Van Persie
Birth Name: Robin Van Persie
Date of Birth: 6 August 1983 (Age 26)
Place of Birth: Rotterdam, Spain
Present Club: Arsenal
National Team: Netherlands
Playing Position: Striker
Early History
Van persie was the third child born to parents, both of whom were artists. He was always inspired by his mother, who was a painter and his father, who was a sculptor. He wanted to pursue his life in the footsteps of his parents as an artist.
However, he later developed an interest in football in general. After playing it as a hobby for some time and developing his skills at it, he joined the Dutch SBV Excelsior’s junior squad at the age of fourteen. However, he couldn’t get along with he team’s coach and then quit the team to join Feyenoord.
Initial Experience
Due to physical and health problems, Van persie could not make his debut until the age of 17 in the year 2001. He gained quick promotions in the team and was in the first eleven team. At the end of the season he received the KNVB ‘Best talent Award’ for an excellence performance throughout the season.
Further on, he signed a 3 year contract to play for Feyenoord. He continued to play well but soon found himself in severe clashes with the manager of the team. The clashes continued further until Van Persie was moved from the starter team to the reserve team. This fueled great anger in Van Persie’s heart for the manager.
The circumstances went to an extreme when Van Persie was sent home on the eve of the 2003 UEFA cup because the manager was not pleased with the response from Van Persie when he was told to warm up for the match. The match was being played against Real Madrid.
Van Persie spent the next season mostly on the reserve bech and was just brought on the field for twenty-five matches and his score for the season was less than the one from previous seasons.
The club made an unsuccessful approach to extend Van Persie’s contract for the team for a few more years, but because of his extremely deteriorated relations with the manager, he chose to opt out of the club for good.
Joining Arsenal
Although Van Persie was initially looking for an offer to join Rangers, he did not receive a subsequent offer from the scottish football club. On the other hand, Arsenal was looking for a permanent replacement for the aging player, Dennis Bergkamp.
Feyenoord and Arsenal could not come to common terms for trading Van Persie. However, after five months a deal was struck with them for an offer of £2.75 million which did not meet Feyenoord’s orignial demand for £5 million and was just a little more than the half of it.
He was signed into the club on 17 May 2004 and he signed a four year contract. He spent most of the first season on the bench, and made his first proper debut in october 2004 when he helped Arsenal score a good 2-1 win against Manchester City.
He was sent off for the first time in March 2005 when he lunged the opponent team’s player. This ruined his impression in front of Arsene Wenger who made him sit on the waiting bench for the next couple of matches. He was only brought back for a few matches when Thierry Henry was unable to play due to a calf injury.
In the 2005-2006 season, Van Persie made a quite remarkably good start. He scored 8 goals in 8 starts which won him the player of the month award. This also led to an extension in his existing contract with the team to a further five years till 2011.
Later in the season, he was unable to play much matches due to his toe injury which included Arsenal’s 2-1 loss to Barcelona in the UEFA final match. The 2006-2007 season proved to be of more value to Van Persie as his volley goal in a match against Charlton Athletic led to it being declared as the goal of the month by BBC and “goal of a lifetime” by Arsene Wenger.
Later in the season in January, Van Persie again damaged his foot which disallowed him to play any further games. However, he still finished as Arsenal’s top scorer with 13 goals.
After Henry signed to Barcelona, Van Persie was given the status as the main striker of Arsenal. He continued his magics with the team by scoring another goal in December 2008 against Liverpool which was declared the goal of the month.
When Cesc Fabregas faced an injury during a match, Van Persie captained the team for the first time in January, 2009 until the original captain recovered rfrom the injury.
Rise To The Top
Furthermore, every goal in that month was either scored by or assisted by Robin Van Persie which earned him the Arsenal player of the month award. He displayed another heroic performance on 24 February when he scored a crucial penalty against A.S. Roma in the champions league and led Arsenal to a 1-0 victory.
Later that year, due to his excellent performance in the team and high scoring rate, Arsenal was in negotiation again with the player. In June, it was declared that Van Persie had signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal because of his attachment with the club and the boom which it has brought to his career.
In the 2009-2010 season, Robin Van Persie has yet again affirmed an even stronger position as a striker when fellow striker Adebayor, was transferred to Macnhester City. He started off the season with two excellent assists in the match against Everton which led arsenal to a 6-1 victory.