Barcelona’s Riqui Puig goes viral for looking exactly like Robin van Persie | OneFootball

Wait, didn’t Robin van Persie retire from football in 2019?

Many football fans are convinced that the former Dutch striker is currently training with Barcelona after the Catalan club posted a photo to Twitter on Wednesday morning.

Even Gerard Pique reckons the footballer photographed is Van Persie.

However, the photo is actually of Riqui Puig, the club’s talented 21-year-old midfielder.

Check out the image here…

That’s an astonishing resemblance. Puig looks identical to Van Persie in that shot. It’s uncanny!

Fans react to Rique Puig looking like Robin van Persie

Let’s check out some of the best reaction from Twitter…

Robin van Persie tweets Riqui Puig

After the topic began to trend on social media, Van Persie added fuel to the fire by tweeting: “Good luck this season son.”

Superb.

Puig is 16 years younger than Van Persie, who currently works as the assistant manager of Feyenoord, but looks just like the ex-Arsenal and Manchester United striker in that particular photo.

In other previous photos, the Spain Under-21 international looks a lot less like the former Netherlands international, so we’re not quite sure what’s happened there.

It must have been the angle and the lighting, or perhaps it’s the slightly different hairstyle.

That's one way to get Ronald Koeman's attention

Some Barça fans have joked that Puig is deliberately making himself resemble Van Persie so that Ronald Koeman will give him more minutes on the pitch this season.

The midfielder was widely regarded as Barcelona’s best young midfield talent prior to Koeman’s arrival in August 2020.

He still played 24 times for Barça last season but 18-year-old Pedri, who starred for Spain at Euro 2020, is now ahead of his compatriot in the Camp Nou pecking order.

If Puig starts banging in goals like his doppelgänger used to, though, Koeman will find it impossible to overlook him.

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Rob Swan

Interested in: Manchester United, Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane

Football writer for over a decade, childhood hero was Zinedine Zidane. Will always maintain Juan Sebastian Veron wasn't a total flop at Man Utd, and that Scholes > Gerrard and Lampard.