Monday, February 28, 2022 at 10:41 PM• Jeroen van Poppel • Last update: 22:45

Marco van Basten shows no regrets about his visit to Vladimir Putin after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The former striker visited the Kremlin during the 2018 World Cup without delving into the president of Russia. “I thought he was quite normal at the time,” said Van Basten in Rondo about his conversation with Putin.

At the time, Van Basten was employed by FIFA, where he was officially Chief Officer for Technical Development. His appointment with Putin in 2018 was already very sensitive and has become even more controversial after the war that Putin started in Ukraine. Putin is known for using major sporting events to polish Russia’s tarnished image. That happened in 2014 with the Winter Olympics and again in 2018 with the World Cup. He still does not seem to realize that Van Basten became part of Putin’s PR campaign by joining the president as a world-renowned former top striker.

Bas van Veenendaal asks Van Basten whether he regrets his visit to Moscow. The former Ajax player thinks for a few seconds and then avoids the question: “Well, look, we had a number of legends around the table with him. I have to say that I thought he was quite normal at the time. He wasn’t very interested in football, but he acted normal. Simple, nice and tidy. That such a man changes like that is painful and strange.”

The fact that Putin had already annexed the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in 2014 did not prevent Van Basten from visiting. Van Veenendaal points out that it was already known for a long time that Putin is a dictator. “Yes, of course, only I was not aware at the time that there was already so much fighting in Ukraine,” Van Basten responds. “He has had a very bad history. Now it is clear that it cannot be repeated, but we were there for a completely different reason.”