Andy van der Meijde maintains through his program In the car with Andy a good relationship with the current generation of football players. Although he hasn’t heard from Mohamed Ihattaren for a while, who would be about to breathe new life into his still fledgling career at Ajax. Ihattaren was seventeen years old and a great talent of PSV when he made a video with Van der Meijde. “He still lived in Utrecht, had his family close by and already earned good money at PSV,” says Van der Meijde.
Ihattaren played his last professional football match on April 24 last year. He was sold by PSV to Juventus, loaned out to Sampdoria by the club from Turin and now he has been back in the Netherlands for a few months. He seemed to be working at FC Utrecht on a rental basis, but Ajax now reportedly has the best papers. Van der Meijde thinks it is a sad story. “Then a little later you suddenly find yourself alone in Italy, alone in a hotel room. You don’t know your teammates, don’t speak their language, don’t know their humor. Then as a football player you think for a moment: what have I done to myself?”, he tells the NOS.
“You earn good money, but abroad you also lose a lot. I think he was homesick.” Van der Meijde himself ended up in Italy at the age of 23 and soon got homesick. “Before he went, I told him to think carefully, that abroad is not always everything.” It was quiet at the time. “He didn’t respond to anyone at that time, I read. I then also texted him that if there is something, I want to help him. I know how to deal with setbacks.”
Ihattaren did not respond to that app either. Van der Meijde hopes that Ihattaren will start working for Ajax. “I hope so. He has enough quality, but he has to keep his head up. I think that you have experienced guests at Ajax with Erik ten Hag, Marc Overmars, but also with players such as Dusan Tadic, Davy Klaassen and Daley Blind, who correct him if necessary. He’s a very sweet boy. A lot of people forget that.”
“He has no big mouth, is not arrogant and has a heart of gold. It’s a shame he left Italy in such a way, but hopefully he’ll learn from it. Nice to sign with Ajax and maybe take that step again in a few years, when there is peace of mind,” emphasizes the former football player of Ajax and Internazionale, among others. According to The Telegraph Ajax intends to rent Ihattaren from Juventus for a year and a half. It General Newspaper and ESPN write that it concerns a rental period of half a season with an option to purchase, whereby according to ESPN is a four-year contract.
Ihattaren played a total of 74 games for PSV, in which he scored 10 times and provided 11 assists. If Ihattaren opts for a step to Ajax, he will be the second winter acquisition after Brian Brobbey for the reigning national champion, who has also been chasing ex-PSV player Steven Bergwijn for a while.