“I could play for the Netherlands, but I want to make my father proud,” says Ajax’s teenage goalkeeper Charlie Setford.
“He’s English and he’s been there all along for me. One thing I always wanted to achieve was to play for England.”
Setford, an England Under-18 international, is trying to establish himself in the professional game with the four-time European champions.
He has been a regular in manager Erik ten Hag’s first-team squad this season as the club’s third-choice goalkeeper.
And although his participation will be limited on Tuesday when Ajax take on Benfica in the Champions League, it promises to be another occasion to remember for the 17-year-old.
Setford was on the bench in both wins against Borussia Dortmund in the group stage and was there on Friday when Ajax beat Cambuur 3-2 to strengthen their position at the top of the Eredivisie.
The experiences are priceless at such a formative stage in Setford’s career, as he described in an exclusive talk to BBC Sport.
making daddy proud
Setford was born in Haarlem in 2004, to a Dutch mother and English father, golfer Chris Setford.
He was spotted by his local club Ajax when he was seven years old and has been there ever since, signing a three-year professional deal in 2020.
In addition to his exposure at first-team level, Setford has made seven appearances this season in the Eerste Divisie, the Dutch second division, for Jong Ajax, the club’s reserve team.
And it has also progressed internationally. Having played up to Under-16 level for the Netherlands, he switched allegiances from him to England in the summer of 2019, wanting to make his father proud.
“I’ve had a mostly English upbringing,” Setford said. “Everything at home is pretty much English. We watch a little bit of Dutch TV and some of the music is Dutch, but at home it’s mostly English. We tend to watch more English football than Dutch because it’s more entertaining and interesting to watch.”
The Jong Ajax experience
If Setford had been at an English club, they would most likely now be looking at a loan move to help him gain more experience, given the wide acceptance that U23 football played in Premier League 2 is not the required standard. to allow a smooth transition to the first team.
At Ajax, Setford doesn’t have that problem, as the Ajax reserve team gives him professional experience in the Dutch second tier.
“The Eerste Divisie is great to play if you’re at Ajax and you’re 17, 18 or 19 years old,” he said. “You get the chance to play against men at big clubs. It’s pressure. It’s high-level. It’s also about money. You’re playing against people who are fighting for their money, who already have kids.”
“In England, you don’t have the equivalent of Jong Ajax. The Under-23 league is not a proper league in the sense that you only play against people your own age. It’s a big step from that to the Premier League.”
“With Jong Ajax, you play in a league where three points are important and where you can’t afford to make careless mistakes or disconnect because you will be penalized.”
doing the next step
Setford enjoys mixing experiences with Jong Ajax and the first team atmosphere.
The senior team is trying to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the second time in four years, heading into Tuesday’s round of 16 second leg with Benfica tied 2-2.
Ten Hag has made a significant impact in just over four years as Ajax manager and is on Manchester United’s radar to become their next permanent boss.
Setford feels he has benefited from the extra intensity he faced joining Ten Hag’s first team.
“The first team training sessions are at a very high level,” Setford said. “At Jong Ajax there is more intensity because they can risk more in their sessions than the first team. But the first team shoots with much more power and much more precision. It is a higher level, another step, Champions. level.
“It’s hard being a goalkeeper and saving those shots. You have to be alert, you have to be precise. You can’t switch off. That’s when you realize there’s another step above you and you’re still not good enough to be the first team goalkeeper.” .
Setford gets a lot of feedback about his own skills and areas where he needs to improve.
“You have to be explosive, to get to the shots that go to the far corner,” he said. “For myself, I feel like I lack the best technique to reach and go to the corner. Obviously, I stop a lot of balls, but I have problems with the balls that go to the far corner.”
“Over the last few months, I’ve noticed that my left foot is more explosive than my right. Every day in training I work on my explosiveness, with the coaches putting the balls in the top corner, so I can jump too. and landing correctly, with proper technique.”
The goal of the Premier League
Setford isn’t the only member of his family in the Ajax books. His younger brother, Tommy, is also at the club, as a goalkeeper, with the stated goal on the family website to “be better than his brother”.
Charlie says the family is “living the dream”, although with a sportsman for a father too, it has become quite a competitive household in Setford, even if Charlie insists that “in table tennis and football”, his father “You know who’s boss.”
Setford’s immediate goal is to hope that Ajax beat Benfica and that he gain more positive experiences as his career develops.
But he also has long-term plans, and that involves the Premier League, even though he has never actually played any club football in England.
“I’m at Ajax right now and my focus is completely there,” he said. “But the Premier League is the biggest league in the world and eventually I want to take that step. That, and playing for England, are big dreams for me.”
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