Meet the Kuhn and Cerny you don't know – Ajax pride explodes as mentor ranks and rates Celtic and Rangers' star men

It's football's ultimate finishing school. Imposter syndrome is an affliction unbecoming to the stars trying to ace the test.

An academy without equal, a place where the finest talents on the planet either thrive playing the Ajax way or survive and forge a new path after their Amsterdam adventure ends. And for the two right-sided wingers who will face off at Hampden – following the Johan Cruff blueprint was a shared experience.

Nicolas Kuhn and Vaclav Cerny are talismanic figures for Celtic and Rangers but their story goes back a number of years. The pair were plucked from Germany and the Czech Republic to earn the right to compete with elite talent. And that's not hyperbole, at a time Erik Ten-Hag's homegrown heroes were seconds away from the Champions League Final, the stars of tomorrow, Jong Ajax as they are known, were also packed future superstars. Jurrien Timber, Noa Lang, Sven Botman and Ryan Gravenberch were their peers. It's a youth team with a current market value of in excess of £250m.

But the friends turned rivals have never been far from the thoughts of their former coach Rene Stam – an Ajax lifer steeped in the values and traditions of the club he adores. And seeing both thrive operating under Glasgow rules for Celtic and Rangers has been a source of pride and excitement over what comes next.

Speaking exclusively to Record Sport, Stam said: "Vaclav joined us when he was 14, a few times, and he signed a contract when he was 16. Nicolas had some injuries, he wasn't a great success at Ajax. Vaclav, he followed our academy, he was a real Ajax player. He was used to playing our system, with the 4-3-3, with the three forwards, as a winger. Nicolas, came out of a system, which was more of a 4-4-2, as one of the