Ol’ Fast Legs is Back

Time really is a great healer. Turns out it can heal career-ending injuries.

Because four years after retiring from the game with a dodgy knee, former Arsenal and Barcelona winger Marc Overmars plans to terrorize full backs in the Dutch second division next season with Go Ahead Eagles, where he began his career way back in 1990.

Overmars has been technical manager (like a director of football, I guess) at Go Ahead since retiring and apparently decided to do a Sinatra after playing in Jaap Stam’s testimonial recently, and finding that he was still pretty damn good at football.

“That was also surprising for me, that is was so easy and that I still have my pace,” said Overmars. “I retired four years ago and since then I train only once a week. But willpower helps a lot.”

I’m going to make a prediction here: this will not go well.

I hope I’m wrong. Overmars running at a fullback, and the look of terror in said fullbacks eyes, was always one of football’s more thrilling sights. And there’s definitely something romantic about players returning to their first clubs and contributing something in the final years of their career.

But if Overmars’ injury was bad enough to make him retire in 2004, he’s still going to have problems in 2008. And the Dutch Eerste Divisie may not be the English Premier League or La Liga Primera División, but it’s not a Jaap Stam testimonial either.

Either way, here’s a little reminder of what the man can do:

Soccer Forums

Team/International Results

Category: World Football

Tags: Arsenal, Barcelona, Eredivisie, Erste Divisie, Go Ahead Eagles, Holland, Jaap Stam, Marc Overmars, Netherlands, World Football

Subscribe   The Offside RSS Feeds

Print

Share