Arjen Robben may not have played his last international match for the Dutch national team yet. Interim national coach Dwight Lodeweges will not close the door for Orange for anyone, nor for the 36-year-old striker, who ended his career as A-international in October 2017. However, Robben is now on the verge of making his official return to the football fields after a year-long sabbatical.

“You do not write anyone off in advance,” Lodeweges emphasized in a conversation with him on Saturday. The Telegraph. At the time, Robben was consciously ending his international career. In the autumn of his career he wanted to be able to fully focus on his club career at Bayern Munich and as much as possible free from injuries. If Robben, who is good for 96 international matches, still wants and can, a role in the future is not ruled out.

“Everything stands or falls with performance and he will have to earn it”, says Lodeweges a day before the meeting between FC Groningen and PSV, the match in which the striker will probably make his return. ‘We had a fairly solid group with which we enforced the qualification for the European Championship. That European Championship has now been postponed. We then told each other that we would look at everyone again with a fresh look. This now also applies to Robben. ”

A role as a joker in the European final tournament, for example, can not be ruled out. “Who knows what he can do, possibly from the bench?” Lodeweges wondered openly. “You’re never too young, but maybe you’re never too old to be of value to a team. But let’s wait and see what Arjen himself thinks about it. ”