Jorrel Hato is only 18 but the Dutch centre-back is used to taking responsibility.
The evening before he spoke to The Athletic in April, 36-time Netherlands champions Ajax conceded a stoppage-time equaliser in a 1-1 home draw against mid-table Go Ahead Eagles. It was not Hato’s fault — goalkeeper Diant Ramaj dropped a simple cross and after sprinting back to the goal line Hato couldn’t quite block the shot — yet rewatching footage in a building overlooking the Ajax academy pitches, he blames himself anyway.
“I watched it back already,” he says, revealing later he does video work each week with the squad’s oldest player, 40-year-old reserve goalkeeper Remko Pasveer. “I dropped backwards because there was danger, the ball came onto my hips… but ah, it was an awkward height. I touched it, but it wasn’t enough.”
A bridge connects the academy to the Amsterdam club’s 55,000-capacity Johan Cruyff Arena and staff emphasise the metaphorical importance of walking over it to join the first team.
Compared to the previous generation of Ajax academy talents, such as Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt, Hato has crossed into a more challenging situation.
Last season, the club came fifth in the Eredivisie table, their worst finish since the 1990s, and because Ajax struggle financially without the Champions League, doing much better domestically is imperative. Hato, rather than settling into a winning team, must instantly become part of a transformation.
“I know about the players who get into the first team when they’re 17 or 18 and play in an Ajax team that was dominating the league and going far in Europe,” he says of his predecessors. “It’s a different situation for me. I have more responsibility than those players. So it’s different, and it is difficult, but I’m doing it well.”
Already evident is a preternatural calmness on the ball, a characteristic of Ajax academy defenders, and allied with his passing range and physical traits, Hato looks like one of the most talented young centre-backs in Europe. Hato can be placed in a similar bracket to new Manchester United signing Leny Yoro, also 18, and Benfica’s 20-year-old Antonio Silva — EA Sports FC 24 gave him the highest potential rating among the under-21 centre-backs in the video game.
He is living up to that billing. In the 2023-24 Eredivisie season, he completed the third-most passes and had the highest completion percentage. In November, at 17 years and eight months, he became the youngest player to captain Ajax. A week later, he replaced Virgil van Dijk at half-time of a European Championship qualifier against Gibraltar, becoming the second-youngest player to represent the Netherlands since 1931, behind De Ligt.
With Ajax needing to make sales to fund incoming transfers this summer, Europe’s biggest clubs were on notice, but Hato is at the heart of the project to rebuild the club. He signed a new contract in March and reaffirmed in June that he was staying. Despite needing to facilitate up to 10 departures during the window, Ajax were clear: Hato was not for sale.
“This season was… let’s say it was a learning season for all of us,” he says of the 2023-24 campaign. “But even more so for me as an 18-year-old guy. I can take these learnings in the future. I want to achieve more, to achieve big things with Ajax: championships, playing in Europe, being at the highest levels of the Champions League.
“It’s not rare that people are going to speculate or think I’ll go to another club, but for me, it was always, ‘I want to stay at Ajax and achieve things’.”
Of course, potential bidders will still be keeping tabs.
The club’s leadership know there is a strong possibility that Hato will go next summer. Among the sides with a long-standing interest in him are Arsenal, with his name featuring extensively during recruitment meetings there. The July arrival of Bologna’s 22-year-old Italy international defender Riccardo Calafiori, who, like Hato, can cover centre-back and left-back, means any short-term signing is highly unlikely, though there are still connections between club and player.
Arsenal’s new goalkeeper signing Tommy Setford was Hato’s closest friend at Ajax, the pair having played in the same side from under-13 to under-18 level, both featuring one year ahead of their actual ages. Another Arsenal player also served as a significant influence.
“Coaches told me that I always needed to look up to Virgil van Dijk, but when I played in the under-18s, I always looked up to Jurrien Timber,” Hato says. “I played with him for six months before he left, and I learned so much from him. When I came into the first team, he was my mentor. I love his playing style, his calmness on the ball. And he is just a great defender in defending terms.”
When Timber was signed by Arsenal in the summer of 2023, the qualities that attracted manager Mikel Arteta included his bravery and ability in possession — not only passing but also carrying. Those traits are evident now in his younger counterpart.
Sitting with The Athletic, Hato watches a clip (embedded below) of himself dribbling through opponents Napoli in a UEFA Youth League game in 2022.
“If you play at the Ajax academy, you always get that bravery the coaches tell you to play with,” Hato says. “It’s one of my qualities to dribble past players and create a chance. There needs to be space to do it, but if there is space, I will always try to look forward for that.”
Does he do it naturally, or was it coached into him? “A little bit of both,” he replies. “I have it naturally, but coaches tell me that I can do it more often.” One of those coaches was Dolf Roks, a former head of academy at Sparta Rotterdam, Hato’s first professional club, before he left at 12 years old to join Ajax. Roks also now coaches in their youth setup.
“There was always the feeling that he had more (bravery) than he’d show us,” Roks says. “There was one game where he was really aggressive, where he was really going for the ball, and I told him, ‘That’s what you have to do’. He was comfortable, so we had to make him show us what he could really do.”
Hato’s football journey began in the shadow of Rotterdam’s De Kuip stadium, home of Ajax’s bitter rivals Feyenoord. His family were Feyenoord fans and his first football involvement came when his father, a plasterer, took him down to local team De Zwervers, who were effectively situated at the southern end of the Eredivisie side’s training pitches. In his first year, he played on the left wing for their top youth team.
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“He was so easy on the ball,” says Michel Koks, the club’s president. “All the kids only want to dribble and never pass, but he’d be happy to do it. He’d always stand slightly away, to the left or the right, and see where the space is. That’s how you knew, at five years old, that he was going to be a good footballer.”
He was also a terrible loser.
“He’d always want to be alone,” says Koks, remembering how Hato would walk behind the goal at the far end of the pitch. “He just could not have it when the people around him were smiling after a loss. It wasn’t what he wanted.”
“I remember,” says Hato, smiling at the memory. “When I was very young, I’d always cry when I lost. My father would be upset at me for that. But the only thing that would make it better was the next win.”
Despite being under their noses, Hato was ignored by Feyenoord. Instead, he joined neighbours Sparta Rotterdam before switching to Ajax, enticed by their academy’s historic success. According to internal data, 84 per cent of players who appear for the Amsterdam side at under-17s level will have some sort of professional career in the game. Hato’s brother, Elgyn just made the same move from Sparta, to Ajax’s under-14s.
“They (Feyenoord) never wanted me, but it’s OK,” Hato says. “I play at Ajax, and I play in the first team. Of course, when you grow up in Rotterdam, you grow up as a Feyenoord kid. But if a club like Ajax comes, you don’t say no.”
Part of the rivalry between Feyenoord and Ajax is down to the personalities of their respective cities. Rotterdammers perceive themselves to be industrious and down to earth, and consider Amsterdammers privileged and over-stylised. Ajax fans, for their part, say this feeling is mired in jealousy towards their status as the Netherlands’ most successful club.
Hato still lives in Rotterdam, close to De Kuip, and drives just over an hour north to Ajax’s training complex each day. It is fitting, in a way — a player who, in his footballing traits, is now half-Rotterdam, half-Amsterdam.
“The Feyenoord slogan is ‘geen woorden maar daden’ (actions rather than words),” says Koks. “It comes from the harbour (it is a major port city), a long time ago. It’s the difference between the two cities, and you can see it in him. He’s working hard, he knows where he comes from, but now he’s a stylish player, developing a little bit more show.”
Coaches at Ajax are aware that Hato is not yet physically mature, which they think could enable him to improve even further once that happens. “I worked with (73-cap Dutch international and Ajax great) Frank Rijkaard, and Jorrel has the same attitude,” says Roks. “But also, at 18 years old, he had the same sense of needing to grow into his body, to get in tune with it. And when you see his body, it is clear that in two years, he will be more stable when he’s more used to his physique.
“He’s fast. I don’t know if people recognise how fast he is, but reaching the next level in duels is very hard. He’s got to say, ‘It’s my ball, it’s for me’. Then, it’s doing what he’s already shown he can — to have the ball, to be brave and dribble in, and to play balls beyond the back line.” Last season, he played the 12th-most passes into the final third across the entire Eredivisie. The challenge now is for him to get nearer the top of the list in that metric.
Another aim is to do with leadership. For the vast majority of his career, Hato has been a captain. Though he has not yet matched predecessor De Ligt in being given the Ajax armband permanently as a teenager, this is an area of focus. “I’m working on communication, on coaching my fellow players during the game,” he says. “I need to improve myself.”
Two days after speaking to The Athletic, Ajax lose 6-0 to Feyenoord at De Kuip. It is their heaviest defeat in the match known as De Klassieker, and their largest in any match for 97 years. Given a torrid time at left-back by Newcastle United loanee Yankuba Minteh, who moved to Brighton & Hove Albion this summer for around £33million ($43.2m), this is Hato’s toughest day as a professional. That he will rebound, however, seems clear.
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“I always go back to my standards,” says Hato, part of the Netherlands squad who will play Germany in the Nations League tonight at the Johan Cruyff Arena. “It’s just playing football, doing my thing, and not letting the outside noise affect your skills. In the academy, we heard about (basketball icon) Michael Jordan, saying that he missed 1,200 free throws, and that is why he succeeded.
“I’m not afraid to make mistakes. Everyone makes them. It’s not fun or good, but life goes on — and so you learn from them.”
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(Top photo: Marcel van Dorst/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
