Dutch striker Areen Robin retreated from retirement, decided to return to the stadiums from the portal of his former team Groningen, and responded to the team management offer that resorted to a special way to persuade him.
Groningen used the scenario of basketball legend Michael Jordan, when he previously retired, to persuade Robin to return to the club that witnessed its start. The Dutch club showed footage of a documentary broadcast by Netflix on Jordan entitled "The Last Dance".
"At first we went to Munich to talk to him about returning and playing with us just days after he retired in May last year," team coach Mark Jan Felderos told a news conference on Sunday - after Robin signed a one-year contract.
"This did not happen, but the communication continued, and then we coordinated confidentially with his wife to travel and talk to him again last month."
Robin, 36, agreed to return to the club, which saw his start as a 16-year-old player in 2000.
The former Dutch national footballer - who represented Chelsea, Eindhoven, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich - won 12 domestic league titles in his impressive career, and 96 international matches including the 2010 World Cup final in Johannesburg.
"The difference in level between Bayern and Groningen is very big, of course, but I am here to help the club. I have nothing to lose and I will enter this challenge positively trying to use the matter in the best way. I have not set any goal, it may last for a month or maybe two years," Rubin said. .
Jordan basketball legend had won the Chicago Bulls NBA three times in a row, before suddenly retiring, then retreating and leading his team to win three other consecutive titles.
The documentary "The Last Dance", produced by ESPN, is monitored last year on Jordan's march with the Chicago Bulls, and the Messers Groningen hopes that the shots presented by him will inspire Robin to write his "last dance" chapters in the stadiums.