The PSV supporters weren’t sure if Cody Gakpo‘s hat trick in their 7-1 win over Volendam on Aug. 31 was him saying farewell or just the next stage of his European takeover at his boyhood club. The masterclass came just a day before the transfer window shut in the Premier League.
Just four miles away, there was a plane readied at Eindhoven airport from one Premier League club ready to take him to the UK and sign for them. Other scouts in the stands of the Phillips Stadium were weighing up whether to advise their bosses to make a late push for the incredibly talented 23-year-old, but Gakpo, a 6-foot-2 winger who can also play in front of goal, decided to stay at PSV.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
With Manchester United, Southampton and Leeds all circling, he sought the counsel of Netherlands manager Louis van Gaal. Van Gaal advised Gakpo that in a World Cup year he should prioritise minutes at PSV over the unpredictability of the Promised Land of the Premier League.
“During the transfer window you constantly wonder, ‘What’s going to happen? What will I do?’ Every day could be your last [at PSV],” Gakpo tells ESPN. “It weighs down on you, at least it did on me.” Gakpo weighed up the pros and cons of moving, but took Van Gaal’s advice to heart and ultimately stayed.
