Adidas prank Ajax players and manager Frank de Boer with terrible fake kits
Austin Powers' father may not be a fan of them, but the Dutch certainly know how to pull off some hearty apparel-based high jinx.
In a stunt filmed on hidden cameras, Ajax marketing director Edwin van der Sar led three players and manager Frank de Boer to meet an "Adidas executive," to gauge their opinion on some options for next season's kit.
The garments they are presented with are astoundingly terrible, ranging from prints of bicycles to a t-shirt tuxedo and a giant lion's head.
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"It's too much for me," says Jasper Cillessen as he diplomatically assesses a design covered in giant tulips. When left to mull over a tie-dye strip and a pancake house tablecloth print, Siem de Jong and Daley Blind also register their distaste.
Frank de Boer, meanwhile, looks like he is on the verge of dialing his agent under the table. "I have the feeling that we won't be taken seriously," he says to Van der Sar with a look of abject disgust.
You cannot be serious.
However, it all turns to smiles and relief when it transpires that they have been "punk'd," and the reigning Eredivisie champions will not have to wear an embarrassingly bad strip.
Incidentally, Adidas pulled a similar prank at Real Madrid, but they are stretching the joke out a little longer by making the team wear a garish bright pink strip for the whole season...
(Adidas)
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