Jari Litmanen was a key member of the Ajax squad that took Europe by storm in the 90s and after leaving them in 2004, he’s now made his return to act as a model for their 2023/24 season third kit. The 52-year-old has been away from football for a long time, but remains quite closely connected to the club that helped make him famous.
19 years after leaving them for the second time for Finnish club Lahti, he has made a prominent public appearance wearing the famous Ajax kit. Litmanen enjoyed a lot of success with the Dutch side in the 90s, winning the Eredivisie title five times through his two stints and also being part of Ajax’s UEFA Champions League winning squad in 1995.
The Finnish footballer was an underrated talent in Europe during the 90s and arguably the best player to have come out from his nation. Litmanen owes a lot of his success to Ajax, who helped unearth his talent from the Finnish club MyPa before he could prove his quality to the majority of the football world.
Jari Litmanen acts as model for Ajax’s 23/24 third kit
Litmanen was asked by the club to act like a model to advertise their third kit for the 2023/24 season. This kit, created by Adidas, is a slick black attire with grey diamond-like shapes all across the attire. The ‘diamond’ design is reportedly a homage to the ‘diamonds’ that have come through their acclaimed youth academy over their history.
Ajax have gained a reputation for having one of the best youth academies in world football. They have a number of youth team stars in their current squad, even after selling Jurrien Timber to Arsenal in the summer window. This gorgeous kit, which sees the club logo and sponsor logos designed in white, has impressed a lot of neutral fans because of its attractive design.
With that being said, Litmanen has seemingly sold it even better with a ‘cold’ photoshoot in which he acted as a model for it. The 52-year-old is well past his young age, but seems to have maintained his physique as well as appearance really well over the years.
Instead of doing it in front of a green screen, Litmanen opted to do this photoshoot in an office room in which he’s in front of a desk and also seen wearing a gold chain, a golden watch, and jewellery around his arm.
Fans can’t get enough of Litmanen’s promo
Ajax hyped up the unveiling of their third shirt impressively in social media too. They are likely to wear this shirt in the UEFA Europa League this season after failing to qualify for the Champions League.
In the promo, they showed a lady approaching Litmanen – who is wearing a slick black shirt and talking to someone on a landline phone.
Soon after that, the club unveiled their third kit with Litmanen wearing it and giving serious ‘final boss’ vibes to it.
The ex-Finland star actually looks like a bit of a mafia boss in this and fans have been blown away by the swagger that is coming off the picture.
Some supporters have compared him to Tony Soprano, the lead character in the famous TV show ‘The Sopranos’ about a Mafia boss in the USA.
He’s even being compared to mob bosses in many prominent Hollywood films, like Uncut Gems and Snatch.
The 52-year-old’s stone-cold photoshoot has worked wonders as it’s served as a perfect advertisement for their latest kit and helped it gain prominence among neutral fans too. Perhaps this can inspire other major European clubs to start using their legends more often to model their kit in such innovative ways to catch the attention of fans of all ages.
