Robin van Persie Tournament 2019

Welcome to my International Tournament I am thrilled to see so many great clubs at my International Tournament. Together with the Feyenoord Academy I feel privileged that so many young players, all so talented, have travelled to this Sports Park for a couple of days full of spectacular football. Almost 250 boys with dreams of a professional career. ROBIN VAN PERSIE INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT 2019 MATCHDAY PROGRAMME PUBLISHER ZPRESS Media Group Amstelwijckweg 11 PO Box 1015 3300 BA Dordrecht The Netherlands www.zpress.nl PROGRAMME EDITOR Marcel van der Kraan PROGRAMME DESIGN ZPRESS Studio Chris Magré, Stephan Bakker PHOTOGRAPHY René Bouwman, Archief Robin van Persie Tournament, ZPRESS Sport ADVERTISEMENT SALES ZPRESS Sport Bas van Son, Robin Verstraten PARTICIPATING TEAMS Feyenoord, Excelsior Rotterdam, PSV, Vitesse, Manchester City, Southampton, Anderlecht, Club Brugge, KRC Genk, Werder Bremen, SK Slavia Praag, Toronto, Aberdeen, Nordsjaelland, PSG, Zenit St. Petersburg SPECIAL THANKS TO © 2019 WELCOME THE 2019 ROBIN VAN PERSIE INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT MATCHDAY PROGRAMME 3 START OF YOUR CAREER I really hope that my tournament will be an inspiration for all these players in their efforts to become a professional player one day. I know you all have dreams and so did I at a young age. Playing tournaments for me was always the highlight of my season. I loved travelling to other countries and I loved winning trophies. The bigger the cups, the better. It is one of the reasons why we have massive trophies for the winners here. But please don’t forget you have to enjoy playing more than anything in tournaments. It is great to compete and test yourself against boys of the same age, who are playing in different countries. One day some of you might meet up again in the big world of professional football. END OF MY CAREER For me, funny enough, my profes- sional career came to an end this month. I played my last match for Feyenoord Rotterdam, the club where I made my debut in the first team. The club where I won a UEFA Cup at very young age and the club which helped me on the way to a wonderful career. From Feyenoord Rotterdam I went to Arsenal in London, where I enjoyed playing with some of the greatest players in the world. From London I moved to Man- chester, where I won the Premier League with United under Sir Alex Ferguson. And from Manchester I went to Istanbul, where Fener- bahce was my next club. And finally I returned to Rotterdam, where I enjoyed winning the Dutch Cup again. BIG THANK YOU In the Feyenoord stadium I said thank you to all the people who helped me in my career. Fans, coaches, players, physio’s. Today I say thank you to all the people who make this Tournament happen. Special thanks to James van der Kraan for organising and bringing all these great teams to my tournament. Thanks to Adidas, the Feyenoord Academy, de Vriendenloterij, all the sponsors and all volunteers. Robin van Persie