Who we are

 

Football Academy Development Consultancy

FAD

Football Academy Development consultancy

FAD is a football consultancy firm focused on football academies and associations. It was founded in 2015 to meet the growing demand for expertise to build and develop successful and profitable youth training. Using proven methods, FAD helps football clubs and football associations improve. FAD scans the organisation and youth academy using a unique scanning method and model.

FAD believes that there is often no need to overhaul your club’s or association’s youth academy completely. Instead, FAD teaches the current staff new insights, vision and working methods. This way, we ensure the changes are achieved and secured for the long term.

Combining knowledge of Dutch football and the Ajax philosophy, FAD aims to assist the development of youth academies and youth players worldwide.

To complement Edmond Claus' football knowledge, FAD may sometimes employ carefully selected experts to provide proper project support and add specific high-quality knowledge.

 

Founder/CEO/Managing Director

Edmond Claus

 

Although FAD’s Edmond Claus has obtained his UEFA-PRO and Academy Director Pro license, most of his football and youth development expertise comes from years and years of professional experience as a player, coach, instructor, lecturer and manager.

At the age of 27, Edmond became a goalkeeping coach, head of goalkeeping scouting and head coach of the amateurteam of AFC Ajax.

Since 2000, Edmond worked in South Africa as Head of Youth Development at Ajax Cape Town, one of Ajax’s former satellite clubs. Together with a small team, Edmond set up Ajax Cape Town’s youth academy from scratch.

Between 2004 and 2009, Edmond worked as Head of Youth Development at HFC Haarlem, another of Ajax’s satellite clubs. At the time, HFC Haarlem functioned as a so-called feeder club to AFC Ajax, as well as a safety net for players who had to drop out of the Ajax academy.

In January 2010 Edmond was asked to return to the Ajax academy to become the under-16 team’s coach as well as assistant to the then Head of Youth Development Jan Olde Riekerink.

In 2011, Edmond left the Ajax Academy to move to China. There he worked for the Chinese Football Association, as an assistant coach for several national youth teams, such as the under-19s, and as an expert on youth development, trainer-coach training and goalkeeper scouting and training.

From 2015 to 2017, Edmond worked in various positions at the KNVB, such as coordinator of all goalkeeper coaches of all national youth teams. Edmond was assistant - goalkeeper-coach of the National under-17 and 18 teams and reached the last 8 in the European championship in Croatia under national coach Kees van Wonderen. Edmond reworked the goalkeeper coach PRO and academy director's PRO training courses. In addition to designing and reworking them, Edmond taught both courses as head instructor.

Between 2017 and 2018, Edmond was offered to work as a consultant at Doublepass, operating in countries such as Denmark, Brazil, and Japan. His primary role was as the project manager of the USSF academy development project. Here Edmond advised and challenged the staff and management of numerous MLS, USL and nominated pay-to-play academies.

In July 2018, the head of youth development at AFC Ajax, Said Ouaali, requested Edmond to return to Ajax as technical coordinator of the upper structure (O17-O19) to take the training and progression of players to the next level. In subsequent years, we developed a working method which allows every player to receive a unique and tailor-made program daily. There, a philosophy on -training, -learning, -training, -guiding and coaching was formed. During my time as technical coordinator, many players and coaches moved on to the professional football department, including the club's first team. Players such as Jurrien Timber, Serginho Dest, Brian Brobbey, Jorrel Hato, Kenneth Taylor, Deveyne Rensch, Kian Fitz Jim, Kristian Hlynsson and coaches such as John Heitinga, Dave Vos, Frank Peereboom, Erik Heijblok, Gerald Vanenburg took that step during that time.

In the 2023-2024 season, Ajax asked Edmond to take the role of head of youth development. As head of development, Edmond was co-responsible for the technical policy, the coaching staff, internal scouting and managing the entire training program.

Now, his expert knowledge is also available to your football club’s academy.

 

Strategic Advisor

Sander Claus 

Sander has been active in B2B development and the field of direct and interactive marketing, customer loyalty and CRM for over 30 years.

He is a self-made businessman with a wealth of experience in setting up and changing organizations and companies. He is invaluable as a strategic consultant. His analytical skills and view of a company from the perspective of the customer and client make FAD a reliable partner who listens to their customers and thinks along to bring about effective improvements

Sander has worked for major clients such as Vendex, Airmiles, Nissan, ING, Delta Lloyd, Disneyland Paris, Nivea and Multinational Unilever Heart Fire.  Together with Theo van der Steen, Sander founded “Underlined” in 2011. With this company, Sander focused on integrating Customer Loyalty and Social CRM. After a period where he worked as a manager and project manager at Bunk Bank, Sander is currently focusing on setting up and developing an online service platform for startups.