The veteran of more than 130 caps for his country had one final kick out in the 2-1 win over Peru, playing for 62 minutes in the friendly before retiring to the bench for good.

But once the ref blew for full-time, the Dutch FA surprised the crowd by recreating a lounge room in the centre of the pitch for Sneijder and his family to gather round a television and see video messages from his former team-mates, coaches and rivals.

The crowd in the Johan Cruyff Arena joined in too, holding up banners in tribute to the former Dutch skipper who scored 31 goals across 134 games and three World Cups.

The 34 year old former star of Inter, Real Madrid, Ajax, Nice and Galatasaray now plays for Al-Gharafa in Qatar as he winds down his career.

It may give the FFA some ideas on how else they could celebrate the retirement of Socceroos legend Tim Cahill in November.

He is due to taker the field one final time for the green and gold after he announced he was hanging up his Socceroos boots following the World Cup.

But there has been some criticism from fans that his farewell will interfere with preparations for the Socceroos to defend their Asian Cup crown in January.

On Friday, new Socceroos coach Graham Arnold insisted the farewell would not be a long goodbye for Timmy...and could be s brief as the last five minutes of the game.

A half-time send-off like Sneijder's though might just fit the bill on both counts...