Myron van Brederode’s late second-half strike sealing a 3-3 away draw, to reach the group stage. And they dominated an easy group alongside Aberdeen, Astana and Häcken. A wild final 16 tie saw AZ win 7-6 on aggregate with winger Jayden Addai scoring the crucial late goal in a 4-3 home win. They got arguably the toughest quarter-final draw against Fiorentina, losing 1-0 in Italy then a poor home leg 2-0.
Lazaró’s league debut saw AZ host Go Ahead Eagles and dominate them 3-0 before winger Mayckel Lahdo scored the only goal at RKC Waalwijk. Homegrown stars also stepped up as van Bredeorde and Addai’s first senior goal led a 3-0 win at Vitesse, while van Brederode won the Johan Cruijff Talent van de Maand for 2 goals and 2 assists in September. And they generally started very well, only losing at Ajax in the opening 10 games.
The games against the ‘big three’ of Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV will undoubtedly be pivotal. AZ went top of Eredivisie as Lahdo and striker Ernest Poku earned a 2-1 win at holders Feyenoord in mid-November but fell 4 points behind Ajax going into a winter break. 0-0 draws at home to Feyenoord and Ajax kept them 4 points back from the latter in late February, but the league form suffered as they focused on European matters. But they finished the season well to come home in 4th place, 12 points behind winners Ajax, 7 behind PSV and 4 behind Feyenoord, on 72 points with 72 goals and 29 conceded.
Ruben van Bommel was the 3rd-best player in the league with an impressive 18 goals, 10 assists and a 7.53 average rating, as well as having the most shots (116). While goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro won the league’s Keeper van het Jaar after 15 clean sheets and conceding just 18 in 29.
AZ’s Homegrown Player Update
AZ’s star player this season was undoubtedly Ruben van Bommel, who won NxGn 2024 and led the way with 20 goals, 11 assists and a 7.39 average rating in 44 games. van Broderode scored 14 followed by Lahdo (10), midfielder Kristijan Belic (9) and Addai (6)) while midfielder Lewis Schouten and full back Denso Kasius got 10 assists followed by Lahdo (8), van Brederode and left back Mees de Wit (7).
The AZ first team featured 9 homegrown players, who played a total of 163 league games and 66 cup games, scoring 20 in the league and 12 in the cup. Here’s how they fared in Lazaró’s first campaign:
The B team, Jong AZ, finished in an impressive 4th place in the second-tier Keuken Kampioen Division, only 5 points behind the champions. While the Under 18s finished 5th in Jeug Onder 18 Eredivisie, lost to Ajax in the Playoff Final, and lost to PSG in the UEFA Youth League 2nd round, but Yoël van den Ban was the tournament’s top scorer. To performers from the youth sides included:
There’s likely to be plenty of change in the summer with several players out of contract and some key performers this season wanting to depart. And that should mean even more game time for AZ’s promising youngsters, who’re coming through a youth setup that was recognised as the 10th best in the world in November and had contributed the 9th most players in the top divisions in Europe (45 to Ajax’s 90).
It also delivered a strong youth intake containing 4 players with 5-star potential and 4 with 4.5-star potential. The star graduate is the potentially generational talent holding midfielder Wessel van Dord, who comes through as the 6th-best midfielder, is already Eredivisie standard, and scored on his debut as he became the youngest ever AZ player aged 15 years 297 days in a 4-3 defeat to Twente. Other players to look out for are winger Erwin Drent, 6ft 5in midfielder Riccardo Kindt, centre back Aad Scholten, winger Dawid Imiela, midfielders Oliver Funkel and Alhaji Bangura, and goalkeeper Steve Herrera.
The first youth intake and AZ’s performances across the campaign gave Lazaró plenty of optimism for the future. They had plenty of very promising youngsters coming through the ranks and van Dord in particular could be a crucial player to build a team around.
How would AZ fare in Lazaró’s second season in charge and would he thrust even more homegrown prospects into the first team? Join us next Monday to find out!
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