When the latest Netherlands squad was announced, it included Frenkie de Jong, one of the best midfielders in the world. It featured Ryan Gravenberch, the reigning Premier League Young Player of the Season. It included Xavi Simons, who has just become Tottenham's record signing (£56.5 million). It featured Justin Kluivert, who has established himself as one of the best number 10s in England with 14 goals in the last year.
And yet, there was little doubt that Tijjani Reijnders would be in Ronald Koeman's first-choice starting XI.
In the two matches that followed, he played 135 minutes and scored his fifth international goal, and the midfielder is now on the brink of 30 caps, just two years after making his debut.
Things have been going similarly well at the club level. Last season, he was named the Serie A Midfielder of the Season and earned a £47.8 million move from Milan to Manchester City as a result.
He's since enjoyed a solid if unspectacular start to life in the strongest league in the world, getting one goal and two assists in his first seven games and having a 7.1 average in Flashscore's internal player ratings system.
Unlike with many top players, though, such a rise to the top felt far from inevitable when he was starting.
"I didn't realise he was as good as he is right now," I was told by Henk Brugge, who was a coach at the PEC Zwolle academy, where Reijnders played from the age of 12.
"He had a lot of talent, and he was special at that time, but that he would be one of the best in the world, you could only hope for him."
At the age of 14, Reijnders left Zwolle for a bigger youth academy at FC Twente, but returned five years later after being released.
He spent a year playing for the club's under-19s side, managed by Brugge at that point, and then made his senior debut at the start of the 2017/18 season.
Working with him again, Brugge saw Reijnders struggle with the physicality of the game.
"He was a technical player with great game intelligence, but was physically not fully grown yet," he said.
"He was biologically younger than his teammates.
"Because of his physicals, he was sometimes struggling in the competition with stronger and physically more mature players."
However, Reijnders didn't let his physical limitations stop him, impressing Brugge with his intelligence and attitude.
"Because of his physicals, he needed to be smarter than the other players - in positioning, technique, game intelligence and ability. And he was!
"His mentality was also great, and he saw in everything a challenge with a smile on his face."
At that time, Reijnders was working part-time in a local Aldi supermarket, but he got a big break just two weeks after making his PEC Zwolle debut, when AZ Alkmaar signed him.
The Alkmaar club is one of the best in the Netherlands when it comes to developing young talent, with Mousa Dembele, Teun Koopmeiners, Vangelis Pavlidis and Milos Kerkez all impressing there and leaving for bigger things.
The midfielder hit the ground running, getting three goals and five assists for Jong AZ in the first half of the season in the country's second tier, and when Koen Stam became the manager of that Jong AZ side a little under a year later, he liked what he saw.
"Tijjani was a true lover of the game," he said.
"He was free, cheerful, and enjoyed training and playing matches.
"After training, he always wanted to stay a bit longer to practice free kicks or play a game with his teammates or the coaches."
Like Brugge, Stam was especially impressed by the mental aspect of Reijnders' game.
"He is an intelligent player who constantly learns, absorbs information, and reflects very well, always looking for ways to improve himself.
"It also helps that he genuinely enjoys football and comes from a stable family that has always given him constructive feedback."
However, while he was impressive for their youth side, Reijnders made just one Eredivisie appearance for AZ during his first two seasons at the club, and had just three appearances in senior football to his name at the age of 21.
In 2020, though, he finally broke through and never looked back.
"When he finally got his chances in AZ’s first team, you could see that he had the potential to make it to the Dutch national team," said the coach.
Five years on, playing at the very highest level, he's become a regular goalscorer thanks largely to the intelligence singled out by Brugge and Stam, with the 27-year-old often finding space in a crowded box and getting behind defences with a perfectly timed run.
Many of his goals have been long-range stunners, though, and both coaches have been impressed by how his technical abilities have developed.
"His biggest qualities are his technical skills combined with his excellent coordination," Stam stated.
Brugge is thrilled to see what has become of his old protege, who he feels has become a complete player, and thinks his love for the game is still one of his greatest strengths all these years later.
"He loves every minute! Technically superb, reading the game, game intelligence, he can score goals and defend well. A complete, exceptional player."
One debate that has emerged in Reijnders' home country is what his best position is, with Koeman moving him forward to play as a number 10 to make room for Gravenberch.
While they both think he can play just behind the striker, Brugge and Stam agree that he's best off being used deeper.
"I think he could play in every position in midfield, but as an eight, he will come into his strengths.
"He is comfortable on the ball, low and high on the pitch. A real box-to-box player," Brugge states.
"I think he is at his best as a six or eight; he can be very strong in the build-up but also very effective in the final third," says Stam.
Some have questioned whether he'll be a success in the Premier League, with him failing to find the back of the net since his debut goal against Wolves, even if he has had assists against Napoli and Arsenal since then.
However, when asked how sure they were that he'd made it, Brugge and Stam gave identical answers: "100%."
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