He tormented opposition defences during an illustrious playing career and now one of football’s most famous wingers is looking to conquer another sport.
His resume includes 12 league titles won across four different top flights, one Champions League and 96 caps over a 14-year spell for his country.
However, the now retired footballer has turned professional in another sport: padel.
The player in question? Ex-PSV Eindhoven, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Groningen star Arjen Robben.
The 41-year-old retired from football, after coming out of an initial retirement in 2020, in July 2021 for Dutch outfit Groningen.
While many footballers either go into coaching or the media, Robben incorporates the former with his burgeoning professional padel career.
In late August, he won his first ranking points in the International Padel Federation when he entered the FIP Bronze Westerbork tournament, part of the CUPRA FIP Tour, in his homeland of the Netherlands.
He and his partner Werner Lootsma overcame six match points in a qualifier to defeat Ralph Boekema and Mark Weldmate, another former footballer, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 to reach the main draw.
That was Robben’s first-ever victory on the tour but that was as good as it got for him during the tournament as he and Lootsma were outclassed in their last-32 clash.
Coming up against world No 155 Sten Richters and world No 144 Thijs Roper they suffered a heavy 6-1, 6-0 defeat.
Despite the loss, a huge crowd were present with hundreds in attendance to watch Robben play.
‘He’s the best former professional footballer we know who plays padel,’ commented Richters and Roper post-match as they paid tribute to Robben.
Robben was gracious in defeat too, admitting he didn’t expect too much of himself against better players.
‘I don’t think I can take myself too seriously. I started with low expectations’ he said.
‘But I tried to fight on the court, and score as many points as possible.’
Robben’s passion for padel began when he was playing for Bayern Munich where he said: ‘I used to play three times a week when I was in Germany.’
He has previously spoken about looking to emulate former footballers turning to padel – pointing to the impact of Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had in Sweden.
‘Zlatan Ibrahimovic made padel an important sport in Sweden, and I think I can do the same in the Netherlands.’
In 2023, Robben teamed up with former Netherlands strike partner Robin van Persie as the duo swapped the football pitch for a padel court playing in the Pro-Am of the World Padel Tour Amsterdam Open.
And just like their dazzling footballing careers, it ended in success as the duo won the ‘Legends Game’.
‘What an incredible experience to play at the Amsterdam Open once again! An intense match in excellent company,’ Van Persie remarked afterwards.
Robben is currently ranked 1,980 in the world with three ranking points. He is a long way off from the top with Argentine Agustine Tapia and Spaniard Arturo Coello joint world-no 1 with 20,200 points apiece.
However, Robben is remarkably closer to the world No 5 in the rankings than that player is closer to Tapia and Coello. Argentine Franco Stupaczuk is fifth in the standings with 8,835 points: 11,365 behind Tapia and Coello and 8,832 ahead of Robben.
Only time will tell if the Dutchman will climb up the rankings, but you’d be foolish to bet against him.
