Van der Sar plans perfect ending

Edwin van der Sar has told uefa.com he is determined to bow out on a high if this, indeed, is to be his last season in top-class football. The Manchester United FC goalkeeper, who is expected to decide on his future in December, is savouring the chance of winning more trophies to add to last term's Premier League and UEFA Champions League titles.

'Perfect ending'
In an interview with the UEFA Training Ground, the 37-year-old discusses his hopes for a 2008/09 campaign that could yet be his career swansong: "The perfect ending? Winning the FA Cup, Carling Cup, championship and Champions League. I would take that but two of them would be fine. The most important thing is to stay fit, keep playing on a high level, hopefully be important for your club, and at the end it must be possible to win one or two prizes."

Title defence
However, Van der Sar, who can increase his medal haul against FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Super Cup on Friday, adds that he is "losing no sleep" about the task of retaining the European Champion Clubs' Cup – a feat his AFC Ajax side came close to achieving when, as titleholders, they lost the 1996 UEFA Champions League final on penalties to Juventus. Explaining that a lot depends on players' fitness at the key moments in a season, he says: "Of course it's a great challenge but we're not losing any sleep about it until maybe we come to the semis. It's important but the main thing is to focus on the first game, then you get a Champions League game on Wednesday, then you get Saturday league again. We play so many games in a year that you can't just focus on one thing. But we have loads of professional players here and they all want to win the games, especially the big ones. It's all about winning prizes and enjoying it as much as possible."

Oranje highlights
Van der Sar's energies will be committed solely to the Old Trafford cause after he retired from international football following UEFA EURO 2008™. The highlight of a Netherlands career spanning 128 caps, he tells uefa.com users, was "playing the semi-final in 1998, the [FIFA] World Cup against Brazil". "There'd just been a great atmosphere in the team the whole tournament, and to play against Brazil in a semi-final is great. The whole stadium was orange and yellow, great colours, it was a nice temperature, with great anticipation from the whole world ... With the national team I gave everything and now I can focus solely on helping United. Hopefully it will prolong my career."

The Anelka save
The former Juventus and Fulham FC custodian also states that there is "no big secret" to saving penalties – this from the man whose shoot-out stop from Chelsea FC's Nicolas Anelka last May won the UEFA Champions League crown for United. "He takes his run and you go for it, take whatever you've got and save it. It doesn't matter if it's a top-corner save or whatever, it's most important that you save it ... I felt confident and I saved the penalty from Anelka and after that we won the Champions League – one of the biggest prizes you can get."