Announcing to the world he would retiring from football at the end of the season, Robin van Persie can look back on his career with a smile.
Winning trophies with Arsenal, Manchester United and Feyenoord, the former Netherlands international has scored 271 goals in 591 appearances throughout his career (and he still has a few more games of Eredivisie left to play).
Starting off as winger, it was during his spell with the Gunners that he became the prolific goalscorer we all know.
Speaking to Sport/Foot in Belgium, Van Persie recalled his first steps at Highbury, and how all the players in that Arsenal team helped him develop, something he wants to try and do later on in his life, passing on his knowledge to the younger generations.
He said: “Whether it was Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, I learned from them by asking questions, but also watching them. At first, it was just analysis: how does Pires make his decisions? What’s Ljungberg doing? How does Henry choose his position?
“I would watch Bergkamp move constantly between the lines and thought: Wow! That’s what I wanted to achieve. I learned so much in those first few years at Arsenal that I want to give all that back.”
However, before he does anything, Van Persie wants to take a step back and ‘make the best of not having to do things’.
Only after a period of relaxation does he want to return to football, but he’s unsure as to what role he’d like, feeling that being a manager might be too stressful, even if he doesn’t exclude it.
Perhaps start off as a coach, Robin, and then go from there?
