Unfortunately, the team’s big announcement on social media ended in ridicule after the mistake of seeing Stam’s photo on Twitter, but a photo of Ajax youth coach Tinus van Teunenbroek.
In fairness, the two share a passing resemblance, both are bald and have the same status, but the shameful mistake was quickly seen by fans and media outlets before the Cincinnati-faced media team quickly corrected the error.
In a subsequent interview on the club’s website, 47-year-old Stam laughed at the incident and said that he had several (double) doppelgangers in his home country, the Netherlands.
“Many people without hair, in the Netherlands, sometimes they say, ‘This is Jaap!'” He said. “That’s a pretty normal thing.”
As for van Teunenbroek, who was unexpectedly in the spotlight, he told Fox News that mistaken identity was a normal occurrence.
“I once mistook Jaap Stam at Ajax Showtime (FC Ajax website) by Ajax himself. It happened to me more often, like during holidays, people were shouting: ‘Hey, it’s Jaap Stam!’ ‘
But for whatever reason, the rival MLS team couldn’t resist making fun of the case of mistaken identity with Colorado Rapids and the New England Revolution among many who joined in the fun.
Former Manchester United and Dutch international star Stam takes over managerial duties at Reading in England and PEC Zwolle and Feyenoord in the Netherlands.
He resigned at Feyenoord last October after losing 4-0 to Ajax and taking over Cincinnati from caretaker manager Yoann Damet.
With travel restrictions continuing amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is unclear when Stam will be able to join his new team.
MLS was suspended on March 12, but the players have returned to training at the club’s facilities individually before possibly starting again this summer.
