Mohamed Ihattaren wants to stop at Sampdoria, Rik Elfrink reports. Earlier in the day, reports came from Italy that the 19-year-old attacking midfielder would consider ending his career. According to Elfrink, however, this was ‘not planned until recently and is not yet recognized by sources around the former PSV player’.
calciomercato reported on Tuesday based on ‘rumours from the Netherlands’ that Ihattaren would consider ending his career. According to the Italian medium, the attacking midfielder would struggle with a serious depression after the death of his father. Then came too La Gazzetta dello Sport with the message that Ihattaren would like to stop playing football, based on ‘local sources’ from the Netherlands.
Mohamed Ihattaren wants to stop at Sampdoria. The fact that he already wants to hang up the football boots, as reported in Italy, was not planned until recently and is not yet recognized by sources around the former PSV player. He may switch from 1 January.
— Rik Elfrink (@RikElfrink) Nov 2, 2021
“Mohamed Ihattaren wants to stop at Sampdoria. The fact that he already wants to hang up the football boots, as reported in Italy, was not planned until recently and is not yet recognized by sources around the former PSV player. He can possibly switch as of 1 January,” responds Elfrink, PSV watcher for the Eindhovens Dagblad, on the messages that circulated on Tuesday.
Ihattaren returned to the Netherlands last month for private reasons and the General Newspaper and The Telegraph reported that it was questionable whether he would return to Italy. Juventus took over Ihattaren from PSV on the final day of the summer transfer period for several million and leased him directly to Sampdoria. There he trained with the group for a week, and then remained on the reserve bench for the entire game in the next game against Internazionale (2-2).
Shortly after that game, the coaching staff concluded that Ihattaren was not match fit and he was given an individual training schedule. La Gazzetta dello Sport writes that Ihattaren was about five kilos overweight. Initially, Ihattaren adhered to the training schedule to get him fit again. The attacking midfielder seemed fit at the beginning of this month and, according to coach Roberto D’Aversa, would have been ready for the games against Cagliari and Spezia.
However, Ihattaren returned to the Netherlands before making his official debut for Sampdoria. He reportedly does not feel taken seriously in Italy and therefore does not want to return to Sampdoria. It was also previously reported that Ihattaren would break away from the regime imposed on him at Sampdoria and regularly fail to appear at training sessions. In addition, he would not live like a pro and was regularly spotted in the nightlife of several cities. For now, Sampdoria would have no idea where Ihattaren is currently.