 Following Van Basten's appointement, a host of new players were brought into the squad, including Ismaïl Aissati and Miralem Sulejmani, whose €16.25 million transfer from Heerenveen broke the Dutch transfer record.Van Basten chose Klaas-Jan Huntelaar as the new club captain following his appointment, but in the January 2009 transfer window, Huntelaar transferred to Real Madrid on a €27 million deal, a decision for which Ajax were largely criticised in the Dutch papers.