His wish after his move from PEC Zwolle was to wear the vacant No. 34 jersey, last worn by Nigel de Jong in 2012.
But that wasn't because his favourite player was the combative midfielder – far from it.
Sandler, 21, is one of a number of young Dutch players who have requested the No. 34 shirt as a heartfelt tribute to Abdelhak 'Appie' Nouri, an Ajax youth prodigy who had his career cruelly taken away from him.
Back in July 2017, the attacking midfield talent collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrhythmia attack at the tender age of 20 in a preseason friendly against Werder Bremen.
Nouri, who is still receiving round-the-clock medical treatment at an Amsterdam hospital, was in a coma for a year and has been left with severe and permanent brain damage.
However, his former teammates haven't forgotten him and carry his number proudly on their backs.
Sandler and Nouri played together at the Ajax youth academy. "Nouri is by far the most gifted player that I have ever played with," he said last year.
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While Ajax's former head of academy, Wim Jonk was equally as wowed by the wonderkid, calling him once "an incredible player."
He added: "If you ever saw an Ajax game, everybody was talking about Appie because his skills were so different to all the others."
And it seems that sentiment is echoed by his fellow pros and EX colleagues.
After completing a £19m move to Roma last summer, flying winger Justin Kluivert opted to swap his usual number 45 for Nouri's.
"Why 34?" he said on Instagram in a now deleted post after he was unveiled in the Italian capital.
He continued: "(Because it's) Appie’s number. My prayers and shirt number for you, my friend-brother who taught me so much."
Other stars who have made the classy gesture are Amin Younes at Napoli and Kevin Diks at Fiorentina, who all offered their support.
Late last year, Nouri's family delivered an update on his condition, revealing he was out of a coma and are hopeful of a full recovery.
"If I compare it with the past, at the moment it's going well. Much better," the player's brother Abderrahim said in an interview with Dutch broadcaster NOS in August.
Nouri is said to be able to recognise and communicate with family members by moving his mouth and eyebrows. But there's still a long way to go.
Ajax, to their credit, admitted their fault in providing inadequate medical treatment for the player after he collapsed on the pitch.
Although they sought an external opinion during the incident and the Dutch giants acted accordingly, further investigations revealed that a defibrillator should have been used sooner in the treatment.
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