When John made his Holland debut against the USA in February 2004, he became the 99th Ajax player to play for the Oranje.

For his seventh birthday present, John asked his parents to organise a training session with Ajax. They obliged, and he impressed the scouts and youth coaches who signed him up to the club’s academy.

When he was growing up, John was a season-ticket holder at Ajax, and also served as a ball boy at the Amsterdam Arena up until less than a year before he made his first-team debut.

John made his debut for Ajax in the ‘classic’ encounter with traditional rivals Feyenoord in the opening fixture of the 2001/02 season on 26 August 2001. He helped the Amsterdammers to a 2-1 victory, which set them on track for a title-winning campaign.

Although a centre back by preference, John has also played for club and country at right-back, and has even been deployed as a holding midfielder.

John’s girlfriend, Charlotte Sophie is the sister of fellow Holland international Boudejwin ‘Bolo’ Zenden, the former Liverpool and Chelsea winger.