Robin van Persie is desperate to be fit to play Real Madrid on
Friendships are often formed between people thrown together. At a school in Rotterdam one misbehaving kid was excluded from class almost daily. So often was he sent to stand in the corridor that he bonded with the school janitor. Robin van Persie was 14 at the time and Sietje Moush, the caretaker, in his 40s, but they grew to be mates. Moush is Dutch-Moroccan like Bouchra, the girl who became Van Persie's "best friend" - and wife. Moush would keep Van Persie out of trouble. "If you're 15, 16, 17, it's a difficult age. You start wanting to go out, to clubs or whatever, but my friend made sure I never did. He'd say, 'Those places are rubbish', and I believed it. He was smart," Van Persie says. He committed himself to football and even school discipline improved. "When I was sent out it was never because I yelled at the teacher or used bad words. I was more the wise guy, taking the piss. I always had something to say back to the teacher, which I'm sure was frustrating for them, but I always had respect."
So he was not - is not - a real rebel. Twelve months ago he may have struggled to make that argument. It's a year ago this week that Van Persie incurred one of the dumber sending-offs in Premiership history when, in a crucial game against Southampton, with Arsenal still contending for the title, he was warned by Arsène Wenger at half-time to be careful because he'd been booked. What did he do? Went straight out and got a second yellow card for lunging at Graeme Le Saux. Southampton fought back from 1-0 down to draw and Wenger did not conceal his wrath. He told Van Persie to take a look at himself and decide what he was about. "He didn't shout or say I was wrong. He just opened up a question," the player recalls. "He said, 'If you want to go to the top level, you have to change something'. I said, 'Okay, what?' He said, 'I'm not telling you, find out for yourself'. So I went away and asked myself what I wanted from football. The manager was very clever. He thought if he told me what I needed I might forget it in one week, but if I figured it out myself, maybe it would take longer, but it would stay in my mind. I matured. I decided from then on I'd do everything to be successful, go to training and watch how the older players do it, become a lot more professional than before."
Arsenal's 2-0 defeat against Chelsea in December provided evidence of Dutch reformation. "I scored a goal that was disallowed (for offside) but it was a 100% goal and I was disappointed. When they scored their second at that moment, I felt very frustrated. I was thinking, 'If the ball is between me and another player, I will make the tackle very hard'. But then I thought, 'Don't do that'. I was on a yellow card already and a red card would have made things more difficult. 'Take it easy, just play, that's the only way you can get Chelsea back', I thought. A year before I'd have made the bad tackle." The Southampton indiscretion came when Van Persie was still struggling to shake off the troublemaker tag given him by Bert van Marwijk, his former coach at Feyenoord, and he admits a year ago he found himself "at a turning point". He chose the right path to such an extent Wenger now believes he can be a saviour. Though Van Persie was unable to play in a closed-doors match against Reading on Thursday at which Wenger wanted to test his fitness, the manager is holding on to a small hope he might make a comeback against Real Madrid.
Van Persie has nursed a broken toe since his right foot was trod upon against Cardiff on January 7, and though he subsequently scored a gorgeous free kick against Wigan and took part in two further games, he has been rested since playing against West Ham on February 1, his foot so painful that a week ago he was unable to wear football boots even after cutting a gap in one to make room for his toe. At 22, he was playing his best football for Arsenal before his lay-off, winning player of the month for November and scoring eight goals in eight games. "It's frustrating because the way I was feeling I wanted to play five matches a week, I felt I could take on anyone. Then I'm stopped because of a stupid injury. To return in the Bernabeu is not just a target but a mission. It would be one of the biggest games in my life. I'm working very hard to play because there's a double thing, for me, with Madrid."
This harks back to one of the several unhappy episodes he endured under Van Marwijk, who treated him with extra-harsh discipline. Van Marwijk believed it would keep a young star in check but it proved the wrong approach to take with somebody as independently minded as Van Persie and destructive for player, coach and club. When Van Persie and Arjen Robben were teenagers, Johan Cruyff picked Van Persie as the greater talent, Holland's best youngster in a generation. Yet when the pair moved to England as 20-year-olds in 2004, PSV Eindhoven were able to recoup £12m for Robben, Feyenoord just £2.75m for Van Persie. It was because of how Van Marwijk had talked down Van Persie's reputation and the fact that the player had refused to sign a longer contract because of relations with his club.
Van Persie, then 18, was in the Feyenoord side which beat Borussia Dortmund in the 2002 Uefa Cup final but was dropped when Feyenoord faced Real Madrid in the Super Cup. Three days earlier Van Marwijk had taken issue with Van Persie's body language when he was asked to warm up as a substitute in a Champions League qualifier in Istanbul. While Feyenoord stayed in Turkey to fly to Monaco for the Super Cup the next day, Van Persie was ordered straight home to Holland. "Feyenoord took Real Madrid away from me very, very rudely," says Van Persie, "and that's why I want to play on Tuesday. Imagine you're 19, you're only a few months as a professional and they do that to you. Real were the best in the world then, the biggest test for a footballer, and it was my dream to play against Zinedine Zidane. He's such an amazing footballer, his first touch, his vision. I have big respect for him, more than for Beckham."
Arsenal need Van Persie to make the game. They have slumped since his injury troubles started and his importance was demonstrated against Liverpool in midweek when the only way Wenger's players could devise getting the ball to Thierry Henry was via the head of the gangling Emmanuel Adebayor. Henry, Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires need a different kind of pivot for their counter-attacking runs to revolve round - Adebayor is only 'the new Kanu' after all. Wenger has always seen in Van Persie another Dennis Bergkamp. Van Persie's eyes shine whenever Bergkamp is introduced to the conversation - usually by him. "To be compared with Dennis embarrasses me. During my Feyenoord time one guy played ahead of me and I thought I could be more important to the team than him but I have never, not once, had that feeling when Dennis is playing. My feeling is he's a much better player than me. If he plays instead of me I accept it. I think if I was a manager I would play Dennis every match. What he's done for 15, 16 years - you can't compare my story to his."
Excitedly he tells how he and Bouchra went for dinner last week with Bergkamp and his wife, Henrita. "You should listen to him, he's clever. He thinks about football every day. I'm really fortunate to learn from a guy like that. He has no ego. He has everyone's respect because of his charisma and the young guys on the training pitch - he has us eating out of his hand." The naughty schoolboy in Van Persie can still emerge. "Sometimes in training on purpose I'll pass it really hard at him. 'Oh, sorry Dennis'. And he's got such skill he kills the ball! Doesn't even look at it! Doesn't notice! At Feyenoord some older players took it easy and as a young guy you think, 'Today my knee is hurting so I'll not go hard'. Here there's no chance of that. You see Dennis, Thierry or Robert always giving 100%."
He is not exactly like Bergkamp, though. They share an instinct to drop off a main striker, get on the ball and shape a game, but there is more emphasis in Bergkamp's play upon team movement and the killer pass, in Van Persie's on dribbling and individual expression. He may have his parents to thank for that. Both are artists. José Ras, his mother, is a painter and jewellery designer who also teaches children with special needs. Bob, his father, is a sculptor who specialises in using discarded newspapers and other waste materials to construct football crowd scenes and has just completed a special commission - a giant frieze for his son's new house in Enfield.
After his parents divorced it was Bob he lived with, growing up in an artist's den. "When I was younger my parents encouraged me to be creative, to draw and play games to expand my mind. They wanted me to be an individual. But it turned out I'm rubbish with my hands." Perhaps what he does with his feet reflects his family's creative streak. "Hmm, I don't think so . . . maybe a bit." Van Persie believes he was more influenced by the football he played in Kralingen, the working-class, multi-ethnic area of Rotterdam where he spent his boyhood. "My left foot is definitely from the streets. Football can be like art. For example, when I'm playing I can really enjoy the football game, the noise, colours. To play for a big club in a great stadium, that's beautiful, very beautiful."
Van Marwijk's criticisms sparked negative press coverage of Van Persie in which even his parents were targeted. "They took my dad and painted him very black. I was 19, I'd just come into the real world, and it was hard. Then a few months later, when I had a good period again, I thought, 'These people who absolutely hammered me are writing great things about me again', and since then I haven't cared what they say. That's why I don't give many interviews. Holland's a different country to England. When Dennis was playing fantastically for Holland, still people were saying bad things. Why do Dutch people look for the negative? Now I don't even bother about what they're writing." Van Persie's dislike for the press has only deepened since he spent two weeks in a Rotterdam police cell last summer after allegations made by a former beauty queen. He was released without charge but the 100% support he enjoyed from Arsenal at the time was not replicated in the media. He recently signed a new contract tying him to Arsenal until 2011. "Talks were over in two days, it was very easy, I wanted to stay and show faith in the club. It was a sort of thank-you for what Arsenal have done. They stood by me and believed me, and showed their support. It's a big family here. I have the feeling some other clubs do not have this atmosphere."
Bergkamp, who leaves at the end of this season, may not be the only senior player absent when the club moves to Ashburton Grove. These are uncertain times not seen before during Wenger's reign, but Arsenal have at least one optimist. "Dennis going will be difficult but when you lose big players like Patrick Vieira, that's football. You can speak about it all day long but it's football. If most of our group, especially the young players, can stay together, there'll be a big future for Arsenal. I had a chat with a friend about it. He said, 'Ah, it's not going so well', and I said, 'Wait, give it two years'." Arsenal, though, could do with their form back - and Van Persie - in two days' time
