About

Arjen Robben is a Dutch footballer who plays for Spanish football club Real Madrid . He is a winger but can also play as a second striker.

He is an integral part of the Dutch national team and has appeared in UEFA Euro 2004, the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2008.

Background

Robben was born o 23 January 1984 in Bedum in the province of Groningen.

He started playing football from an early age with local club VV Bedum. His amazing skills and unique talent quickly made him a target for other Dutch clubs and he was quickly signed by F.C. Gronigen - a club in the same province.

Club Football

F.C. Groningen

In the 1999/2000 season, Arjen Robben started playing for F.C. Groningen's C-class youth team.

He impressively scored 50 goals for the team in all competitions, thus he was quickly promoted to the first team.

He made his debut with the first team in 3 December, 2000 against RKC Waalwijk when he came in as substitute for Leonardo dos Santos who got injured in the second half.

He managed make himself into the starting eleven and he scored two goals in 18 starts for the team.

Robben was named the player of the year during the same season.

In the season after, Robben played 28 matches and scored 6 goals before PSV Eindhoven signed him for €3.9 million.

PSV Eindhoven

Moving to another team, didn't stop Robben from performing well on the pitch.

In his first season at Eindhoven (2002-03), he played 33 matches and scored 12 goals. He was named "PSV co-player of the year" along with striker Mateja Kezman - both were called by PSV fans "Batman and Robben".

He led the team to their 17th League title and won the Talented Player of the Year award.

Robben was approached by Man UTD's coach, Sir Alex Ferguson to join the English giants, but the offer they made (€7 million) was considered low and was rejected by Harry van Raaij, PSV's chairman stating that they could be Robben's shirt with his autograph with that amount of money.

At that time, Roman Abramovich was building a super-start team at Chelsea, and he had enough resources to bring Robben.

He signed Robben from PSV for €18 million.

Chelsea

After being such a startling success for Chelsea in the first half of the 2004/05 season, a combination of injury and loss of form beset Robben.

His performances for the Stamford Bridge outfit were outstanding. Premiership defenses were unable to live with his pace, power and finishing ability.

The winger's debut was actually delayed until the back end of October after he was injured on international duty with Holland at Euro 2004. He finally made his bow as a 63rd minute substitute for Joe Cole in a 4-0 home win over Blackburn Rovers.

Even in that cameo performance, he showed signs of what was to come.

Robben has proved himself to be one of the most exciting talents in the world, able to run with the ball at pace, score sublime goals and create for others with a fine range of passing.

With Robben and Duff playing a two-pronged support role to a sole striker there was little opposing sides could do to stop the Blues. And Robben bagged four goals in his first seven Premiership starts.

Quite simply, brilliant.

However, he was struck by injury again at the start of February and was restricted to just four further appearances - all from the bench - that season.

Robben struggled to recapture that form at the start of 2005/06. There was talk of a rift between the winger and manager Jose Mourinho, with Tottenham Hotspur reportedly waiting in the wings should he decide to move on.

The coach also publicly questioned Robben's form, eager to see him return to the glories of his initial months in the Chelsea team.

And it looked as though he may be on his way back after turning in a man of the match performance in the Premiership victory at Arsenal in December.

However, He again failed to find top form in 2006/07 and was ruled out for two months at the end of the season - after he made his 100th appearance in a Chelsea shirt.

In the summer of 2007 Real Madrid claimed they had reached agreement over his transfer. This was strenuously denied by the player's agent.

However, trusted resources like the BBC, claimed that he had reached personal terms with the Spanish giants and it was just a matter of days before he arrived in Madrid.

That was true and he was signed by Real Madrid for €36,55 million on 22 August, 2007 making him the fifth most expensive signing in Real Madrid's history, after Zinedine Zidane, Luís Figo, David Beckham and Ronaldo.

Real Madrid

Arjen Robben was one of the players, Real Madrid's president, Ramon Calderon, promised to sign (along with Kaka & Fabregas) when he was campaigning for presidency, and now the Dutchman is considered to be an integral part of the Spanish team.

He made his debut on September 18th, in the first Champions League game of the season against Werder Bremen.

Robben is known to be injury-prone, and injuries kept chasing him in Madrid, actually, whenever he went.

On October 17th, while playing with the Dutch national team, Robben pulled a muscle in his thigh and was out for around six weeks.

He made his El Clásico debut on 23 December, 2007, where he came on a substitute for Robinho in the 85th minute.

He scored his first competitive goal for Real Madrid on 2 January, 2008, playing against Alicante CF. He opened the scoring, and later won the match 2-1 with Real Madrid. H

He scored his first La Liga goal on 10 February, 2008 against Valladolid.

Real Madrid managed to win heir 31st Spanish League title in the club's history.

This is the fourth league title Arjen Robben has won at the age of 24 and he has won the league every time for the first season of each club he has played for except his first major club Gronigen.

Arjen Robben added another title with Real Madrid as they beat Valencia 4-2 to snatch the Spanish Super Cup.

On the 5th of October, 2008, in a match against Espanyol, Robben came in as a substitute for Rafael Van Der Vaart but soon later he injured himself and had to be replaced by Drenthe.

Club doctors said that he'd need two-weeks to recover, but speculated that he'd be fine for the Derby against Atletico Madrid on the 19th of October.

International Football

Arjen Robben has scored 10 goals in 34 matches for the Netherlands.

Robben made his debut during the Euro 2004 as Dutch coach Dick Advocaat sent him in to defend a 2-1 lead over the Czech Republic. However, neither Robben nor his teammates, could help as the Czech team scored two goals and won 3-2.

In the same tournament, it was Robben who scored the deciding penalty in the shootout between the Netherlands and Sweden, which ensured that at the fifth attempt, the Dutch finally won a penalty shootout.

Robben played in his first World Cup Qualifiers in 2006. He scored two goals in six games.

The Netherlands qualified for the World Cup in 2006 and in the opening match against Serbia and Montenegro, Robben scored the winning goal in the 18th minute, and was named the Man of the match. In the match against Côte d'Ivoire, Robben received this award the second time, thus becoming one of the eight players in the tournament to have won the Man of the Match Award more than once.

In the Euro 2008 group match against France, which the Netherlands won 4-1, Robben was brought on at half-time. He dragged the ball out of reach of a defender near the half-way line and paced his way ahead of three defenders, then crossed straight to van Persie who powered a shot into the goal past Grégory Coupet, who did well enough to get a hand onto it.

At 2-0, Thierry Henry scored a goal, making it 2-1, and almost directly after the restart, Robben was played through by Sneijder and he ran at the France goal and was forced into an acute angle, but despite the angle, he shot the ball into the net past Coupet.

International Goals

Awards and Honours

Personal Awards

Career Statistics

M = Matches, G = Goals, A = Assists

Personal Info

Arjen Robben got married to Bernadien Eillert on 9 June 2007 in Groningen whom he met at high school in Groningen at the Kamerlingh Onnes.

His father, Hans, is his agent.

Robben and his wife have a son called Luka.

Wife / Girlfriend

Bernadien Eillert

Sponsors

Important Links

References