Top 10 Young Players Singings by Arsene Wenger for Arsenal (Part 4)
Cesc Fabregas - signed from Barcelona in 2003
Cesc Fabregas Soler is a Spanish professional footballer. Fabregas plays as a central midfielder though he started his career from the defensive part of the field. The world class player, Cesc is also the skipper of Barclays Premier League Club Arsenal. Fabregas has also gained a permanent stature with the Spanish national team and was part of the World Cup winning squad.
Fabregas started his glorious footballing career as a trainee with Spanish Giants, Barcelona. Camp Nou was full of big names such as Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and others who were in the jostle for first-team duties. So Fabregas decided to join English Giants Arsenal. In September 2003, the talented Spanish midfielder departed Catalonia for Arsenal.
Cesc, now a world champion, made his debut at the age of sixteen, becoming the youngest ever player of Arsenal to play in the first team. Following injuries to key midfielders of Arsenal in the 2004–05 season, Fabregas established himself as Gunner’s starting central midfielder and playmaker. Moreover, the young talented midfielder went on to break several of the Arsenal’s records. Cesc Fabregas is Arsenal’s youngest ever goal-scorer in a league game, when he scored against Blackburn Rovers in a 3-0 victory. Fabregas also became the second-youngest goal scorer of the UEFA Champions League history when he scored the third goal against Rosenborg in a 5-1 win in 2004-05.
The Spanish midfielder has gone on to establish himself as captain of the Arsenal, making him the youngest ever captain of Arsenal. Cesc Fabregas is considered as one of the best central midfielder of his generation. However, earlier this year, Fabregas was linked with a high profile return to Barcelona, his boyhood club. But Arsenal skipper opted to remain at the Emirates for another season at least.
Fabregas has played 270 games for Arsenal in which he has scored 46 times along with managing to provide 86 assists. Arsenal skipper also played a crucial role in Spain’s World Cup victory. He assisted Andres Iniesta in the final of FIFA WORLD CUP 2010, which proved to be the decisive goal initiating Spain being crowned Champions.
Robin van Persie - signed from Feyenoord in 2004
Robin van Persie is a Dutch professional footballer. Persie started his career as a left winger but with the new and complex formation of Arsenal, van Persie plays as a centre attacker. Robin van Persie was also the centre forward of Netherlands national football team which lost to Spain in FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 final.
The talented Dutch forward started his early career with SBV Excelsior's youth squad at the age of 4. Robin van Persie managed to get in to his hometown club Feyenoord when he was 16. The Dutch attacker made his first team debut at the age of seventeen. Persie spent three years with the Dutch side and also won the 2002 UEFA Cup. He received the KNVB (Royal Netherlands Football Association (Dutch: Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond, or KNVB) Best Young Talent award at the end of the 2001–02 season
After a successful season at Feynoord, Van Persie was in the picture for a lengthy, successful career in Rotterdam but differences with the coach, Bert van Marwijk, proved to be the only reason for his departure in acrimonious circumstances in 2004.
In the January transfer window of 2004, Feyenoord shopped Robin van Persie. Arsenal was looking for a long-term replacement for the aging veteran Dennis Bergkamp. So the Eredivisie club opened negotiations with Arsenal. Both clubs could not agree on terms but five months later a deal was finalized and Arsenal clinched van Persie to Arsenal for £2.75 million, just over half of Feyenoord's original asking price of £5 million.
On 17 May 2004, van Persie signed a four-year deal with the English Giants Arsenal. Van Persie made his debut on 8 August 2004 and won a trophy in the process, as he came on as a substitute in the 3–1 FA Community Shield victory over their arch rivals Manchester United.
The Netherlands attacker has battled off stiff competition to become the number one striker at the Emirates but has suffered more than his fair share of injury trouble in England. He has nonetheless managed over 70 goals in around 200 matches for the Gunners.
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