Robin van Persie's early Secret Santa gift to Fernando Torres

Move over Fernando, there's a new sheriff in town!

Not content with claiming all the Premier League scoring titles, Robin van Persie has decided to claim the title of Greatest Miss in Recent Memory as well. Sorry, Fernando, you'll have to make do with all your Golden Boots (for Spain) from now on.

via @brocadfael

Hee hee hee... that, Ladies & Gentlemen, that takes tremendous skill. If they could, I'm sure even Salomon Kalou [vs. Portsmouth] and Ramires [vs. Benfica] would applaud the effort.

The only unfortunate part about Van Persie's miss was that it came at a rather inconsequential time, in the 89th minute of a rather easy 4-2 Champions League debut win against Bayer Leverkusen for David Moyes's Manchester United, so no one will remember for too long. (Plus, you know, he tends to score a lot, too.)

Then again, Torres's famous miss* was more significant in terms of psychology than actual game result. Is it too much to hope that Robin van Persie somehow lets this one eat at him as well and he suddenly develops a severe case of the yips while entering a self-defeating, confidence-destroying spiral of shame?

If you said "yes," you're probably right. Unfortunately.

Still, what a majestic miss! Football thanks you, Robin.

* We've all seen that far too often, so here's my favorite thing that came out of it - the FanZone reaction