How Ajax young guns upset Champions League rich boys

He's still only 19, but Matthijs de Ligt has already experienced more big football moments than most top-level professionals can hope for in their entire career.

He became the youngest ever captain in a Champions League knockout game when Ajax dispatched Real Madrid in March, following that milestone with a quarterfinal winning goal against Juventus a few weeks later.
Yet what Ajax and de Ligt would achieve should it beat Tottenham in the forthcoming Champions League semifinal would surpass anything the young Dutchman has managed thus far.

In the era of the mega-rich superclubs -- many the play things of billionaires, oligarchs, petro states and distant investors -- that pay eye-watering wages and transfer fees, Ajax has bucked the trend in reaching the latter stages of the Champions League by sticking to its core identity and promoting youth like the impressive de Ligt.

It is now just two games from the final, a run that will provide a welcome boost to the club's coffers. In last season's tournament, organizers UEFA distributed over $1.5 billion to clubs participating in the competition. Winners Real earned nearly $100 million, while semifinalists Bayern and Roma respectively took home $81 million and $96 million.