Robin van Persie ready to honour Wim Jansen in Celtic meeting
Last updated 26th Nov 2025
When Robin van Persie pulled on a Feyenoord shirt, there was only one man he wanted to impress - Wim Jansen.
The Dutchman is now ready to honour his old mentor when his side host Celtic in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Jansen is a legend at Feyenoord after winning the European Cup with the club in 1970 – beating Celtic in the final.
He then went on to coach the team and had a big influence on a young Robin van Persie.
The former midfielder is also a hero at Celtic Park for stopping Rangers' nine-in-a-row run in the 90s.
Van Persie says the match is the perfect occasion to toast Jansen.
He said: “Yes, I was very honoured. I got part of his legacy from his son, Wim junior. I read so many pages and still look at them now.
“Everything is made spot clear, whether it’s about technique or tactics. Wim had written pages and pages on it all. But then again he was always full-time busy with football. Anything that came to his mind, he wrote down.
“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 tomorrow night which, in my opinion, is actually in honour of Wim Jansen.
“For me personally, 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.
“There were so many other moments which we spent together. He once saw me at the bus stop – bus stop 49 – at the back of the training ground behind the stadium.
“I used to have to travel by metro and by tram to get home. But this time Wim just happened to come by and he let me hop into his car and gave me a lift.
“The journey was 30 minutes to the other side of town. And during that 30 minute ride we only spoke about football. And he was asking me so many direct questions.
“He wouldn’t give me the answer because he wanted me to think. Those questions helped me to become a better player.
“I have so many memories to think back on with massive pleasure. Wim was such a big football man.
“Everything has been put into a book but I don’t need to read it. I have the rough version of all his transcriptions at home which were given to me and I still read them now.
“Everything he wrote down shows the passion and love he has for football and I feel that whenever I read it.
“That’s why he was so important at that one year at Celtic too. And why he has been such an important figure in Dutch football.”
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