AC Milan midfielder Nigel de Jong has come to the defence of his international teammate Arjen Robben, who has been criticised by many as being on the decline. He says that the former Real Madrid and Chelsea star is still playing at the top level and that the 31-year-old can help the Dutch national team in the World Cup 2014. Robben has had an up-and-down year in the last few seasons. Last year, it was a very excellent campaign as he helped Bayern Munich lift three major titles. He also scored in the Champions League final to finally shake off the image as a loser.

However, he has also failed to take crucial chances in important matters like the World Cup 2010 final. Ahead of the World Cup 2014, pressure is on the Dutch star, who was certainly not at his best in the final few months of the campaign with Bayern Munich. Despite having a lot of the ball against Real Madrid, he did not create much over the course of 180 minutes. He was one of the players who received a lot of blame for the 5-0 aggregate defeat against the Los Blancos.
De Jong, who has played with Robben for several years, says that the player still has it in him.

“Robben is at the highest peak of his career, his last two years were astonishing, and he seems to be perfectly fit. Van Persie is our skipper, our leader, he didn’t play his best season but this was due to the transition at Manchester United. But I recently heard from him and he’s ready, he’s recovering a good shape. We weren’t a group, there was no cohesion between us and nothing really worked well. Somebody said that if we won against Denmark, then the rest of our tournament could have been different,” said the midfielder.