Piet Keizer

Petrus Johannes "Piet" Keizer (14 June 1943 – 10 February 2017) was a Dutch professional footballer who played as a left winger. He was a key figure in the Ajax Amsterdam "Total Football" system during the 1960s and 1970s, especially under managers Rinus Michels and Stefan Kovacs between 1965 and 1973. Many regard him as one of the finest players in Dutch football history. A Dutch writer once noted: "Cruyff is the best, but Keizer is the better one."

Keizer spent his entire club career at Ajax, making 489 official appearances and scoring 189 goals from 1961 to 1974. He debuted for the first team on 5 February 1961 against Feyenoord and is a member of Ajax's Club van 100 for players with over 100 official matches. With Ajax, he won three consecutive European Cups (1971, 1972, 1973), having lost the 1969 final to AC Milan. He also claimed six Eredivisie titles, five KNVB Cups, two European Super Cups, one Intercontinental Cup, and one Intertoto Cup. In March 1964, a serious injury during a KNVB Cup match against DWS required surgery for a skull fracture and a brain blood clot. In August 1973, under new manager George Knobel, Ajax players voted in a secret ballot for Keizer as team captain ahead of Johan Cruyff; Cruyff left for Barcelona weeks later.

For the Netherlands, Keizer earned 34 caps and scored 11 goals. He debuted in an 8–0 friendly win over the Netherlands Antilles in 1962. Selected by Rinus Michels for the 1974 FIFA World Cup squad, he started only in the 0–0 draw against Sweden. He retired suddenly in October 1974 after a tactical dispute with Ajax manager Hans Kraay.

Keizer married Jenny Hoopman on 13 June 1967; they had two sons. He died of lung cancer in February 2017 after a long illness. Football player and manager Marcel Keizer, a nephew, played in Ajax's youth academy and managed the first team in 2017.

The UEFA website described Keizer as "the genius on the left wing, the skillful flanker, the superb foil to Johan Cruyff." Cruyff, in his posthumously released autobiography, placed Keizer as left winger in his "ideal squad."