These footballers left AZ directly for PSV this century.

With Sven Mijnans, PSV has secured the first summer signing for the 2026/2027 season. Mijnans is coming for an amount of about thirteen million euros from AZ and this century is not the first player who swaps the club from Alkmaar for PSV.

PSVInside lines up a number of footballers who earlier this century already made the move from AZ to PSV.

In 2007, Danny Koevermans missed the national championship on the final day of the Eredivisie after a 3-2 defeat away to Excelsior. In the summer of that same year, the former striker left for PSV, and what had not worked for him at AZ did work at PSV: Koevermans became national champion in 2008, and for PSV this was at the time the fourth league title in a row and the 21st in the club’s history.

In the summer of 2011, Koevermans left for Canada to play football for Toronto FC. In 2014, Koef ended his career at FC Utrecht and today the former striker works as an analyst for ESPN.

In the summer of 2013, at the age of nineteen, Adam Maher was brought from AZ to PSV and a great future was predicted for him. At PSV, however, Maher simply did not live up to expectations and halfway through the 2013/2014 season, the midfielder found himself on the bench under Phillip Cocu.

In the years that followed, the former talent never became an undisputed first-team regular, largely due to the fierce competition in midfield from, among others, Andres Guardado, Jorrit Hendrix, Georginio Wijnaldum, Marco van Ginkel and Davy Pröpper. In 2018, Maher finally left for FC Twente and currently the midfielder is without a club.

In the summer of 2015, Simon Poulsen joined PSV from AZ on a free transfer as a backup for Jetro Willems, who was ruled out until the beginning of 2016. At PSV, the Danish left back had to make do in particular with substitute appearances, and Poulsen saw in particular Joshua Brenet being preferred in his position.

In the end, the Dane was never able to live up to expectations at PSV, and in the winter of 2017 the defender returned to Denmark to go and play for SønderjyskE. In 2019, Poulsen decided to stop playing football.

Three other footballers who this century swapped AZ for PSV:
Jeremain Lens (active for PSV from 2010 to 2013)
Derrick Luckassen (under contract with PSV from 2017 to 2022) 
Ruben van Bommel (active at PSV since last year)