During his time at Arsenal, Robin van Persie played with a whole host of world-class players.
Van Persie went on to become a legend of the game himself.
But having signed for Arsenal at a young age, rubbing shoulders with stalwarts such as Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Sol Campbell to name a few would have massively helped in the Dutchman’s development.
A 20-year-old Robin van Persie would have especially benefited learning how to train and succeed in the Premier League from the likes of Henry and Bergkamp due to being a forward himself.
Much like the legendary pair, Van Persie himself was also not a traditional number nine and often veered out to wide and deeper areas to cause mayhem to defences.
While the Feyenoord boss went on to have a stellar career for both club and country, much of his success perhaps can be credited to the early stages of his development.
Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Robin van Persie says Thierry Henry trained with his shoelaces undone
While Robin van Persie would have been studying how Thierry Henry used to dominate defences on the pitch, it is in training where he saw most of the Frenchman’s magic.
Behind the scenes, the way one of the best strikers of all time goes about his business is the best possible footballing education for any young marksman.
Speaking to UEFA’s official YouTube channel, Robin van Persie made an interesting revelation about Thierry Henry always training with his shoeslaces undone at Arsenal.
“And what was funny was that he would always train with his laces undone. Hard to believe that you can do a whole training session with your laces undone but Thierry could and he was just as fast and just as good.”
Emile Smith Rowe claimed Thierry Henry was incredible and “could do everything” — making it seemingly easy for him to train with his shoelaces untied.
Cesc Fabregas likened Henry to Lionel Messi in terms of being a match-winner and despite Robin van Persie being as gifted as he was, he perhaps could not replicate the World Cup winner’s nonchalant approach to training.
What Thierry Henry did in Arsenal training no one else could
Van Persie revealed that Thierry Henry would often take his signature penalties in training where he would change the foot with which he would strike the ball right at the end.
The former claimed that while every player at Arsenal would try to do the same, they were unable to.
“He was also a player who did special things. What springs to mind when I think about him are those moments during training such as the distinctive way he used to take penalties.”
“You would think he was going to strike the ball with his right but then he would step over the ball and shoot with his left, sending the ball diagonally into the corner of the goal. And then everybody would go and try to do the same but nobody would be able to pull it off.”
“He had a certain trick, a certain way of standing, one fluid way of moving and there you go, the ball is in the back of the net again.”
Ledley King claimed Thierry Henry “had everything” and Robin van Persie seems to feel the same way about a true titan of the game.