Former Arsenal and Manchester United striker Robin van Persie has revealed he had an offer to come out of retirement and join Vincent Kompany at Anderlecht.
Van Persie only retired from football at the end of last season after a fine career, and was quickly back on the pitch in Kompany’s testimonial match at the Etihad Stadium in September.
MORE: Manchester United identify £50m-rated full-back as a summer transfer target
The Dutchman looked sharp that day as he scored a superb goal in that game, and it seems his performance convinced Kompany to try to persuade him to return to playing.
The former Manchester City captain is now at Anderlecht and Van Persie claims he approached him about joining him with the Belgian giants.
“That was a wonderful evening,” he told HLN when asked about that game.
“After 70 minutes I started getting pain everywhere, but I didn’t want to leave that field. The next day Kompany called me. He was convinced that I could help him with Anderlecht.
“I saw it as a nice compliment that he approached me, but I woke up that morning with pain in my calves and knew that I should not start it anymore.”
RVP said, however, that the aching he felt after that testimonial match convinced him that he shouldn’t think about coming out of retirement.
It would have been pretty cool to see these two Premier League legends together at a new club, but it’s probably for the best for Van Persie that he puts his feet up and enjoys the comfort of the BT Sport studio now after so many years of dazzling us with his goals and skills.