‘Play in Orange? Of course I want that ‘

Mauro Júnior in the Dutch national team? The 26-year-old multifunctional Brazilian of PSV would certainly be open if coach Ronald Koeman will ever call him.

“Of course I would be open to that, but I don’t hand in my current passport. I don’t want to go to Brazil as a tourist, haha,” he says in the run -up to PSV EredivisieTopper on Sunday to Feyenoord.

The story about the Dutch passport has been playing since 2022, but it did not come to a final decision. ‘Mauro’ has been living in the Netherlands for more than five years and is eligible. “I just have to give up my Brazilian passport, but I don’t want that,” he explains. The only option on a double passport is a selection for Orange.

It is not that far yet, for the time being Mauro Júnior will continue to focus on PSV. He extended his contract up to and including 2029 this week. “I had the opportunity to get started somewhere else, but this doesn’t feel like the right time to get out. I’ve been playing here for so long, the club feels like my second home.”

Mauro Júnior walked around at PSV for the first time in the summer of 2013 as a 14-year-old football player. And partly thanks to a stay with a host family in Nuenen, the very young ‘Mauro’ used to the Netherlands relatively quickly.

He debuted in October 2017 under trainer Phillip Cocu in the A-Team of PSV. “My wife and I also feel very good in Eindhoven and the Netherlands. That also contributed to signing a new contract.”

It has been known for some time that Mauro Júnior is an extremely useful power due to his versatility. Trainer Roger Schmidt even made the originally attacking Brazilian in 2021/2022 even wingback at PSV, both on the left and the right side. “As a player and person I grew in Eindhoven, that gives a lot of confidence,” says Mauro Júnior.

If you look at the positions of the South American on the much-praised website Transfermarkt.nl, anyone will see that his trainers have thrown him through the entire team in the past seasons. He was deployed at PSV and Heracles Almelo, who rented him for one season in 2019/2020, but not as a keeper and right midfielder.

Due to the current PSV coach Peter Bosz, Mauro Júnior is mainly used as a left-wing defender, with sometimes a trip on the right wing or as a defensive midfielder. He will most likely start again as a left back against Feyenoord and, for example, keeps the somewhat disappointing Tyrell Malacia on the couch.

Against Feyenoord, second place is at stake. “They are wonderful matches to play, you do it a bit for that as a football player,” says De Brazilian, who has not yet put the national title out of his head. “Of course, everything is still possible, but we are now looking at it mainly from competition to competition.”

Bosz enjoys the presence of the versatile Mauro Júnior in his selection and takes extensive time when he describes his player. “I think every trainer wants to work with these kinds of players. He is a winner. He is also a football-intelligent: if you tell him things, he will pick it up and he takes initiative himself.”

“He always comes with a smile at the club,” Bosz continues. “I don’t like generalizing at all, but I always experience this with Brazilians. I always find them very positive, perhaps because there might always be the sun there,” says Bosz with a wink.

“I also experienced it here with André Ramalho and with Everton at Heracles. They are good and lovely people, but also hard workers. They all radiate cheerfulness. If I can work with such people, it makes me happy.”