The Flying Dutchman
Cristiano Ronaldo may have evolved into the ultimate goalscoring poacher in recent times, but he still has a thing for the spectacular. The latest proof came against his former team, Manchester United, in the Champions League earlier this week. Latching on to a delicious Leonardo Bonucci aerial, Mr Ronaldo, almost like Buddy Rich pounding away at his cymbals, lashed a first-time volley past David de Gea. It was a worldie in every sense of the word — stupefying pass perfection culminating in a ferocious, technically brilliant finish of the most-superior quality.
The strike was reminiscent of a goal scored by Robin van Persie, this time for Manchester United, against Aston Villa at the fag end of the 2012-13 Premier League season. Mr Bonucci’s role on that occasion was essayed by Wayne Rooney, who sprayed an outrageous 40yard diagonal from within his own half for Mr van Persie to smash it into the bottom corner from outside the box. It lacked the brute force and visual magnificence of Mr Ronaldo’s effort, but Mr van Persie more than evened the difficulty scales with the distance and angle he struck the ball from. Both terrific goals, from two terrific players.
This, by no means, is a comparison between Mr Ronaldo and Mr van Persie. Mr Ronaldo is a freak of human nature with few equals. He has been sculpted in some otherworldly manner that allows him to score ridiculous goals even at the age of 33 and then celebrate by showing off his six-pack abs. It’s almost criminal.
Mr Ronaldo’s moment of coruscating athleticism did, however, remind us of the ethereal qualities of a man who could strike a volley or two. And the timing couldn’t have been more perfect: Mr van Persie, who now plays for Feyenoord back home in the Netherlands, recently announced that the current season would be the last of a career that saw him become one of the most-feared strikers in Europe. That is 18 seasons of top-flight football spread across spells at Feyenoord, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Fenerbahçe.
Mr van Persie obviously brought much more to the football pitch than just goals that made you endlessly rewind highlight reels. He possessed a corker of a left foot; he could operate in little or no space or at all; he manifested a kind of technical prowess that only the Dutch can master; he often tied hapless defenders in knots; he exhibited tremendous leadership. Yet, somehow, it will always, always be about the goals.
In 2006, Mr van Persie scored an airborne valley for Arsenal against Charlton Athletic in the league, a strike that a visibly astonished Arsene Wenger described as “the goal of a lifetime”. Infrequent football watchers will instantly recall his goal against Spain at the 2014 World Cup, when he precariously hung up in the air like a marionette and buried a header past Iker Casillas. The provider of the long ball that time was Daley Blind.
Great goals were accompanied by startling consistency. For two seasons beginning 2011, Mr van Persie was pretty much unplayable, combining a tenacious eye for goal with a golden touch that saw him score almost every time he turned up on the pitch. And there was some serious competition around at the time — Mr Rooney, Luis Suarez, Sergio Aguero, and Fernando Torres. Mr van Persie towered above them all.
He was as much a prolific goal-scorer as he was a victim of circumstance — a player finding himself at the right place at the wrong time. Mr van Persie signed for Arsenal soon after the “Invincibles” season of 2003-04. The switch to Arsenal made complete sense at the time for two reasons: it came with the opportunity to play with the likes of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp; and a chance to win trophies at one of the biggest clubs in the continent. As luck would have it, despite scoring heavily, van Persie never won the league title with Arsenal. His only major honour at the London club came in the form of the FA Cup in 2005.
This very wretched run of luck, coupled with the onset of a debilitating mediocrity at Arsenal, compelled Mr van Persie to move to rivals Manchester United in 2012. At United, Mr van Persie became a raging success, winning the league crown in his first season itself.
The heights that Mr van Persie’s career could have hit had he pushed for a move elsewhere — Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, even Chelsea — much sooner, would have been truly monumental. We are not talking about unfulfilled potential here; a man who played 102 times for his country and scored 50 times shouldn’t be subject to such derision. This is just about awful timing, and how an absence of determined decision-making can alter the course of an entire career.
We have the goals — the derby winner against Manchester City in 2012 also deserves a special mention — but much like Mr Ronaldo, we could have had the trophies as well. What a shame.