Just 15 months ago the Rotterdam football club of Feyenoord looked like it was finally rejoining Ajax and PSV at the top of the Dutch football hierarchy for good. The ultimate peoples club became the league champion, had young wonderkids to sell and was heading to the Champions League. The arrival of Robin van Persie should have been the cherry on the pie.
Feyenoord: back to square one
All of this is now a distant memory as Feyenoord trails behind PSV and Ajax once again, is knocked out of the European league after a shameful defeat against AS Trencin (yes, not really Valencia or Tottenham) and is once again left without any serious cash to spend. But not all is bad, Robin van Persie is making some of his best goals ever and all that in the winter of his career.
Here’s the cup final goal that brought Feyenoord the cup:
Robin van Persie: celebrating the legend
Robin van Persie was always my top Premier League betting tip for best goal of the week when he played at Arsenal and Man U. But the magic seemed to have vanished a bit the last years in Turkey at Fenerbahce. It wasn’t weird that many people in the Netherlands and at Feyenoord doubted the use of him returning to Feyenoord this past winter. Wasn’t he just too old and unfit? Even for the shitty Dutch league? Would we ever see some pure Van Persie magic again?
Van Persie: the grand old maestro of Dutch football
Granted, it took him a couple of weeks to get fit. But those class goals started coming again as soon as he was back on the Dutch fields. Flash-forward a couple of months later and Robin is again playing full matches and making signature goals left and right.
Van Persie back in Oranje?
There’s even a bit of talk now about getting Van Persie back in ‘Oranje’, which might also be another bit of evidence of the failing level of the Dutch squad nowadays. Or at least a proper goodbye match like Wesley Sneijder enjoyed last week against Peru.
All in all, we should really cherish the fact that the top national scorer of all time is currently playing in the Netherlands, might be a long time before we see another one like him.
Featured pic: Wikipedia CC – by zobacz zasady