Van Persie: Being a champion is even better than I thought

Robin van Persie has had to wait a long time to call himself a champion, but just eight months at United was long enough to do the trick. When asked by the official site whether winning the league feels as good as he expected, he claims it feels even better.

“It’s even nicer,” he said. “I’ve waited for this for a long time. Even with Feyenoord I was close but never a champion. As a youth player, though, I was used to winning trophies, right through from U12s to U18s. We won the UEFA Cup at Feyenoord three months after I started and I remember thinking: ‘Okay, this will happen every year – winning trophies is part of being a footballer.’ But I’ve realised since then it’s not that simple. I had to wait a long time to be a champion but it tastes lovely. I feel like I’m floating on a cloud.”

Van Persie has repeatedly spoken about how happy he is at the club and he attributes that to how welcoming everyone has been since he signed.

“Everybody was so nice to me, everybody wanted to help me and everybody told me they wanted to share the success with me,” he said. “Playing with team-mates who want to help you and are happy for you if you score is a key ingredient. I also have to say that the fans have been great with me from the beginning. They gave me a lot of confidence. I guess it helped that I scored on my home debut, but I felt like we had a great connection straight away. I love the United fans.”