He's Cost Teams More in Transfer Fees Than Any Bundesliga Player No player in the history of the Bundesliga has cost more in transfer fe...
He's Cost Teams More in Transfer Fees Than Any Bundesliga Player
No player in the history of the Bundesliga has cost more in transfer fees than Arjen Robben. The player's fragility early in his career made him expendable to teams that moved on and built their plans around other players when he was unable to perform. But he was still immensely talented, and therefore commanded significant transfer fees when being sold.
Per Transfermarkt, an 18-year-old Robben left his youth club, Groningen, for PSV for a fee of €4.3 million in 2002. After two seasons in Eindhoven, Robben was then sold to Chelsea for €18 million. He was often injured and Roman Abramovich had other plans, so the Dutchman was offloaded to Real Madrid for €36 million.
And similarly, los Blancos found him a surplus to requirements in the summer of 2009, when they swapped eventual Champions League winners Robben and Wesley Sneijder, among others, to finance the purchases of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Xabi Alonso and more. Robben joined Bayern, who paid 24 million for his release.
No other player in Bundesliga history has cost so much. Mesut Ozil's transfers have totaled €73 million, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar €65.9 million and Diego €57 million, for example. The Dutchman in that category reigns supreme.
For Such a Selfish Player, He Actually Assists a Lot of Goals
One quip that many have about Robben is that he is a "selfish" player, that he too often opts to go for goal rather than passing. And indeed, the Dutchman really can be faulted for being too hungry to pull the trigger.
However, Robben being rather selfish does not mean he does not assist many goals. He does.
Over the course of his entire professional career, as well as at the 2001 under-20 World Cup and under-21 European Championship qualifiers, Robben has scored 170 goals in his career, according to Transfermarkt. His assists tally is not far behind, at 142. At that rate, for every six goals he scores, he assists approximately five.
Not bad, for a selfish player.
He Scores More from the Left and Assists More from the Right
Robben is known as a direct and selfish player, one who is eager to shoot on goal. That explains why he, although strictly left-footed, plays on the right wing: Rather than using his favored foot to cross, as he would if deployed on the left wing, he can use it to shoot after cutting in from the right.
The use of "inverting" a winger, playing him on the flank opposite his stronger foot, is designed to help the winger score goals at the expense of setting them up. Yet, at least this season, Robben has been more prolific on average from the left and better at assisting goals from the right.
Robben has averaged 0.8 goals per game (four goals in five games) in the Bundesliga this season while playing on the left, while providing precisely 0 assists. And although his goals tally on the right is formidable, his rate of 0.39 (nine in 23 appearances) goals per game is less than half that of when he's used on the left.
From the right, Robben has, in fact, assisted goals at an appreciable rate. That rate is also 0.39 per game; he's assisted as often as he's scored from the right.
He’s Scored as Many Winners in Cup Finals as Cristiano Ronaldo
For much of his career, Robben was known as a big-game choker, a player with great skill but not the nerve to come through in the moments that mattered most. Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, is often celebrated as heroic, a leader who was granted the Portugal captaincy at the age of 23.
Despite the disparities in reputation, Robben has decided just as many cup finals as Ronaldo during his professional career: two.
Robben scored the opener in Bayern's 4-0 win against Bremen in the 2010 DFB-Pokal final. Six years prior, Ronaldo had found the net first in Manchester United's 3-0 victory over Millwall, a result that saw the Red Devils claim the FA Cup.
Ronaldo also netted the winner in the 103rd minute of the 2011 Copa del Rey final, a grueling victory over Barcelona that had to be decided in extra time. Two years later, Robben netted a late winner for Bayern in their Champions League final victory over Dortmund.
Perhaps Robben isn't such a loser after all.
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