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Our leftwinger is a softie – Johan Derksen

August 13th, 2007 | By: Jan | 14 Comments »

We always had hugely talented left wingers in Holland. They could all play football: they were quick on their feet, skilled, tricked and hard to grasp. Most of them were a bit weird too. Unpredictable. Lazy, some times. Not really ambitious either. Wasn’t it Johan Cruyff who once said: we have ten players in our team and one left winger? And every club used to have a talented number 11. Coen Moulijn, Piet Keizer and Rob Rensenbrink were not from this world. Later, we got a generation with Bert van Marwijk, Pierre Vermeulen, Marc Overmars, Brian Roy, Peter Hoekstra.

Arjen Robben is the last in line. The reigning king of the chalk line on the left. He was 16 years old when he made his debut for FC Groningen. A few months later, PSV snatched him up. A panel of judges consisting of JC, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Johan Neeskens, Martin Jol, Guus Hiddink and Wim Jonk chose him as Talent of the Year when he was only 17. And Arjen had ambition. He was a champ chess-player, he excelled in tennis, volleyball and athletics. Ajax wanted to sign Arjen Robben as well, but Leo Beenhakker wasn’t popular with Arjen’s manager, his dad Hans Robben. Beenhakker called Arjen’s mum “girlie” and misspelled Arjen’s name on his folder (Arjan). That was enough for dad Hans to say no to Ajax.

Arjen encountered some setbacks at PSV. He was diagnosed with testicle cancer and after having fought that successfully, he clashed with Guus Hiddink who was annoyed with Robben’s childish behaviour on the pitch; the diving and the asking for cards for opponents. Hiddink addressed those character-flaws publically. Chairman Van Raaij didn’t like the Robben family at all. In his biography Van Raaij elaborated about the fact that Hans Robben – after Arjen’s huge transfer to Chelsea – kept nagging about one premium that PSV hadn’t paid. In those days, Hans Robben said this in an interview: “It’s good that Arjen chose Chelsea. Real Madrid was also interested, but who wants to go there? Yes, for the money maybe, but Arjen is not like that. In Madrid, they want to buy new players every year. What kind of environment is that for a young player. No, Arjen is a huge Barcelona fan!” The newspaper in Spain will make a meal out of those quotes…

Manchester United was another fave club of Arjen. Hans Robben already informed the press that Arjen would sign in Manchester. But when the Robben family was treated coldly and reserved when they visited the club, Hans Robben said no to Man United. After signing a million euros deal with Chelsea, Hans Robben annoyed the management of the London club by asking for two free season’s tickets…

The Robbens are not popular in London anymore. Hans Robben is viewed as a nagger and whiner and Arjen is seen as a softie by his teammates. His diving is severely judged by the English fans and the players feel Arjen has a very low pain-limit.

Arjen Robben is – for now- Oranje’s last left winger. He has more than enough talent but his mentality is not in sync with his salary. The fans are annoyed, his team mates don’t take him serious and his coach lost faith in him. For a player with all that skill, that’s a bit of a disaster. Let’s just hope that in a new environment Arjen Robben will finally grow up and becomes a really great player…

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Comments

By ayl | August 13th, 2007 at 7:21 am

Rather true, which is a shame. I wish that he could man-up and stop acting like a fragile little child…. the same goes for Ronaldo. They both have so much talent which is so often hazed by their childish persona on the field.

Posted from Australia

By lars | August 13th, 2007 at 9:47 am

isnt that just part and parcel with what you get with a left winger, ronaldo, robben,joe cole, robinho! they are all the same so i dont fink robben should really be singled out like that! all the agents are wankers!! excuse the phrase!

Posted from France

By Hup | August 13th, 2007 at 1:11 pm

RObben definetely has a touch of the “C ROnaldo syndrome”.

Posted from Canada

By goose | August 13th, 2007 at 3:36 pm

yes, i agree too but Lars does have a point…at least the creative wingers are like that… i can imagine they need to protect themselfs form vicious defenders but theres a limit… when you get hit you go down, when you dont you stay on yur feet

was thinking the other day about the best winger i ever saw…im sure there are people on this blog with better technic then him but i miss him like hell…the man who made the 96-00 team so very dangerous..one who never whined/wanked/dived

MARC OVERMARS!!!

with all his limitations..he really made the differnce in his day and i think hes underrated..i would give my left arm for a Marc Overmars clone!!

Robben/Ronaldo/Cole..bunch of sissy boys compare to Marc!! Bring him back!! Well be champions of Europe in a year!!

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By tjeerd | August 14th, 2007 at 4:28 pm

Good article, now that we see his fathers character, we know where Arjen gets his antics from.

By richard | August 14th, 2007 at 8:54 pm

I have to agree with the article. Robben, unfortunately, is a major prima donna. He is ALWAYS hurt, and it’s easy to tell that` he is spoiled. It’s too bad, because he is talented, but he’s got a lot of baggage for a guy who’s still young.

By Rami | August 14th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

haha goose, i so agree with you. I’ll take one overmars over robben and co. any day of the year too.

during his peak years in 94-5, and in 00 again one last time he was surely one amazing player.

By alaa | August 15th, 2007 at 1:39 am

@goose

i totally agree with you man, overmars is underrated, the guy is the best winger i’ve ever seen in my life. he is amazing and he is the fastest player ever. very good in dribbling and he is a scorer, who can forget his wondeful goal agianst serbia in euro 2000. advocaat made the worst mistake when he took him out in the second half against portugal in euro 2004, he was the best oranje on the pitch that day.
i still remember one of his first international games and maybe it was the first, it was in 1994 a friendly against tunisia, he came in the second half he was only 20 years old, he was incredibly fast and i was so escited that day and started dreaming about seeing him in the wc that year.
we miss a wing like overmars.

Posted from United States

By goose | August 15th, 2007 at 3:01 am

here are some tubes on Overmars

btw; always loved the story of Overmars as a kid who , as a right legged player forced himself to play only with is left for more than an entire season (he was 9 or 10!) and so learning to use both feet…sometimes i think players are lazy..every pro should be able to use both feet at some level (i know not all can be 2 feeted) its like with freekicks..you can learn yourself alot..and its not like they have anything else to do!!

(tribute)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAsGd5rKDxc

(volley 2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98U3VUCVRvw

(Arsenal goals)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKiqzLoxEvg

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | August 15th, 2007 at 5:59 pm

alaa…

Aren’t you confusing Robben with Overmars? Advocaat got scorned replacing Robben in that 2004 EC match..

I’ve never been a huge fan of Overmars. Sure, he had it all: speed, mentality and an ok shot. But it was all about force and speed. I do reckognize his enormous contribution for Ajax and Oranje but I personally like to see the ballet-like wingers like Van ‘t Schip and Rensenbrink… Or Robben for that matter…

Posted from Australia

By richard | August 15th, 2007 at 9:21 pm

Overmars over Robben…any day.

By Jan | August 16th, 2007 at 1:29 am

I know :-). I maybe would too if I were the coach, but as a fan I always loved the less obvious players… I’ll make a seperate post on that…

Posted from Australia

By sandesh | August 16th, 2007 at 2:10 am

i think the attitude is da prob with robben he is not a complete footballer his mentality r very cheap diving wages n all look at bergkamp van persie kuyt o’mas they all liked / like playing football n enjoy the sport they dont go after the money n all comon robben grow up
there is no doubt that robben is one of the finest attackers in football he is a match winner on a given day wen he is fully fit n going there is no way u can stop him
but it really hurts wen u hear such things bout robben n family it is the truth
may b he can do lot better at madrid

Posted from Nepal

By ferenc | August 16th, 2007 at 5:03 am

definitely overmars. Jan: overmars was replaced mid time against portugal at the ec semi-final in 2004 don’t remember by who. the rob ben-bosvelt replacement was against the czecks,and this is one of the reasond why robben became so famous. he’s talented,he’s got the skill,almost everything but his mentality is not at the level of his talent. this is a shame because he could have become the new overmars but he will never…

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