It has been an emotional few months as he held off on announcing his international allegiance to care for his ill father before he passed away. Ihatteren was born in Utrecht and received a resounding standing ovation when he returned to the city of his birth as PSV played Utrecht at the Galgenwaard. The 17-year-old showed an immense amount of maturity throughout the whole ordeal and was supported by his teammates, friends and his club as he continued his brilliant start to the season.

“For me, football is very much about the first ball assumption. Your first assumption is everything. It makes the attack, which must be good. That is why I am working a lot on that. I don’t care whether you are taking on the right or the left. Whether you have to be perfectly two-legged in today’s top football. No, I don’t think so. Two-legged is fine, but I don’t train on that specifically, because then there is danger that you will think too much about actions. And if you think too much, you will make mistakes. I want to trust my feeling, my intuition. A trainer should not stuff players like me with assignments, that does not work. But I mean offensive assignments, right. If I am at 10 and my opponent is sprinting deep, then I will have to go. Then there are no apologies,” said Ihatteren when discussing his position in an interview with AD earlier this year.

Ihatteren has accumulated 4 goals and 7 assists in all competitions this season, in his first full season as he will get an opportunity to improve under another manager who is uniquely familiar with him. Ernst Faber is acting as interim manager after working in the PSV academy as a coach and a Director. The 17-year-old will also be looking to stake a claim for a Dutch National Team debut as the KNVB coveted him, hoping not to repeat the same mistake that it made with Hakim Ziyech a few years ago. The teenager could continue to be source of excitement in what has been an underwhelming season for PSV.