EDGAR DAVIDS INSPIRED Barnet to a 4-0 victory over Northampton on his debut for the English League Two club last night.
Davids is more used to plying his trade on the sport’s grandest stages after an illustrious career with European giants like Juventus, Ajax, Barcelona and Inter Milan.
But the 39-year-old midfielder has come out of retirement in the unlikely surroundings of Barnet, a tiny club based in the suburbs of north London who attract crowds of just over 1,000.
Davids, a former Champions League winner who won 74 caps for Holland, had been working with Sunday league amateur footballers in England before accepting the offer to work alongside Mark Robson as joint Barnet manager.
His arrival at the club initially failed to spark a revival of fortunes for the Bees, as they lost 4-1 to Plymouth last weekend to remain rooted to the bottom of English football’s fourth tier.
But Davids was able to work his magic on the pitch at Underhill on Friday.
Driven on by Davids, who played 90 minutes and earned a booking, Barnet secured their first league win of the season with four second half goals.
Krystian Pearce opened the scoring with a 54th minute header, Andrew Yiadom got the second 10 minutes later and John Oster and Anthony Edgar scored in stoppage-time to seal the rout.
