{"id":12200,"date":"2026-04-26T17:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/12200\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:13:09","slug":"barcelona-closely-tracking-ajax-youngster-dubbed-the-next-eden-hazard-arsenal-chelsea-also-keen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/12200\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona closely tracking Ajax youngster dubbed the next Eden Hazard; Arsenal, Chelsea also keen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ajax has been a hotbed for talented footballers for ages now, and even at a time when the club is not necessarily dominating Dutch football, it has continued to produce talent.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent product is Mika Godts, an exploring winger who is already being dubbed as the next Eden Hazard due to his dynamic style of play and ability to move past defenders.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona among clubs keeping tabs<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GraemeBailey\/status\/2048401260550787482\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Graeme Bailey<\/a>, Barcelona are among the clubs keeping tabs on the development of Godts.<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old has been involved in as many as 29 goals in all competitions this season, and was awarded his first Belgium call-up last month.<\/p>\n<p>The Catalans are evidently impressed by Godts\u2019 progression. However, they are facing significant competition in the race to sign the Belgian starlet.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/afc-ajax-v-olympiacos-fc-uefa-champions-league-2025-26-league-phase-md8-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Mika Godts, Ajax super talent\" class=\"wp-image-198063\"  \/>Barcelona are interested in Godts but the operation will be difficult. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>In just Spain alone, Barcelona are facing competition from Atletico Madrid while Bundesliga outfit RB Leipzig are also interested.<\/p>\n<p>In the Premier League, Chelsea and Arsenal are among the clubs keen on the services of Godts, while Manchester United and Liverpool are also huge admirers of the Belgian international.<\/p>\n<p>Acquiring the services of Godts, therefore, could be extremely difficult for a Barcelona team already dealing with a sustained economic downturn.<\/p>\n<p>One potential avenue Bar\u00e7a could explore is their strong relationship with Jordi Cruyff, who is currently the technical director of Ajax. <\/p>\n<p>In fact, Cruyff himself is <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/ajax-interested-in-a-move-for-barcelona-youth-prodigy-after-jordi-cruyff-appointment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">keen on one of Barcelona\u2019s youth talents in Shane Kluivert<\/a> and had recently attended Bar\u00e7a Atletic\u2019s match against Atletic Lleida.<\/p>\n<p>However, this relationship is unlikely to bear fruit as Ajax are bound to ask a fortune for the services of the Belgian speedster, who has a contract until 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ajax has been a hotbed for talented footballers for ages now, and even at a time when the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6425,366,92,222,942,7340],"class_list":{"0":"post-12200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-ajax","9":"tag-arsenal","10":"tag-barcelona","11":"tag-barcelona-news","12":"tag-chelsea","13":"tag-mika-godts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}