Robin van Persie had a pretty special football career.
After joining Arsenal in 2004, the Dutchman would go on to become one of the most feared forwards in the Premier League during over a decade in the division, initially at Arsenal before "the little boy inside him" told him to join Manchester United in 2012.
Three seasons there produced one Premier League title, with his 26 league goals in his first Old Trafford campaign crucial to winning what is still United's most recent league crown.
All in all, when you play for two of the biggest sides in the country then you are sure to have a lot of special memories, and Van Persie has plenty of them.
"If I look back on my period at Arsenal, it makes me really proud," the 35-year-old told the BBC in an interview following his recent retirement back at his former club Feyenoord.
"Because I came as a little boy, playing together with Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure... it was a dream, I was like a kid in a sweet shop.
"So that was really, really special and I learned so much just by looking at these guys, seeing how they behave, how they live, how they play and train. That was crucial for me."
And it seems as though when he was at Arsenal was when he came up against the best defenders he faced in his career.
Because when asked about who they were, Van Persie could only reply with two names.
"There was a partnership, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand," he said, perhaps recalling his battles with the pair when he was in an Arsenal shirt and also in United training.
They were certainly a pretty special pair.
