Robin van Persie to have Wim Jansen in mind as Feyenoord take on Celtic

Robin van Persie aims to pay tribute to his inspiration, Wim Jansen, when his Feyenoord side take on Celtic on Thursday.

The former Arsenal and Manchester United striker revealed former Celtic boss Jansen was a huge part of his football education ahead of the Europa League clash in Rotterdam.

Like Van Persie, Jansen came through the youth ranks at Feyenoord and spent the majority of his career at De Kuip.

He helped his team beat Celtic in the 1970 European Cup final and went on to captain them to UEFA Cup glory.

Jansen sparked a revival of the club as manager, winning two KNVB Cups before stepping up to become technical director before they won the league in 1993.

He later spent a brief but memorable spell as Celtic manager, winning the league in 1998 in his sole campaign to stop Rangers winning a record 10th consecutive title.

Van Persie said: “Wim has been an icon for Dutch and Scottish football because of that year he had with Celtic. In this way, I feel we are playing a game which, in my opinion, is actually in honour of Wim Jansen.

“I used to play in the youth team at Feyenoord academy. The first thing I would always do, when I came onto the pitch, was look over to the corner flag on the left side of the clubhouse. That corner was always where Wim was. I always wanted to make sure he was there.

“Why? Because I only wanted to impress one person and that was Wim. If I knew he was at the corner flag then I knew he would be watching. And he was always at all of my games. Wim was the man who triggered me often.

“He once said to me, when I was a very young player, that he wanted to see in the first five minutes of a game that I was the best of all the players on the pitch. He said ‘that is what you have to show’. That was one of those small details when he triggered me.

“I have so many memories to think back on with massive pleasure. Wim was such a big football man.”