Mohamed Ihattaren is not exactly convinced of some of the ‘boys’ who are now playing in the Dutch national team. RKC Waalwijk’s creative midfielder has questioned the selection of a number of internationals, while also suggesting that some of the RKC players could actually join a top club.
Speaking on Matchday van Supergaande, he revealed how things were going at RKC. “Things are going well for me now at RKC, under Henk Fraser and Mo Allach. Fraser is a top trainer, but above all, a really good person. That’s the most important thing. As a club, we’re going through a difficult time, but how Henk helps me off the field… That’s really different. He’s a good man, I really feel at home there.”
“The players are also nice. I hang out with a lot of boys,” Ihattaren continues. “Of course I was with Liam van Gelderen at Ajax. Yassin Oukili also lives in Utrecht, so we drive back and forth together every day. We also visit each other at home. But even more boys, Richonell Margaret… At RKC we have a lot of boys who have a name behind them. One did something there and the other did something somewhere else…”
“But what you do off the field, you don’t take with you on the field,” Ihattaren continues, who calls for attention for his teammates. “You sometimes see that guys are forgotten. If you look at players who play for us, RKC: some could easily compete at the top, easily. The only difference is that those top teams are doing well.”
At Oranje, Ihattaren sees some players he is not convinced of. “There are now also boys in the Dutch national team of whom you think: brother, you were on the bench when we played there. You were on the standby list . They were not even called up at first, but now they act as if they are top players. The media make you or break you, while people go along with that hype of who is tough. In our team we have Margaret, Oukili, Van Gelderen… Those are players you only really see when you put them at a top club. But no one looks at them.”
