The Maatsen family love football, and a large part of Ian’s success came from his Dad, Edward. He is a former military man and a Chief Fire Officer. The Dutch professional footballer was born in March 2002 to his mother, Wendy Schuitemaker, an Internal Account Manager.
Early on, every member of Ian Maatsen’s family was proud because he and his cousin Dalian were at Feyenoord. Sadly, the Dutch club released Ian from their academy simply because he was too short.
At that age, it was very difficult for young Ian Maatesn to take. It was painful seeing other boys get through when he got dropped from Feyenoord, a club he played for six years. That made little Ian begin to think that maybe football wasn’t for him.
Ian Maatsen’s family came to his rescue. They advised him never to give up, on his God-given talent. The truth is, it was disappointing, especially for the whole family, to see Ian leave Feyenoord at the age of seven or eight. In fact, the boy from the Dutch town of Vlaardingen was forced to grow up from a very young age.
Life after academy rejection:
Things began going very quickly for Ian after his Feyenoord exit. Moving on, the youngster went to Sparta and then to another of the traditional ‘Dutch big three’ in PSV Eindhoven. It was a long three-hour round trip from the Maatsen family home.
Soon, Chelsea came to sign Ian as a teenager. In the Netherlands, you often hear people complain when young footballers go abroad at a young age. Some of these people would say these footballers are destined to fail.
The truth is, Ian Maatsen proved a lot of people wrong. It was Ian’s mentality to overcome setbacks that played a major role in the path to success as a professional footballer.
Ian was proud to see himself in a club that has top stars like Eden Hazard, Willian, and Marcos Alonso, guys he normally sees on FIFA. As a pro, his successful loan spell under Clarets boss Vincent Kompany led to his gigantic rise.
Following his return to Stamford Bridge, Ian has shown that he can put up a challenge to both Chilwell and Marc Cucurella. In fact, his family are happy for him, especially for the fact that he represents their surname at a very high level.
