Fave player of Today: Robin van Persie

I’m sorry, couldn’t resist this pic!

And here are the results of the First Oranje Blog Fave Player of Today Awards!

Winner with an astonishing 70 votes is Robin van Persie!

Runner Up - due to a final sprint - is Oranje captain and record international Edwin van der Sar (40 votes).

Third place is for Real Madrid’s goal scoring machine Ruud van Nistelrooy (35 votes).

And what did they win, Johnny??

Van Persie wins: a boust in match form. Van der Sar gets a rejuvenator, taking 10 years of his age and Van Nistelrooy will get nothing but great services and crosses at the EC!

The rest:

4. Wesley Sneijder, with 28 points
5. Rafael van der Vaart; 22 points
6. Clarence Seedorf; 11 points
7. Arjen Robben; 10 points
8. Klaas Jan Hunter; 4 points
9 Melchiot/Babel/Bomme’; all 1 point

I do realize that with a different point allocation (say 3,2,1 points) the score could have been a tad different, but I won’t do recounts .

Anyway, Robin van Persie is clearly the man we go to when we want results, breathtaking football and spectacular goals.

The youngster burst onto the scene at Feyenoord, where he played all his youth. A typical kid from the street (raised by his father, who is an artist (sculptor if I’m not mistaken)). Van Persie played football on the streets with lots of Moroccan kids, which surely helped his technical skills (doing tricks and teaching each other all sorts of things). He even started to develop a Moroccan kind of accent, married a Moroccan girl and apparently he became a muslim even. (Haven’t verified that, though…).

His name went through the Feyenoord fans in a whisper when Bert van Marwijk did his first tenure at Feyenoord and legends like Pierre van Hooijdonk, Kees van Wonderen, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Paul Bosvelt were still in Rotterdam. Every time Van Marwijk brought him on the pitch, it was clear something would happen.

It was hard for Van Persie to become a starter, though. His spot in those days was on the left wing (Feyenoord had Bona Kalou on the right and no real left winger) and Van Marwijk repeatedly stated that young head strong Robin was totally unchoachable and didn’t put in his defensive efforts. He must have reminded Van Marwijk of another headstrong left winger. The two had a love-hate relationship.

But the relationship turned sour and in those days, Van Persie (backed by management, hangers on, fans, family and posse) thought he was God’s gift to Football (maybe he was right, we’ll find out…). And went for the confrontation. He had to take on the Feyenoord management, the coach but also the experienced players. In one famous incident, Van Persie ignores the instructions of all players when a free-kick is awarded (against RKC??) and the designated free-kicker would obviously be magician PI-Air. The score is 1-1, Feyenoord wants to score and Van Hooijdonk has a tremendous scoring ratio. But, the ball is positioned at the right side of the box, more a position for a leftie. Van Persie pushed the tall specialist out of the way and took the ball himself. And hit the cross bar in spectacular fashion.

This summed Robin up, perfectly. Of course he shouldn’t have, couldn’t have etc. But every football fan (even Van Marwijk) must have chuckled on the inside. Because he had the makings of a star already. Defying the old farts and rebelling against the hierarchy. Like Cruyff did vs the KNVB, like Rijkaard did vs Cruyff, etc etc.

Van Persie missed the warmth at Feyenoord and decided to leave. New manager Ruud Gullit couldn’t convince him to stay and Guus Hiddink’s PSV seemed ready to snatch him up for a fee. But then Arsene Wenger contacted Feyenoord. Van Persie became a Gunner and although it took some time for him to settle in London (with some clashes with Wenger and some injuries) Bergkamp successfully coached Van Persie to the position where he is today.

The Fave Player of this Blog.