Rising Dutch Star Ihattaren Explains Choice of Netherlands Over Morocco

The 17-year-old striker was accompanied by his older brother, Yassir, who left his job as a history teacher to manage the young footballer’s career.

Hailing from a family of five boys, all born in the Netherlands where their parents met in the 1980s, both Mohamed and Yassir claim to be proud to be Dutch, but also Moroccan. "In the debates around Mo’s (Mohamed Ihattaren’s nickname in the Netherlands) choice, people said: ’He will choose Morocco because of the pressure from the family and the entourage’. We have also read the opposite: ’He won’t choose Morocco because the Ihattaren family comes from the Rif, where people rebel against the government and the king’. To be clear, these two explanations are false, at least for us. (...) We are also attached to Morocco. But what connection does Mo have with Moroccan football? If we’re honest, none. He has been evolving in the Dutch football culture since he was very young. In the Netherlands, he knows everything and everyone, in Morocco no one."

According to Mohamed, his choice was quite natural. "It happened quite naturally. My choice is in line with what we’ve learned at home. Be good to the people who are good to you. And being loyal is important. These are things my father and mother have instilled in us since we were very young. And at PSV and the KNVB (Dutch Football Federation), they’ve been good to me for years. I would have felt ungrateful if I had made a different choice, just because of my Moroccan roots."

Morocco tried to convince Ihattaren to join the Atlas Lions, offering him some advantages. There was never really any question of money. But Morocco would have offered him, for example, a 150-room hotel on the Moroccan coast and about thirty small houses, of which he would become the owner and collect the income.

Ihattaren had even received a visit from Moroccan football legends Aziz Bouderbala and Noureddine Naybet at his home in Utrecht just after the death of his father. The representative of King Mohammed VI, the Moroccan Consul, and the president of the Moroccan Football Federation also made the trip to meet the young player.

The visit of the high-ranking officials was not felt as a way of putting pressure on the striker. "I didn’t make my choice because Morocco would have tried to take advantage of the funeral. We didn’t feel any pressure from Morocco. For example, I really liked what Hakim Ziyech told me. We talked during the PSV-Ajax match in September. He said to me: ’Don’t let them influence you, do what you think is best. At PSV I also talked a lot with Ibi (Ibrahim Affelay’s nickname in the Netherlands) and with the coach. Mark van Bommel told me like everyone else at PSV: ’Look at what’s most important for you and your family’.