Robin van Persie has spoken about his joy at spending time with childhood hero Diego Maradona after meeting the legendary Argentine while on a whistle-stop early January break in Dubai.
The striker, who excitedly tweeted pictures of his encounter at the time, explained how the experience lived up to all expectations while also stressing how the break from first team action had been welcome.
Speaking to the Arsenal official matchday programme ahead of Sunday’s match with Manchester United, the Dutchman reflected:
“Earlier this month, my family and I had a break in Dubai. It’s not usually possible to do that at this time of year, but I was glad to visit and came back refreshed.
“One of the highlights of the week was getting to meet Diego Maradona, who now manages the Al Wasl team over there.
“He’s always been an idol of mine, so to meet him in person and share a moment or two doing a few keepy-ups and having a chat, was something I’ll never forget. I felt like a child in a sweetshop, I can tell you!”
A young football fan of exquisite taste (he was a Gooner after all), Van Persie also detailed the extent of his affection for El Diego.
“I’ve watched so many videos of him, interviews, everything, but in person you can match his character with the way he played football.
“I came away even more certain that he’s truly special – he’s unique in the things he says, enthusiasm, his love of life and of football, his sense of enjoyment.
“People in Dubai told me that he’s always the last off the training pitch, practicing free-kicks, skills.
“You can see that he will be in love with the game forever. It made me really happy, and was a fantastic experience.”
I know this is irrelevant to the article, but how are QPR signing Taiwo on loan until end of season while we sit around with our dicks in our hands???
http://www.football365.com/news/21554/7450796/Taiwo-Joins-On-Loan
Q P R……………………
Surely we could’ve loaned him til end of season??
I think it all comes down too the fact that we probs wouldn’t have wanted him till end of season and once Gibbs and Santos returns he wouldn’t get a look in with first team football and as a player going out on loan thats what he will want and realistically he’s going to get it more at QPR than us.
he is a better player than gibbs, i can’t understand why we rate all these average english players apart from ox, wilshire and rooney there is no other worthy of mentioning.
I’m not saying Gibbs is better than him but Gibbs takes up one of the important places of being registered as one of the 8 homegrown players we need to be able to play in the premier league and as we are also at the limit of our squad registered limit he would have to off load a couple of players first before he could bring in anyone. Also just to clarify I know Scezney, Ramsey, Wilshire and Gibbs are under 21 and wouldn’t have needed to be registered but they have had to be as we have no one… Read more »
Oh one other thing I forgot to put just incase someone says it even if we didn’t register Ramsey Scezney Wilshire or Gibbs as you don’t have too as they are under 21 at the start of the season. But if you don’t meet the 8 registered players needed you then lose places for squad players you can register.
Ok but how many of you have really watched him play Before making a conclusion he’s better than gibbs.
I was just going to ask that comedian. Great fans think alike
“while we sit around with our dicks in our hands”
Speak for yourself, Butthead.
it would have “killed” Gibbs.
Gibbs is half dead already, he will not last 90 mins when he gets back and the transfer window is going to be closed, in arsene we must fail
Maybe there’s a reason why he’s only going to QPR. Perhaps he’s injury prone and shit
he’s shit , there is a reason Milan are loaning him after have only bought him last summer
Are all you guys idiots? We’re playing AC Milan in the Champions League Round of 16. No fucking way Milan does us a favor by loaning us a full back.
Poor first post mate…
Oh god we will have to looks out for RVP rubbing his gums and chasing peoples off with a shotgun.
Obviously Armand Traore is quite cutting the mustard there, poor chap.
he did one of those “desperate to get out of my arsenal hell” interviews with the standard a few weeks back. said he wasn’t there in his head at the match that never took place – well blow me down with a fucking feather, who’d have guessed that?
Would Milan want to strengthen their Champions League opponents?
by giving us their deadwood , they’ll be weakening us
How has this turned from a thread about the “more manly than God” Robin Van Persie to the “gum-chewing, anal penetrating, vagina mouthed” Armand Traore?
I can’t quite fathom how someone could get so excited about meeting
a fat little cheating, lying mentalist.
Each to their own I guess Robin. As long as it helps you to score 100+ more goals for the Arsenal who cares?
I mean, it’s not like he was the best player in the world or anything, is it?
oh.
He met rooney?
What you forgot he played against rooney last sunday and even scored.best player in the world.
He met amaury bischoff?
No that’s a syrup on his head, not pubes. Can’t be Rooney……
Whatever you think of the fat little cunt, I’m sure he’d be an interesting bloke to share a beer with. Unless he’s tee-total, of course.
Maradona, not Rooney. I’m sure that fat little cunt would be a cunt to share a beer with.
Look at his beard – it’s covered in snow!!
Old habits die hard, I guess..
The “best player in the world” is subjective and opinion based. I personally think Maradonna is a lying, fat, cheating little coke head who was easily the worst role model kids watching football could of asked for. He’s a sh*t human being and for me that rules him out of being labelled a great football player. The same with George Best who pissed away all tha talent at the age of 26, what a loser. Players like Messi, Pele, Bergkamp are great role models and great players, these are the ones who deserve our respect not some fat, midget, slob… Read more »
Regardless of his failings you can’t objectively argue that Maradona wasn’t the greatest player of his time? The guy was amazing. It’s like saying Gazza was shit because of his issues
Being a great footballer (to me anyway) is more than just about on pitch abilities. If people want to blow smoke up Maradonnas arse and over look his, too numerous to list, failings then that’s their perogative. For me, it’s the whole package that counts.
Just quickly, I didn’t say any of them were sh*t, just that I personally wouldn’t class them as greats. Those are your words not mine…
Scotch, i want to agree with you, but Maradona basically won the World Cup on his own, and his time at Napoli is equivalent to one player coming in at say, Fulham and being the catalyst to winning the league.
But I fully agree as a role model, I wouldn’t want my son looking up to him.
It’s always going to be a bone of contention between fans mate and I do acknowledge his achievements on the pitch, just for me it’s all over shadowed by him as a person. I can’t get past that.
Thats taye taiwo, right? The same guy who used to play for nigeria. With age his forward movement slowed down and as he had always been a liability defensively he just settlede for one asset in his game, a powerful left footed shot from dead balls. If you watched the world cup last year you will have noticed that he played the opening game and was then dropped(i think). And i can remember some former african greats including a few nigerian former stars wonder why he was still being called up and discuss the same faults in his game. Wonder… Read more »
At least he could play some games, but with gibbs we might ending playing almunia there. Gibbs is a liability without a doubt.
First watch his fight with traore, you’ll be glad we didn’t sign him. But i understand the need to sign players and how it has led us to cursing at not being interested in qpr’s own brand new squillaci.
And don’t get me wrong about gibbs but i got some stick too for pointing out that i wasn’t ok with us counting on him as a first choice. The same when i said i thought ramsey was a good prospect but i thought he wasn’t ready to play the key position this system of ours is built around
To be fair to Traore we should also remember him for this http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/66567-gunners-youngster-caught-with-knuckle-duster
not that it should be in any way condoned but i love the stiff upper lip response from arsenal: ‘Armand had no idea he’d done anything wrong because the laws are different in France.’
It is by complete fluke that all of our full backs are injured at the moment. Not necessary to go out and sign someone as a stop-gap solution, especially with Sagna and Gibbs available around the corner.
That being said, does anyone have any insight on their potential return? Wilshere?
Not necessary now it’s not as we have lost the last 3 games. Beginning of January it may have been handy having a stop gap or two and maybe 9 points might not have slipped away. Ya never know
We could also have got a fullback on loan and Vermaelen, Koscielny, Song, van Persie, etc… could have all got injured and the reserves would have to turn out.
And hopefully Van Persie’s break gave him the rest to rejuvenate and smash some more goals in for us 🙂
It’s funny cuz he’s fat!
In years to come these half assed fans will be saying completely the opposite. Gibbs will be the next England left back no doubt about it. This is the first season without clichy and he’s been injured? Give the lad a break, noone thought song was going to be the player he is now. I saw similar comments when song was coming through, whose on par in the league with song now? Maybe ya ya toure? Would i trade song for yaya? No fucking way
This has nothing to do with the article either but I wanted to ask…has anyone seen this rumour going round about the away kit for next season? Not sure if it’s true or not;
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/400043_10150574525189113_20267639112_8708879_1043017142_n.jpg
some clarification would be nice!
That’s actually fairly disgusting. I really like our dark blue with faded white pin stripe. Way better than the awful yellow number we have as well
I concur, if youre on about the current away kit…the yellow one wasnt bad at all though!
i don’t think taiwo’s good enough for arsenal. I have seen a lot of his games for Nigeria, and he lacks defensive discipline(on offside traps, etc). On the other hand he’s quite fit, experienced and isn’t injury prone.