What's happened to Sol Sidibe after he left Stoke City for PSV | OneFootball

The 18-year-old left the Potteries this summer to sign for the Dutch giants.

Stoke City waved goodbye to one of their hottest prospects in Sol Sidibe this summer, with the teenager signing for Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven.

The Potters have made an excellent start to the 25/26 season.

Three wins and a defeat from their opening four Championship fixtures has seen only West Brom and Middlesbrough come out of the blocks faster than Mark Robins' side this term.

New signings such as Aaron Creswell, Divin Mubama and Sorba Thomas are all already having big impacts at the bet365 Stadium, but a strong summer of recruitment has been coupled with some hard goodbyes too.

Wouter Burger, Lynden Gooch, Jordan Thompson and Ryan Mmaee have all made exits from the Potteries this summer, as did 18-year-old Stoke academy graduate Sol Sidibe.

Completing a reported €2.5m/£2.1m move to PSV at the start of August, Sidibe ended his Stoke City story.

The central midfielder had been with the Potters since he was a boy, having instantly struck up an interest and relationship with supporters due to him being the son of Stoke City legend, Mamady Sidibe.

After developing through the club's academy system, Sidibe eventually made his Stoke debut aged just 16 on the opening day of the 23/24 season, before going on to make 21 total first-team appearances for the club over the last two seasons.

Stoke sporting director Jonathan Walters would reveal, however, that after some 'open and honest conversations', it was made clear to the club that the player was intent on pursuing the chance to become a PSV player.

So, after signing a four-year contract with the defending Eredivisie champions, how has the England youth international been getting on over the course of his first few weeks in the Netherlands?

Well, Sidibe hasn't gone straight into the PSV first-team managed by Peter Bosz. Instead, the young midfielder has been move to the club's second team Jong PSV, who compete in the second tier of Dutch football (Eerste Divisie).

Sidibe has, however, helped Jong PSV to a perfect start to their league campaign, with Stijn Schaars' side four from four to open the season.

The former Stoke youngster has appeared in all four of those, starting three, but is yet to register his first goal or assist in PSV colours.

His four appearances so far have been comprised of an 10-minute cameo as a second-half substitute to make his debut in a 3-1 win over FC Emmen, before being handed 71 minutes against VVV-Venlo, the full 90 vs FC Dordrecht, and most recently, 74 minutes against Jong AZ Alkmaar (AZ Alkmaar's second team) respectively.

PSV appear as though they're going to take their time with Sidibe, and that's to be expected.

The Eredivisie is a top European league, and so throwing him into the deep end, at a club that expects to retain its league crown no less, could be far too much too soon for the teenage talent.

Indeed, PSV aren't exactly short of talent and in desperate need of help from their academy system at this present time, with the club failing to finish any lower than second over the last five seasons, with back-to-back Eredivisie titles to their name in the last two years.

The 26-time Dutch champions have a host of talented central midfield players at their disposal, such as: Guus Til, Jerdy Schouten, Joey Veerman, Ismael Saibari, and in their own 18-year-old talent Joel van den Berg, they have an academy graduate that looks to have a very bright future ahead of him too.

Therefore, it would probably be counterproductive to have Sidibe in the first-team at this present time, as at best, he would likely be resigned to a role as an unused substitute.

And whilst being around the first-team environment of a top European side like PSV would be excellent experience for him, he's surely doing his chances of developing into a top midfielder better by getting regular football for Jong PSV this year, before the club potentially re-asses his status and progression next summer to see if he's ready to make the first-team leap.