With a summer off due to Holland's failure to reach the World Cup, Ryan Babel travelled to California before heading to Miami Beach in Florida, where he started pre-season early.
'It's very necessary,' Babel said to the camera in an Instagram video filmed in June. 'Next season, no excuses. This season is about to be the best ever. Mark my words.'
Now 32, Babel is in the twilight of his career and his return to the Premier League with Fulham paves the way for the Dutchman to remove the sense of unfinished business around his previous spell in England.
Ryan Babel vowed to have his best ever year as he started training in America last summer
He has now joined Fulham on loan as The Cottagers step up their Premier League survival bid
Babel still has an eye for flamboyancy, as demonstrated by his trip to Beverley Hills last year
Make no mistake, he still has something to offer. He may be older and more experienced having emerged from the footballing wilderness with two encouraging years at Besiktas, but he still possesses an eye for eccentricities that helped make his time at Liverpool so memorable.
For example, two weeks before he updated his followers about his early pre-season, he shared a picture of himself with a friend stood on the bonnet of their Range Rovers in Beverley Hills.
'We parked the cars literally in the middle of the roads to make this picture,' Babel wrote with a laughing emoji. 'Others were just driving by like it was nothing.'
From the west coast to west London in six months, Babel arrives at Fulham with six goals in 20 games for club and country in 2018-19, although they all came in his first nine matches. He has not found the net since September but has a respectable scoring record in Turkey with 28 goals in 76.
Babel's time at Besiktas has seen him settle. He played well and often, even featuring in the Champions League last season and has been a regular in the national setup with a resurgent Holland, where he has over 50 caps.
It didn't always look like being this way. After leaving Liverpool in January 2011, his career waned with spells at
