Agreements were broken in Kodai Sano's move to PSV, NEC director Wilco van Schaik said on Goedemorgen Eredivisie on ESPN. The midfielder was not supposed to leave yet, but ultimately did.
"We had agreed with everyone that Sano would play two more matches. Everyone knew that," says Van Schaik. Both the Japanese player's management and PSV knew about that agreement. "Everyone knew about it. That was simply the agreement," the director stresses.
While the two clubs were still talking over when the transfer would be finalised, Sano decided to head to Eindhoven early. "We had agreed with him that after Hoffenheim, a transfer that was very close and that he found a great shame did not go through, we would cooperate."
"Also to help him, because if Carlos Aalbers (technical director) had waited longer, we could have earned even more. But you are also dealing with a player who helped us in the winter by staying," Van Schaik said. "He did not make the slightest complaint. So we said we would cooperate, even when it concerns these kinds of clubs."
Once a move to Hoffenheim collapsed, the agreement was that Sano would complete the two-legged tie with Olympiakos before being allowed to leave. "Then all sorts of things happen and on that morning everything comes together." The midfielder spoke to Dick Schreuder, who then consulted Van Schaik and Aalbers.
"We brought Kodai in and it was quite clear that it was no longer possible." Hans Kraay junior then says the 22-year-old midfielder may have been influenced from outside not to play any more. "He is a young boy. We can think all sorts of things about it in football, but this happens more often," Van Schaik responds. Jan de Jong then calls it the ugly side of football.
By matchday, it was clear Sano's head was no longer on the game against Olympiakos (0-0). "Dick was very clear: out of the group. 'Not because you're a nasty little fellow, but this decision disappoints us'," Van Schaik says. The NEC director then called the Japanese player's agent to tell him Sano had to leave the Nijmegen camp. Not long after, Sano travelled to Eindhoven to complete his transfer to PSV.