Van Persie and… Van Gaal’s slap: “At the 2014 World Cup I played with cramps and he slapped me”

Competent, innovative, successful. But at the same time a character that is really difficult to get along with. Louis Van Gaal is everything and the opposite of him. And Robin Van Persie talks about when he got … slapped by the coach.

Competent, innovative, successful. But at the same time a character that is really difficult to get along with. Louis Van Gaal is everything and the opposite of him, as demonstrated by several decades of career. And even his footballers find it impossible to define him in a single way. The best example comes from Robin Van Persie, who worked with Van Gaal both on the international side and at Manchester United. But, as he reveals in a book entitles “LVG – The Manager and the Total Person“, he had a rather stormy relationship with the coach.

SLAP

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In the national team the most absurd story is that of the match against Costa Rica at the 2014 World Cup. Holland is dragged to penalties and Van Persie, who plays extra-time with cramps, gets a slap for the trouble… . “The match went into extra time and I was cramping. Louis yelled at me ‘I’ll replace you’, I turned around and replied ‘no, no, there are penalties’. But the last 20 minutes were physically hell for me. Van Gaal saw it and was furious. When the game was over and we approached the dugout before penalties, he came up to me and hit me. Bang, he slapped me with his open hand and angrily told me ‘never do that to me again’. I looked at him absolutely perplexed, he just said to me ‘now recover and see if you can score your penalty’. And I’m glad I did. But when I think back to that scene, it describes Louis perfectly. Sometimes he hugs you, sometimes he hits you.

CLASH

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After a year of living together at United, however, things change and Van Gaal shows Van Persie the door.” He told me in a very harsh way ‘you are the player and I’m the coach. I’m not leaving, so you you have to go. Your time in Manchester is over.’ My family was happy in Manchester, so I replied ‘that’s what you say, I have a contract for another year’. But he was convinced: ‘you you still have to go.’ said we would never agree on this, I shook his hand and walked away. Did I blame him for how things turned out? Sure, it hurt me and my family. Ok, I had some injuries, but I had played anyway, working like crazy and giving everything. That’s why a message like that was hard to accept”. Then the two made peace, at the former striker’s farewell match. But that slap, evidently, still burns…