Manchester United's MVP is RVP

Manchester United’s Robin van Persie celebrates at the final whistle after beating Aston Villa 3-0 at Old Trafford as they sealed the Barclays Premier League title with four games to spare. (Getty Images)

April 22^nd, 2013.

Manchester United three, Aston Villa nil read the giant digital scoreboard at Old Trafford at half time. Forty five minutes remained between then and history. No more goals would be scored on that day. No more were necessary.

Forty five minutes of agonising pleasure – if you’ll pardon the oxymoron – that had eleven players in red and millions more around the world with just one thought at the forefront of the morass of musings that traverse one’s mind.

‘Just get it over with, already!’

But those forty five minutes were just a delay of oh-so-sweet gratification. Gratification that players and fans of Manchester United alike had craved since Sergio Aguero’s goal at the Etihad Stadium after 94 minutes, which meant that the score line against Queens Park Rangers on that day was not 2-2 at the final whistle.

Of course, Manchester United had every moment to be impatient. This was history in the making. It was also the making of what will define the career of one very special player in the famed Red and Black of Manchester United Football Club.

That man was Robin van Persie.

The summer of 2012 was one that will continue to bring agony to fans of Arsenal and euphoria to those who support Manchester United in equal measure. Well, maybe one more than the other.

But the 22nd of April, 2013 is one that will always define the Dutchman as one of United’s greatest, for he has forever written himself into the annals of history at Sir Matt Busby Way. He has written himself into what will always be talked about in the future when loyalists of the Red Devils fondly talk about the past.

van Persie endured a poor European Championship, as the Oranje bowed out of the tournament with one goal to their name. That only capped yet another trophy-less season with Arsenal.

Only van Persie’s nearest and dearest will know whether he truly remained a Gooner at heart. Sections of Arsenal fans will surely point the finger at him for deserting a trusting Arsene Wenger, a patient Arsene Wenger who persevered and stuck by him through all his injuries and setbacks, all his trials and tribulations, only to search for immediate glory while sacrificing himself for the greater good.

But in the end, one could see that his move to Manchester United was for purely footballing reasons. Sure, he did receive a substantial wage hike, but if it was money he was after he could have as easily gone to Eastlands and Manchester City, who rumour has it were putting together a package that could have made him the highest paid player in the Barclays Premier League.

Right from the word go, it was clear that he was going to Old Trafford to play football.

United’s woeful start at Everton was one of few insipid moments in what was a stupendous 2012 for van Persie in club colours.

And that craving for silverware, far from slackening, only intensified his desire to grab his hands on a coveted trophy, which was made oh-so-clear when he took to the pitch against Aston Villa on Monday night.

That game was not about Ryan Giggs, who was adding Premier League title number fourteen to brilliantly glistening array of trophies, not about Paul Scholes, who had come out of retirement last season to serve the club he loved. It was not about Wayne Rooney, the Golden Boy of English football, nor was it about Sir Alex Ferguson showing Manchester City who was boss in such emphatic fashion.

It was about one man and one man only.

van Persie showed the world how much that title meant to him. Slicing through the Aston Villa defence thrice, there was no one who could stop him. Truth be told, it could have been a lot more.

And his team mates were in sync with him. Rooney, shining in the role of the shadow striker, picked him out excellently with a lovely lob that van Persie slammed into the back of the net with a strike that will surely draw comparisons with his flying volley against Charlton Athletic, when he rubbed shoulders with Thierry Henry at Arsenal.

van Persie celebrates scoring his hat trick with Ryan Giggs during the match against Aston Villa at Old Trafford on April 22, 2013. (Getty Images)

Giggs could have easily gotten his name on the score sheet, but the 22^nd would belong to van Persie. People often say that some shots on goal are so precisely struck that two goalkeepers in goal couldn’t have kept it out. So precise and determined was the Dutchman that even four players on the line could not block his shot, which would have done an army sniper proud.

With every goal he scored, he celebrated with élan, feeding of the energy of the frenzied Old Trafford crowd as he took all of thirty minutes to overtake Luis Suarez’s haul of 22 goals. Given that the Liverpool man may never play again this season, van Persie may collect his second consecutive Golden Boot.

In contrast to the high-octane revelry that has been reminiscent of the release of a wound-up spring, the heralding of title number twenty which will make sure that his shirt number at United will forever be remembered by football fans throughout the world saw an exultation that was somewhat muted.

It was one that exuded waves of blessed relief, one that symbolised accomplishment, as his ear to ear smile and fists half-raised above his head spoke of a certain finality of success that had eluded him for so long.

And as with the goals he had plundered throughout the season, his teammates knew how much it meant to him. He didn’t go to embrace them, they came to hug him. After training, living, working and playing with champions for a year, that overwhelming sense of oneness was made complete as he now had the credentials to show not just that he was one of them, but worthy to be among them.

He travels to the Emirates Stadium next, to take on his former club Arsenal as United try to overtake Chelsea’s record of 95 points. The atmosphere at London will be one of revulsion towards him for the manner in which he left Ashburton Grove last year, but the abuse hurled at him and the boos directed towards him will fall off him like water on rock. For he left Arsenal a footballer.

But he returned a Champion.

Special thanks to ESPN commentator John Champion, whose succinct words form the title of this article.