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Robin van Persie speaks out on move to sign former Man Utd teammate for Feyenoord | Football
Robin van Persie has refused to confirm whether Feyenoord are in the race to sign his former Manchester United teammate Jesse Lingard.
Lingard has spent the last two years at FC Seoul, joining the South Korean club in February 2024 after being released by Nottingham Forest.
Now 33, the former England international hopes to make a final decision on his next move this week with clubs from England, Italy and Netherlands interested in his services.
Feyenoord are among them with the Dutch giants coached by his former United teammate van Persie.
Van Persie had three seasons at Old Trafford with Lingard out on loan for the vast majority of that time although they were briefly in the same squad together at the start of the 2014-15 season under Louis van Gaal.
The former Arsenal star was quizzed on the possible arrival of Lingard when he spoke to the media on Friday but the 42-year-old insisted Feyenoord director Dennis te Kloese will ultimately decide if he joins the club.
‘No, because I don’t think it’s my role to say anything about it,’ van Persie said. ‘That’s up to Dennis and the technical team. I play a role in that, but more behind the scenes.’
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Van Persie has come under pressure at Feyenoord, who trail Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven by 17 points after a 3-0 defeat to their rivals last week.
The club also failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League after defeat to Real Betis last week.
Another Dutch great in Ruud Gullit however has urged Feyenoord to keep faith in the former striker, insisting he is also good enough to one day perhaps return to United as manager.
‘It would be great if Robin van Persie became the manager of Manchester United in the future. I definitely hope that happens at some point! Robin is a great manager, but he’s struggling a little bit at Feyenoord at the moment,’ Gullit said.
‘I feel like the expectations for him are very high because of the career he had, so he’s under the spotlight a lot more than other managers in the Eredivisie.
‘He’s under fire over here in Holland at the moment, but I hope he’s given time to rectify it and prove how good he is. Look what happened with Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United – they kept him, and look how good he ended up being.
‘Down the line however, I think it would be great for Robin to manage at Old Trafford one day.’
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