AZ Alkmaar celebrated a fifth successive Eredivisie title in the summer of 2033, but their homegrown stars were still some way off competing with Europe’s elite. And manager Robinho Lazaró was very much questioning whether they’d ever be able to.
There was major news off the field as AZ saw the first takeover of the Lazaró reign with new chairperson Lau Chun Wah taking control of the club. However, he didn’t invest any money or make any changes – not even cancelling out the negative transfer balance that continues to blight the club and Eredivisie.
AZ may have been struggling to reach the latter stages of the Champions League, but they went one better in the 2033 Club World Cup. They eased through a group of Shabab Al-Ahli, Al-Ahly and Tigres and beat Chivas in round two before Milan had two men sent off inside 49 minutes and AZ took advantage to win 3-0. Next was a semi final with Ajax, which they drew 2-2 before Aad Scholten, Gery ten Teije and Erwin Drent secured a 5-2 extra-time victory. That set up a Final with a scary Man City team and they unsurprisingly lost, but only 2-1 to a late Haaland goal. However, AZ beat Ajax again to lift the Johan Cruijff Schaal for a third time.
A Surprise Loss Of Form
AZ remained evens favourites for another title but began the season with both ten Teije and Wau injured. And as a result, they lost the opener 2-0 at Go Ahead before Myron van Brederode’s brace downed RKC 3-1. The forward began the season in fine form, scoring seven in the first six league games, but AZ suffered from injuries and squad players getting unhappy, which saw them lose five times in the first half of the season – having lost five times in the previous three seasons – including a 4-1 thumping at Twente.
That sudden dreadful form forced Lazaró into a drastic change, switching to a take on a 3-4-3. That worked as they defeated Go Ahead Eagles and Fortuna Sittard and went on a nine-game unbeaten run before losing at Ajax. But that did set up an interesting five-way title battle.
The run-in began by conceding a 95th-minute goal to lose 2-1 at PSV before a 1-1 at home to Twente dropped them to 4th. But back-to-back ten Teije braces helped them beat Willem II 3-0 and Cambuur 4-0 then a 2-0 win at NEC confirmed a 3rd-place finish, finishing four points behind Ajax and PSV. ten Teije was the league’s top scorer with 23 in 28 followed by van Brederode with 17.
More Champions League Struggles
The poor form carried over into the Champions League as AZ got thumped at PSG, Inter and Leicester, but drew at Benfica and beat Dun. Streda and Besiktas. But the formation change worked as they thrashed CSKA Sofia 7-0 then drew 1-1 with Celtic to sneak through in 19th. They took on Sporting in the playoff round and Wau’s goal earned a 1-0 win at home before losing 4-2 in Portugal to exit early.
AZ also lost the Dutch Cup Final to Feyenoord, in a game that epitomised their entire season. They dominated the first half, conceded Feyenoord’s first two shots then lost control of the game to lose 3-1.
AZ Academy Products Update
ten Teije was AZ’s star man, scoring 27 with 10 assists in 40 appearances. van Brederode also scored 27 followed by the disappointing Raily Wau (15), Manuel Piqué (12) and Jayden Addai (11), who topped the assists chart with 16.
Lazaró used far fewer players this season and his homegrown academy products played a total of 464 league games, scoring 73 with 58 assists. They also played 198 cup games, scoring 30 with 27 assists.
Jong AZ also had a tricky season, finishing 15th out of 20 in Keuken Kampioen Divisie. But the under 18s again finished 2nd led by Joshua van der Velde’s 19 goals and 16 assists and 30 goals from striker Zep Engelkes.
AZ suffered a massive dropoff this season, as they relinquished their grip on the title and really struggled in Europe. Some players suffered a significant drop in form, including key individuals like Wau not contributing as Lazaró would have hoped. Additionally, the players coming through the ranks didn’t look good enough to replace senior stars like van Brederode, Dekker and Owusu-Oduro, who were moving into their 30s. So this seems like a good place to bring this save to an end. But below, you can scroll through the best players that have been produced through the AZ academy.
Lazaró led AZ to six Eredivisie titles and five cup successes in 11 seasons. He took control of 572 games of which he won 400, drew 85 and lost 87 with a 69% win percentage. His sides scored 1,346 goals and conceded 538. Lazaró achieved this by signing no players but selling 64 for a profit of £333m.
Thanks for reading our second Wonderkid Factory adventure! We’ll have more Football Manager Stories coming as our EuroTrip save continues, and we may revive Wonderkid Factory on FM25.
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