The wonderkid factory project at AZ Alkmaar was progressing very nicely as Robinho Lazaró led the club to two 2nd-place finishes in three seasons. He’d also reduced the AZ squad to just five players who didn’t come through the club’s academy heading into the summer of 2026.
That was reduced further as midfielder Kristijan Belic moved to Valencia for a club record £31m, Mees de Wit joined Forest for £6.5m, and winger Ruben van Bommel became homegrown at the club. More academy products were promoted in winger Erwin Drent, left back Saviola Simons and holding midfielder Aad Scholten. And the only non-academy players at AZ are Denso Kasius and Alexandre Penetra.
Lazaró was forced to change up his 4-3-3 approach to shoehorn his best players into the starting lineup. At the front of that queue was star academy product Raily Wau, who’d progressed to become the third-best player at the club behind Jayden Addai and Myron van Brederode. He’d been contemplating a move to a 4-2-4 for the last year or so, using an inverted full back on the left and Lewis Schouten dropping into defence, leaving Wessel van Dord and Enoch Mastoras to patrol the midfield, with Wau deployed in his preferred deep-lying forward role.
Taking A New Approach Into Season 4
The bookies still have AZ down to finish 4th in Eredivisie with title odds of 9/1. Ajax are 5/4 favourites to win the title for a fourth time in a row followed by Feyenoord (7/2) and PSV (7/1).
The new approach started pretty well as AZ dominated Fortuna Sittard away by 23 shots to six. And, despite conceding to the first shot, they won 2-1 through Yoël van den Ban and an own goal. They took that into a huge game at home to Ajax as van Brederode finished off a superb team move, the post was struck twice in the same move, before van Bommel sealed a dominant 2-0 success.
That gave AZ the confidence to kick on and win their first seven games, including Wau bagging a brace in a 4-1 win at Vitesse and Schouten scoring twice in a 5-0 thumping of NAC Breda. That teed up a big clash between the top two as AZ entertained Feyenoord, who beat them home and away last season, but stopped that rot as van den Ban and a Wau double sealed a superb 3-0 victory. An injury crisis hit in October and they drew four of the next five but remained unbeaten all the way through to December, when they suffered a 4-0 thumping at Ajax.
Tough Champions League Challenge
AZ got a brutal set of Champions League fixtures, so van den Ban’s strike to nick an opening-day win at home to København was crucial. They got thumped 5-2 at Atlético and lost 2-0 at home to Dortmund but wingers van Bommel and Addai nicked 1-0 wins at Leipzig and at home to Celtic.
AZ again welcomed Madrid to town and, while there was no victory this time, Lazaró’s plucky youngsters showed their fighting spirit against their star-studded opponents. Bellingham gave the visitors the lead, midfielder Julian Oerip’s first senior goal levelled up and Madrid looked to have nicked it in injury time. But, straight from the kick-off, Oerip scored again with a deflected shot. A 3-1 defeat at Lazio followed before Drent’s late equaliser sealed a 3-3 at Fenerbahce and a 20th-place finish with 11 points.
AZ got the worst draw possible against Man City in the playoff round. But Lazaró’s young charges again proved their worth in the home leg as van Bommel cut inside to give them an early lead. Haaland obviously equalised but AZ held firm and arguably had the better of the game before earning a 1-1. City had far too much for AZ away as they scored from their first three attacks and won 3-1.
Exciting Eredivisie Title Race
AZ’s fine league form continued in the new year, led by the prolific van Brederode who scored in four successive games before bagging a hat trick in a 5-1 rout of NAC Breda. But they had Wau to thank for a late winner at Feyenoord, which took his side top of the league by a point. However, they lost van Brederode to a groin strain in that game and his replacement van den Ban tore his groin next time out in a 3-1 win at Twente. And with limited attacking options, AZ finally slipped up with a 1-0 loss at 6th-place Heerenveen, which saw them in the heart of the title race.
With five games remaining, AZ led Feyenoord by a point with Ajax a further point back and PSV and Utrecht outsiders in a five-way title race. All five sides had relatively favourable run-ins, with the only big game being AZ’s trip to PSV in gameweek 31.
Game 1 – NEC (14th, home): AZ almost had the perfect start after three minutes as Wau finished off a wonderful team move only for it to be ruled narrowly offside. Addai eventually made the breakthrough with a neat finish just before half time then, 90 seconds into the second half, van Brederode’s stunning volley doubled the lead. Addai doubled his tally and AZ eased to a dominant 3-0 win. Elsewhere, there was status quo as Ajax beat NEC 3-0, Feyenoord won 5-0 at Vitesse, PSV won 2-1 at Go Ahead Eagles and Utrecht won 2-1 at ADO.
Game 2 – PSV (4th, away): AZ got a flyer as Wau scored a wondergoal, running from inside his own half, down the left flank and around the PSV defence before calmly tucking the ball into the far corner. And that proved to be the pivotal moment – and only highlight – of the game as AZ cruised to a vital 1-0 win. The next day, Feyenoord thumped Groningen 4-0 but Ajax drew 2-2 at Twente and Utrecht drew with Fortune to drop out of contention.
Game 3 – Go Ahead Eagles (18th, away): AZ fell behind to Go Ahead’s only shot in first-half injury time. But a stern telling off saw them turn the game around through van Brederode, Wau and Schouten. Feyenoord drew at NAC to drop three points back and Ajax drew 1-1 at home to Vitesse to fall six points behind AZ, which effectively make it a two-horse battle with two games remaining.
Game 4 – Helmond Sport (10th, home): That meant AZ could wrap up the title with a game remaining with a win over Helmond. And they saved their best performance of the Lazaró era for this most vital moment. Wau was at it again, finishing off a great team move on eight minutes, scoring from close range then wrapping up his first career hat trick with a superb turn and finish inside half an hour. But they weren’t done there as van Brederode also bagged a hat trick along with goals by Drent and Addai Feyenoord also won, but a crushing 8-0 victory gave AZ a 13-goal advantage.
Game 5 – ADO Den Haag (13th, away): The title was basically won but AZ ended the season on a high as van Brederode and Addai put them two up inside 20 minutes. ADO got a goal back but van Brederode’s penalty killed things off.
AZ Alkmaar were Champions of The Netherlands for the 3rd time!
AZ broke the club record for most points in a season, racking up 86 to finish three clear of Feyenoord and six clear of Ajax. The more attacking approach saw AZ score a league-high 90 goals and concede 29, which was 24 and nine more than last season. As a result, Wau became the first AZ player to win Voetballer van het jaar award, with Kasius in 2nd, van Broderode won the Topscorer award and Addai won Talent van het jaar ahead of Wau.
AZ Academy Products Update
Van Brederode’s injury provided an opening for Way to be called up to the Netherlands squad for the first time and he made his international debut at the age of 17 as a substitute in a 3-1 Euros qualifier win over Turkey in March. And that call-up was well-earned given he won NxGn 2027.
But van Brederode remained AZ’s main man, leading the way with 26 goals followed by Wau (18), Addai (13), van den Ban (11) and van Bommel (10). Addai led the assists with a new club record 17 followed by Kasius (13), van Brederode (11) and van Bommel and Mastoras (6).
AZ’s academy products again smashed their record for first-team appearances, playing a combined 439 league games and 169 cup games. They scored 82 league goals and 23 cup goals along with 59 league assists and 15 cup assists. Here’s how the academy products got on in the first team:
Jong AZ finished 14th in Keuken Kampioen Divisie, while the under 18s defended their title led by 21 goals from striker Jeffrey Potjes and 20 goals and 13 assists by winger Manuel Piqué. Here’s the pick of the youth teams’ performers:
Lazaró was delighted to have won the Dutch title with his exciting squad dominated by academy prospects. He was particularly excited about the progress of his young attacking prodigy, who had pundits across the Netherlands saying “Wau, this kid is Raily special.” However, there was more disappointment with the latest intake that only contained a 4.5-star prospect, which prompted Lazaró to finally sack his head of youth development.
But could AZ defend their title and perform better in Europe? Join us next Monday to find out!
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