Van der Wiel ready to quit Ajax

Ajax defender Gregory van der Wiel has admitted that he wants to quit the club to take on a new challenge in the Premier League or La Liga.

Roma started a bidding war for the right-back earlier this month with an offer of five million euros on the table for the Dutchman.

With the race for his signature heating up, the defender reiterated his desire to move on to bigger things and listed England or Spain as the ideal locations to further his career.

“I feel for me it’s time to go, I want to make a step to a bigger club. But now I’m just going to focus on the European (Championships) and see what comes,” he told Goal.com.

“Maybe (Euro 2012 is a showcase for me) but I think big clubs already know how I can play and what my skills are. I’m not feeling like this is a show, a final show, but of course if you play well at the Europeans it helps a lot.

“There are two competitions that I like the most, England and Spain.

“The last two years I’m always being connected to such clubs. I don’t focus on that, and my manager only tells me if they’re really concrete interest.

“I’m playing Champions League with Ajax too so that’s the level I want to play at, but you never know how it goes.”

Despite his desire to leave, the 24-year-old was keen to praise the role that his boyhood club played in developing him into the player he is today.

“I was playing at Ajax when I was seven so I (didn’t) know (anything) else than football,” he said.

“I just liked the whole team. I use to play in the midfield but after a while I played central defender, and that’s where I made my debut with Ajax, as a central defender.

“They (Ajax legends Dennis Bergkamp and Frank De Boer) know everything about Ajax and how we want to play and they bring that on to the group so that really works for everybody.”