Perr Schuurs has never been in a hurry

To those few who were sitting in the stands of the Juliana Sportpark in s-Gravenzande, a suburb of The Hague, on 4 October 2017 to watch the under-19 selection of the Netherlands play against the same age group from Malta, seeing the number 3 play seemed to recognize that other number 3, the one who had led the Dutch U19 national team until the previous year, the one whose magnificent future fortunes were already being told: Matthijs de Ligt. However, Matthijs de Ligt was not on the pitch, and he wore the number 3 jersey Perr Schuurs.

Matthijs de Ligt and Perr Schuurs are the same age, the first was born three months before the second, they play in the same position, they are both tall, slender, blond, they wore the Ajax shirt, but together only for nine minutes, the last nine minutes of Ajax-AZ Alkmaar on 7 October 2018. Because the second, Perr Schuurs, has always been considered a Matthijs de Ligt who hadn’t quite made it. The fans who followed the matches of Jong Ajax, the second team of the Lancieri, were convinced of this in the national youth teams, as were those who watched the first team at the Amsterdam Arena. For them, for all of them, Matthijs de Ligt was something else: more elegant, more beautiful to look at, faster, more effective. In short, another category. Not that Perr Schuurs was a crook, nobody thought that, but there could be no comparison between the two. Also because they were the same age, they played in the same position and in the same way, that of the Dutch school which above all meant one thing: whoever defends cannot only defend, but be able to restart the action.

Only one person was convinced otherwise: Erik ten Hag.

After the suspension of the 2019-2020 Eredivisie due to the pandemic, the then manager of Ajax, now at Manchester United, replied – to those who asked him how he planned to overcome de Ligt’s absence in the team (he had been sold to Juventus in the summer) the following season – that he had no doubts. that “Schuurs can live up to the role”. He then added: “Schuurs will become a top player, one of the best defenders in Europe”. And to those who pointed out to him that Peer Schuurs was the same age as de Ligt, he replied: “Not everyone matures at the same speed or even in the same way. There are guys who at the age of twenty already have full control of themselves, others don’t. However, this does not mean that they are less skilled. Schuurs has huge potential. Where can he get to? Honestly, I still don’t know, but quite high”.

Erik ten Hag wanted Perr Schuurs at Manchester United in the summer. However, the Red Devils managers had already invested 50 million euros for Lisandro Martínez (also from Ajax) and did not feel they had to fulfill the coach’s request, also because they believed the defense was already complete with Harry Maguire, Raphaël Varane, Victor Lindelöf and Phil Jones.

Perr Schuurs could stay another year, at least, in Amsterdam. But without Erik ten Hag something had changed. Without the coach who had decided to launch him despite everything, despite the skepticism towards him son of a heavy comparison 75 million euros, many Juventus disbursed for Matthijs de Ligt, there was no one left to really believe that Schuurs could be present and future of the Lancers.

Yet a thousand kilometers further south there were those in the Dutch central defense who had seen exactly what Erik ten Hag had seen. Similar judgments, as well as conclusions. Davide Vagnati was convinced that Perr Schuurs could become one of the best European defenders to such an extent that he had no hesitation in paying out 9 million euros (to which 2.3 million bonuses will be added), also because Toro had over 40 million to being able to invest after selling Bremer to Juventus (to replace de Ligt). Perr Schuurs was convinced that Turin, Turin, could be the right destination to continue growing and to demonstrate that he is a great defender, that he is not inferior to his peers who (not only) always put him in the shade at Ajax.

A competition between the two which however does not exist, imposed on them by Dutch insiders and press. Because things are going well between Perr Schuurs and Matthijs de Ligt. They feel, they like to talk, they do not perceive, by their admission, sporting rivalry and indeed they would like to play alongside each other in the national team. Matthijs de Ligt has already collected 40 appearances with the Netherlands shirt, Perr Schuurs none, but it is since the beginning of 2023 that one of the trusted men of the new oranje coach Ronald Koeman has always followed Torino. national selection after just over two and a half years and a drift towards Barcelona. On the field, Schuurs is proving to be among the best defenders in Serie A (to such an extent that he is sought after by Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and several other Premier League teams, the only ones who by now have money, a lot, to spend), the call-up should not be late in arriving.

Olives is the address book of John Battistuzzi on the (not necessarily) protagonists of Serie A. In the first episode there was talk of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Naples), in the second of Emil Audero (Sampdoria), in the third of Boulaye Dia (Salernitana), in the fourth of Tommaso Baldanzi (Empoli) , in the fifth by Marko Arnautovic (Bologna), in the sixth Gabriele Spangaro entertained you with Beto (Udinese), in the seventh by Christian Gytkjær (Monza), in the eighth Armand Laurienté (Sassuolo), in the ninth Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio ), in the tenth Sandro Tonali (Milan), in the eleventh Cyriel Dessers (Cremonese), in the twelfth Tammy Abraham (Roma), in the thirteenth Stefano Sensi (Monza), in the fourteenth Federico Baschirotto (Lecce), in the fifteenth Moise Kean (Juventus) , in the seventeenth Rasmus Hojlund (Atalanta); in the eighteenth M’Bala Nzola (Siena); in the nineteenth Federico Dimarco (Inter); in the twentieth Cyril Ngonge (Hellas Verona); in the twenty-first Riccardo Saponara (Fiorentina).