Arjen Robben's retirement U-turn inspired by Michael Jordan's Last Dance documentary
Football
By
Mirror
| Jun 29, 2020
Arjen Robben's decision to come out of retirement was inspired by The Last Dance documentary on the career of NBA legend Michael Jordan.
Robben shocked the football world at the weekend by announcing he will be lacing up his boots again to play for his hometown club FC Groningen.
And it has emerged that the Dutch club used The Last Dance to convince Robben to come out of retirement - just like Chicago Bulls icon Jordan did.
Former Chelsea star Robben started his career at Groningen in 1996, and the club tried to convince him to re-sign for them when he hung up his boots after leaving Bayern Munich in May last year.
But the club did not give up on their attempts to bait the former Holland international, and came up with an ingenious way of persuading him.
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They showed the 36-year-old a montage of clips of Jordan from The Last Dance, interspersed with https://cdn.standardmedia.co.ke/images from Robben's own hugely successful career, according to BBC Sport.
And it seemed to do the trick, convincing Robben to sign a one-year deal with the club he made his senior debut for as a 16-year-old.
"I'm here to help the club," said Robben, who won the Champions League and eight Bundesliga titles with Munich as well as various honours with Chelsea, real Madrid and PSV.
"You do that by showing the right attitude. I don't have anything to lose and I'm going into the challenge with a positive attitude and to try and make the best of it.
"I haven't set any goals, it could be over in a month or it could last two years."
Jordan, regarded by many as the greatest basketball player of all time, retired in 1993 after inspiring the Bulls to three consecutive NBA championship titles.
He reversed his decision in 1995 and led the team to another consecutive titles between 1996 and 1998.
He reversed his decision in 1995 and led the team to another consecutive titles between 1996 and 1998.