Robben, the genius who could throw himself to the ground and leave Spain without the World Cup in South Africa

In the decade 2010-2020, dominated footballingly by stars of the magnitude of Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there was another player who without being invited to that club had a power similar to that of Argentinian: all the players knew what he was going to do Arjen Robben, but no one was able to stop him. The Dutch winger ended up unfailingly overflowing the defender with his left leg, from the outside in, until outline long enough to rehearse one of his shots with thread (also from the outside in).

Robben, who hung up his boots forever this week, at the 37 years, had the 2010 World Cup in his boots and was the best player in the World Cup 2014 (in which the Netherlands came third). In between, he formed with Ribery (and later) Lewandowski a memorable forward in a Bayern that got eight German leagues and one Champions, in 2013, in which he himself scored the decisive goal at final of the meeting.

He played 309 games with the Bavarian club and scored 144 goals, a very high figure for one extreme. Florentino Pérez would regret over time having sold the Dutchman, desperately irregular in the white team (where he won a League and a Super Cup in two years) due to injuries, the great obstacle of a footballer who legitimately aspired to dethrone both Ballon d’Or of the time. Such was the footballing passion of the Dutchman, such the obsession to win and triumph (he was close to having to abandon him in his youth for a tumor testicular), such his explosiveness in running, that he cyclically damaged his knee or some muscle and had to start over again.

“Anxiety”

“Anxiety”, I called him Bernd Schuster, then a merengue coach, who failed to protect his left knee from further injuries. Robben (who had psychological lows during his career) irritated the fans by his fragility, but he was respected as a decisive footballer. Florentino Pérez – who returned to the club in June 2009 – was looking for new ones’Galácticos’, and sold the Dutchman to Bayern while blowing up the international market with the hiring of Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo (in addition to Benzema or Xabi Alonso). “They spent a lot of money, and they told us they had to make some cash with sales,” Robben told the newspaper As in 2019. “It was a feather for me, because I had a very good relationship with Manuel Pellegrini [recientemente nombrado entrenador del Real Madrid] and i did maybe the best pre-season of my career […] It was difficult, because of the change of president – I really felt very comfortable there, and I played quite well, but when the politics in between and you don’t have a real chance, you have to decide if you want to continue fighting or pursue your career elsewhere. ”

Robben never managed to escape the curse of injury, although he arrived in excellent form at two World Cups and he deserved to win at least one. Moreover, he did not want to retire from the fields yet: he had returned to football practice in 2020, a year after leaving Bayern Munich, in the team where he formed, the Groningen. Unfortunately, physical problems have caused him to miss most of this season: only 173 minutes in six games (a figure that the footballer himself defined as “disappointing”).

Anyone who has ever seen the final of Johannesburg, in 2010, not only noticed the eternal stop of Casillas foot, minute 62, with 0-0 on the scoreboard. It also concludes that Puyol – already with yellow – would have been irretrievably expelled if the ‘crack’ of bedum would have dropped in the minute 82, also with a zero tie, when the Spanish central defender tries to tackle him unsuccessfully in speed. Robben’s elegance during that game – and in many others – contrasts with the savagery of some of his teammates in a final that should never have ended with 22 men on the field (nor, therefore, reach the extension).

“That error He will be with me all my life against Casillas ”, said Robben several times, who suffered the ‘orange’ curse that day in the third Dutch final of a World Cup. In the next edition, Brazil 2014, Robben (two goals) and his teammates took revenge on Spain in that initial 5-1 that marked the decline of the Del Bosque team. The irrepressible bald man was the best footballer of the contest: he only went back to the Mexico more solid than is remembered in the round of 16.

Seven years later, after another great failed tournament of his national team, he keeps the boots of tacos forever. He scored his last goal in May 2019, with Bayern. He has not announced what he will do in the future, but his left-handed remains for history: with Messi’s permission, the dribbler fastest and most skillful of the 21st century, whose sportsmanship and self-confidence kept him from falling to the ground, as so many others would have done, that July 11 at the stadium FNB Soccer City.

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