The Future Cup (officially known as the ABN AMRO Future Cup, and previously known as the AEGON Future Cup) is an annual friendly international youth tournament which is organized by the Dutch football club AFC Ajax.^[1] The tournament is created for under-17 youth teams, and is held at De Toekomst, every year during the Easter weekend.^[2] The tournament has been contested by some of the strongest under-17 teams in football, with FC Barcelona, Manchester United and Bayern Munich amongst the participating clubs.^[3] The first five editions of the tournament were named after its main sponsor, the insurance company AEGON, before the Dutch state-owned bank ABN AMRO took over as the main sponsor of the event.^[4] The tournament is broadcast on television in over 59 countries via Eredivisie Live, Eurosport and Fox Sports.^[5][6][7]

Qualification

8 teams participate in the Future Cup every year.^[8] Since Ajax are the tournament hosts, they are automatically entered, leaving 7 additional places available in the tournament.^[9] Six of the spots can be filled with a simple registration of an under-17 team from any club, while national teams are also able to register, such as the China U-17 team did when it competed in the first edition of the competition.^[10] The eighth and final position is filled by the winners of the Brazilian 'Craques Mongeral AEGON Future Cup - Um Torneio do Ajax' a parallel running competition for under-17 youth teams in South America which shares the same sponsor. The winner of that tournament is automatically seeded for the Future Cup in Amsterdam the next year, completing the 8 participants in the Cup challenge.^[11]

Format

The draw takes place ahead of the last home match of the Ajax first team ahead of the Future Cup.^[12] The 8 teams are then divided up into two groups during halftime of this match. The opening ceremony of the tournament takes place on the Friday evening before Easter, while the first matches are played on Holy Saturday. The first two group stage matches are played for each team on this day, while the last two group stage matches are then contested on Easter Sunday.^[13] The finals are played on Monday, the second Easter day. The day starts with the matches for the 7th and 8th place, which are contested by the two teams who finished bottom of their groups.^[14] Afterwards the two semi-finals are played.^[15] The group winners of each group compete against the second place team of the other group, and after the two semi-finals the matches for 5th and 6th place are contested against the third place team from each group.^[16] The matches for 3rd and 4th place are then contested amongst the losers of the Semi-finals, which is concluded by the Cup final, deciding the 1st and 2nd place.^[17] The awards and trophies are awarded directly after the Final, at which all teams and coaches are present.^[18]

Finals

Statistics accurate as of ABN AMRO Future Cup 2023. ^[19]

Year	Date	Winner	Result	Finalist
2023	10 April 2023	Nordsjælland	3–0	Ajax
2020–22	—	–	Cancelled*	–
2019	22 April 2019	Juventus	2–1	Ajax
2018	2 April 2018	Ajax	2–0	Juventus
2017	17 April 2017	Ajax	2–0	Bayern Munich
2016	28 March 2016	Arsenal	0–0 (4-3 pen.)	Anderlecht
2015	6 April 2015	Anderlecht	0–0 (4-3 pen.)	Ajax
2014	21 April 2014	Ajax	2–1	Liverpool
2013	1 April 2013	Anderlecht	2–0	Ajax
2012	9 April 2012	Ajax	2–2 (5–3 pen.)	Manchester United
2011	25 April 2011	Anderlecht	1–0	Ajax
2010	5 April 2010	Ajax	1–0	China U-17

• Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands

Prizes

The winner of the Future Cup are obvious winners of the tournament. For this information please see the next segment below. Other prizes are however awarded in conclusion, which are handed out by prominent former and current Ajax members, with Frank de Boer, Martin Jol and Luis Suárez amongst those who have awarded the trophies.^[20] The man of the tournament is selected and awarded the adidas Best player of ABN AMRO Future Cup award. Below is a list of the prize winners over the years:

Year	Player	Club:
2023	Villum Berthelsen	Nordsjælland
2019	Anouar Ait El Hadj	Anderlecht
2018	Naci Ünüvar	Ajax
2017	Ryan Gravenberch	Ajax
2016	Riqui Puig	Barcelona
2015	Matthijs de Ligt	Ajax
2014	Abdelhak Nouri	Ajax
2013	Nabil Jaadi	Anderlecht
2012	Queensy Menig	Ajax
2011	Dennis Praet	Anderlecht
2010	Davy Klaassen	Ajax

Every year the prize adidas Top Scorer of ABN AMRO Future Cup is awarded to the top-scorer of the tournament. Since the 2023 tournament, the award has been renamed the Noah Gesser Trophy in honour of the U16 Ajax talent who had died in a car accident in 2021.^[21] Below is a list of the top-scorers for each year:

Year	Topscorer	Club	Goals
2023	Winsley Boteli	Borussia Mönchengladbach	4
2019	Anouar Ait El Hadj	Anderlecht	4
2018	Naci Ünüvar	Ajax	5
2014	Oluwaseyi Ojo Harry Wilson	Liverpool	4
2013	Václav Černý Aaron Leya Iseka	Ajax Anderlecht	3
2012	Elton Acolatse Ademir Marco Pinato Alperen Doğan	Ajax Desportivo Milan Beşiktaş JK	3
2011	Nicholas Pasifakis Patrick Foss	Ajax Cape Town D.C. United	4
2010	Dominik Goßner	Bayern Munich	6

Statistics

Appearances and best results

Statistics accurate as of ABN AMRO Future Cup 2023.

Nr.	Club	Apps	First App.	Best result
1.	Ajax	11	2010	Winners
	Anderlecht	11	2010
	Juventus	5	2015
	Arsenal	2	2016
	Nordsjælland	1	2023
2.	Bayern Munich	4	2010	Runners-up
	China U-17	2	2010
	Liverpool	2	2010
	Manchester United	1	2012
3.	Barcelona	4	2010	Third place
	Benfica	4	2013
	Milan	3	2010
	J. League U-17	2	2017
	Porto	1	2015
4.	Fluminense	1	2011	Fourth place
	São Paulo	1	2013
	Sporting CP	1	2018
	Atlético Madrid	1	2019
5.	Celtic	3	2011	Fifth place
	Ajax Cape Town	2	2011
	Desportivo Brasil	1	2012
	Sydney FC	1	2018
	Boca Juniors	1	2019
	Borussia Mönchengladbach	1	2023
6.	Paris Saint-German	4	2017	Sixth place
	Tottenham Hotspur	2	2013
	D.C. United	1	2011
	Toronto FC	1	2013
	Galatasaray	1	2015
	Right to Dream	1	2016
7.	Beşiktaş JK	1	2012	Seventh place
	Corinthians	1	2014
	Schalke 04	1	2015
	Red Bull Salzburg	1	2016
	Sevilla FC	1	2018
	Sagan Tosu	1	2019
	Chelsea	1	2023
8.	FC Dallas	1	2010	Eighth place
	Fenerbahçe	1	2014
	Olympiacos	1	2016
	Pachuca	1	2023

All-time cup winners

Cups	Club	In:
5	Ajax	2010, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018
3	Anderlecht	2011, 2013, 2015
1	Nordsjælland	2023
1	Juventus	2019
1	Arsenal	2016

All-time top-scorers

Statistics accurate as of AEGON Future Cup 2023.

Nr.	Player	Nationality	Goals	Club
1.	Naci Ünüvar	Netherlands	7	Ajax
2.	Dominik Goßner	Germany	6	Bayern Munich
3.	Winsley Boteli	Switzerland	4	Borussia Mönchengladbach
	Anouar Ait El Hadj	Belgium	4	Anderlecht
	Nicholas Pasifakis	South Africa	4	Ajax Cape Town
	Patrick Foss	United States	4	D.C. United
	Oluwaseyi Ojo	England	4	Liverpool
	Harry Wilson	Wales	4	Liverpool
9.	Václav Černý	Czech Republic	3	Ajax
	Aron Leya Iseka	Democratic Republic of the Congo	3	Anderlecht
	Elton Acolatse	Netherlands	3	Ajax
	Ademir	Brazil	3	Desportivo Brasil
	Marco Pinato	Italy	3	Milan
	Alperen Doğan	Turkey	3	Beşiktaş JK

Participation by country

The under-17 youth teams of the following clubs have participated in the Future Cup tournament in the past.