Ki-Jana Hoever will play for PSV next season, the club confirms via the official channels. The twenty-year-old defender is taken over from Wolverhampton Wanderers for one year on a rental basis. On Tuesday it was already announced that the temporary switch from Hoever to Eindhoven would be a matter of time. No option to purchase is included in the lease.
Tuesday revealed it Eindhovens Dagblad and Voetbal International already that PSV and Wolverhampton Wanderers were out about the right back. Only a medical examination stood in the way of a temporary switch. Director of football affairs John de Jong is very pleased on the club website. “We are hiring Ki-Jana because we are convinced of his qualities and consider it crucial that he joins early in the preparation,” said the driver, who also explains the nature of the commitment. “A lease with an option to buy was not negotiable for Wolverhampton at the moment. They only recently paid a hefty transfer fee for Ki-Jana. We did not want to run the risk of weeks of negotiations and therefore acted quickly.”
Hoever – a right back who can also play in the center – still has a contract with Wolverhampton Wanderers until mid-2025. However, the Dutchman had little prospect of playing time in the Premier League and is now going to revive his career in the Eredivisie. Last season he made eight appearances at the highest level in England, four times as a starting player. A year earlier, he still participated twelve times (five basic places).
In the summer of 2020, Wolverhampton took over Hoever from Liverpool for approximately eleven million euros. So far, the defender has played 25 times for the club. He was recently admonished publicly by trainer Bruno Lage who believes that the native of Amsterdam should become both fitter and more professional. According to The Athletic there is still confidence within the club that the youth international of the Dutch can pick up on this.
Hoever went through almost the entire youth academy of Ajax, but left in August 2018 at the age of sixteen to embark on an English adventure. He did not yet have a professional contract and was therefore cheap to pick up by Liverpool. From December 2018 he was allowed to train with the first team and in January 2019 he made his professional debut for The Reds† “I was surprised that I was offered a contract from Ajax, because I had the feeling for some time that I was not appreciated how I thought I should be appreciated. That I made my debut in Liverpool 1 six months later, also says I think I was ready for the Under 19 of Ajax, I think,” Hoever said in conversation with Football International about his departure.
Last season Roger Schmidt frequently chose Mauro Júnior at PSV as the right back position. The Brazilian was turned into a defender and went through a stormy development, especially after the turn of the year. Phillipp Mwene and Jordan Teze can also be used as right backs, although the latter was often used as a central defender last season in the absence of André Ramalho and Olivier Boscagli, among others. It is not yet certain that Mauro will also play in the Philips Stadium next season. The left leg is associated with Benfica, where he must be reunited with Schmidt.