Today marks the 40th anniversary of the world football legend Robin van Persie. During his career, the striker from the Netherlands, who started and finished in his native Feyenoord, managed to become the leader of the London Arsenal, play for Manchester United in the last season of Sir Alex Ferguson and please Turkish fans with performances in the Fenerbahce T-shirt.
RVP has few wins at club level, but still:
2002 UEFA Cup;- 2012/13 English Premier League (EPL) gold; An FA Cup and two Super Cups;
- two Premier League Golden Boots;
- < br>Dutch Cup and Supercup
In addition, today's birthday boy remains the highest-scoring Dutch player in the history of the Premier League (144). jpg» />
As part of the national team, van Persie became the top scorer in the history of the national team (50 goals), as well as lit up at the World Championships in 2010 and 2014. No, the striker did not have enough to go gold: in South Africa there was silver, and in Brazil — bronze.
However, what Robin did on June 13, 2014, can definitely be compared with winning the World Cup.
In the opening match at the 2014 World Cup, the «orange» in group B met with the reigning world champions, the Spaniards. The remake of the 2010 African final turned out to be mind-blowing: at the Fonte Nova arena in Salvador, the Netherlands wiped their feet on the Fury Roja, sending Iker Casillas and company to a knockout. The score 5:1 speaks for itself.
Van Persie was recognized as the best player of that match. And it's not even that the striker scored a double (after all, Arjen Robben also scored two goals), but how amazing his first goal turned out to be. In the 44th minute, Van Persie equalized the match: after a pass from Daly Blind from the center of the field, Robin adjusted to the pass and, in a “fish” jump, closed the exact canopy with his head. Casillas, who failed that match, froze in a half position — the ball flew over the confused goalkeeper and ended up in the net.The RVP celebration with Louis van Gaal is priceless!
Van Persie's jump highlight quickly spread around the world. Fans wrote 183 thousand messages on Twitter after the RVP masterpiece, the Internet was covered by a wave of memes, and in the homeland of the football player the Royal Dutch Mint issued a limited edition coin of 6 thousand copies: it had a silhouette of van Persie hitting the ball in a jump (the souvenir cost almost 10 euros).
This is how football history received, perhaps, the most recognizable goal after a header. And the phrase «Flying Dutchman» began to be associated not only with the cursed ghost ship. «/
The goalkeeper himself only states that in his professional career, which came to an end in 2021, it was the best goal.
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"I must say that it was a brilliant goal . The best in my career. Before I ran and received the ball, I noticed that Casillas left the net. Then followed by a canopy, and got a great goal. I remember my goal, which in the «Arsenal» I scored against Charlton … If you choose between these goals, the choice is very simple: I prefer this goal, because it was scored at the World Cup against the best team in the world for the past six years. The Spaniards have an incredible team, and I really wanted to hit their goal,» van Persie admitted in an interview with Goal.com. the Feyenoord structure. A year ago, there were rumors that the legend was invited to the coaching staff of Eric ten Hag at Manchester United, but van Persie is in no hurry to leave Rotterdam.