Five Kilos Was Never the Question — The Geometry of Marcos Leonardo's Fitness Debate at Ajax

The last ten minutes of a 1-1 draw with NEC. The ball is with Ajax, but in a Dutch television studio a different game is being played — René van der Gijp's game. On KieftJansenEgmondGijp, the former Dutch forward addresses Ajax's Spanish coach Míchel directly: he would not put Marcos Leonardo on the pitch at all; first the striker should spend five weeks alone losing five kilos. Outside the studio, on that same evening, the same player comes on as a substitute in the 78th minute. The gap between the pitch and the studio is the subject here.

Based on my years of watching matches, I have a habit: before I judge a player's value, I look at where the ball was before it reached him, and which space he was standing in. In the story of a €20m forward at Ajax, everyone is now talking about his body. Look at the tape and the question moves somewhere else.

Ajax's model is well known — buy cheap, develop, sell high. Players who come through De Toekomst are sold to Europe's biggest clubs, and that money keeps the club running. In that model, spending €20m on a forward is not simply filling a position; it is an investment expected to return at least as much as it cost. Marcos Leonardo is a 23-year-old Brazilian striker. In the Eredivisie his name so far sits beside a single goal, and not in the starting XI — substitute appearances only.

Van der Gijp's core argument is simple: without a minimum fitness threshold, technique counts for nothing. His comparison is Vinícius Júnior — in his words, even Vinícius would lose a duel against an ADO right-back if he were carrying extra weight. By invoking Raheem Sterling at Feyenoord, he implies this is not one man's story; in the Eredivisie, importing an expensive forward takes time to settle — a recurring challenge. The top of the Eredivisie is thin: between PSV, Feyenoord and Ajax the margin for error is small. Notably, the report says nothing about Ajax's current league position or recent form; the wider picture stays unknown to us.

One thing needs clearing up first. Van der Gijp's claim is not investigative fact; it is opinion. The 'five kilos' figure is his estimate, not a measured number. The report carries no response from Ajax, from Míchel, or from the player himself. So the hard facts we hold are few: a €20m fee, an age of 23, one goal, and substitute appearances only.

Now the real question. Where does a striker's work actually happen? He receives the ball behind the defensive line, in the gap between the two centre-backs, or in the half-space between full-back and centre-back. To reach those places takes two things — a body, and timing. Without the body you cannot hold the first ball, cannot stay glued to a defender's shoulder, cannot occupy and survive in the box. Here part of Van der Gijp's argument is right — without fitness you do not earn the right to stand in the half-space.

But it is equally true that fitness alone does not bring the ball into the half-space — the system does. However fit a striker is, if the line behind him will not pass to him, if the full-back does not overlap to open the space, if the midfielder does not play the line-breaking ball, then that striker is simply a man alone — forced to drop into midfield to ask for the ball, and that is exactly when he starts to look slow. At the 2026 World Cup, in France against Argentina, I stopped the tape to watch how Mbappé kept finding eighteen metres of space behind Argentina's right-back. That was not about winning the ball by shoving; it was about reading the space first. And it was possible because Deschamps had decided to keep him high. This is why the half-space is never empty — it waits, for a forward the system is willing to feed.

At Ajax the question hides here. If Leonardo's fitness really is in doubt, then the club's medical and scouting process comes under question — why was there no fitness screening before a €20m outlay? The opposite possibility stays open too: Míchel's assessment may simply differ from Van der Gijp's. Otherwise, repeatedly sending on a plainly unfit player would be internally inconsistent. And there is a third possibility — Ajax's striker options are thin, and the manager is forced to use him.

So the question splits in two. One half is the body — within the player's and the club's control, a matter of time and patience. The other half is space — entirely a matter of coaching and system, and the more important one. If the system never delivers the ball to a striker, then losing or gaining weight makes no difference. And for a club whose model is buy, develop, sell, a slow start of this kind is directly a business risk — the market value of a 23-year-old asset falls with every week without a goal.

One more thing everyone avoids. A young player's slow start after arriving from South America is often the result of a deliberate, gradual integration plan, not merely a punishment. Lifestyle, diet, language, new tempo — settling takes time. The Brazilian-restaurant anecdote Van der Gijp reaches for is not analysis; it is a familiar cultural trope. And that trope does the most damage — because once a public 'overweight' label sticks, it affects the player's confidence, the club's market value, and even the price in a future transfer.

This kind of commentary is not new in Dutch media. Dutch football culture is blunt, at times brutal, and that bluntness often works. But for a young man coming off the bench, public criticism of this kind cuts both ways. Pressure rises on one side; the club turns defensive on the other. Worth remembering — Ajax, Míchel and the player have all stayed silent; the debate is one-sided, and the player's actual physical data remains unverified.

Now the conventional view, stated fully and fairly. In Dutch football culture, physical preparation has long been placed ahead of technique — a long and successful tradition. In Van der Gijp's terms, the wrong signal reaches the rest of the squad when an unfit player keeps getting minutes; everyone concludes fitness does not matter. That argument should not be discarded. And it must be conceded — without fitness you cannot fight for the half-space; that part is universally accepted.

Yet Van der Gijp's remedy — five weeks alone, lose five kilos — is a simplification. It assumes the problem is purely physical and solvable in isolation. In reality a striker's value is set by the space he plays in and the system that feeds him. Here is my main objection: what is missing from this debate is the geometry of the pitch — where Ajax actually plays him, and whether the ball reaches him there. To judge a forward on a weight calculation alone is to drop the picture of the match and listen only to the man sitting beside it. In 2026, anyone writing only about Mbappé's speed would not have been wrong — but he would have missed the geometry of the match. The same risk applies to Ajax.

In the coming matches I will watch three things: when Leonardo gets a league start; where the ball is delivered to him; and whether Míchel defends him publicly. A change in any of the three will tell us whether the question was ever really about weight. And if the system does not change on the pitch while only the body does, the €20m will not add up.