Feyenoord boss Robin van Persie has said that Raheem Sterling chose to join the Eredivisie club to “regain the joy” in his football.
Sterling signed for Feyenoord until the end of the season as a free agent on Thursday after agreeing to a mutual termination of his contract with Chelsea last month.
The 82-times capped England forward has not played a competitive game since May and was a member of Chelsea’s so-called “bomb squad,” a group of players that were frozen out of first-team action and training.
But Sterling has since found an exit route and now takes his first foray abroad to work with former Arsenal and Manchester United striker Van Persie.
“Well, you can see that it gives a boost throughout the whole club. You see that on different levels,” Van Persie told a news conference on Friday.
“You saw it today as well. Someone’s coming in, and that’s just how it is, he’s a big player, a big character and someone who has proven himself.
“And he’s here and has chosen Feyenoord, for the love of the game and he wants to regain the joy and he’s going to find that with us and we’ll help him with it.
“The process starts today and we’re all really looking forward to it. And that’s the reason that we’ve brought him in.”
A source told ESPN that that as many as 18 clubs across Europe’s top four leagues were interested in signing Sterling but his relationship with Van Persie and Feyenoord’s Champions League qualification hopes tipped the scales in the Dutch side’s favour.
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“And that’s also the reason from Raheem’s point of view that he has chosen us is because we believe in each other and that we are going to help each other in that process,” Van Persie added.
“From Raheem’s point of view to be happy again and from our point of view so that he can help us and gives us a really positive boost.”
Feyenoord sit second in the Dutch Eredivisie, a whopping eighteen points behind leaders PSV and exited the Europa League in the group stage, finishing 29th.
Information from ESPN’s James Olley contributed to this report.
