Anita, the former Newcastle United midfielder, was a gentle, softly-spoken presence in his five years at St. James' Park and is affable company as he speaks on a video call from his home in Utrecht about another facet of his personality. He began making music as a youth player at Ajax, where teammates helped teach him to craft lyrics. In 2010, he recorded a track alongside Ryan Babel and Leroy Fer but it wasn't until 2022 that Anita began releasing music under the name JR - a reference to being the junior to his dad, Vurnon Anita senior.
"Back in the day, a lot of people said, 'no, you only need to focus on football', so we did it when we had nothing to do. It was more like a hobby," he explains. "Even at Newcastle, I was making music, but I never brought something out.
"Only recently, because I know a lot of rappers and producers in Holland who are known, they give me the confidence - like, 'you can really rap' and stuff - so I took it more seriously. But for me, it's still a hobby. I'm not going to fixate on that and make a career of it."
The idea that players must commit their mental energy to football alone is evidently still a popular school of thought. It has always felt inhibiting, flawed. "That's what I thought! Some players play tennis or play golf on the side, and nobody says nothing, you know? But if it's music, you have to focus only on football. I was always like, 'no, I'm going to do it, but I'll do it on my time, it's my hobby'. I always did it.
"But it was difficult. That's why I didn't bring music out. Now that I'm a little bit older, I've had my career, I was like, 'yeah, I'm going do what I want to do - nobody can tell me nothing'."
Anita contends that current players like Memphis Depay, Noa Lang, Rafael Leão and Moises Kean have all made music in recent years, largely without it being labelled "a distraction. But I came out good!" he smiles. The process of writing, of "starting from nothing and making something", feels fulfilling. "I'm also a guy who doesn't talk a lot. I'm not shy but I'm a quiet person. In music I'm more, not aggressive, but more vocal about things. It's a way of expression as well for me.
"You hear the beat, and you just go with the flow. You see what comes up, and you write it down, and you make it rhyme." Did that come naturally? "At first it was a little bit difficult. I can rhyme but to make your sentences correct, make everything align, it's more work. But it's repetition. It's like football - if you train every day, you become better. That's music as well.
"It's also a feeling. It's just a feeling. You hear something, and you feel you have to say this, and it goes from there. It goes from freestyling, saying dumb things, and then something pops up - 'OK, I can start here!' It's just a process."
JR's music is on Spotify. One of his tracks, On Top (feat. Sevn Alias), has over 600,000 streams. A rudimentary online translation of its lyrics from Dutch to English sheds little light so Anita finds the words and interprets. "So this song is a little bit random, some random stuff. The hook is about going back to the island - I'm from Curaçao. We made the World Cup!" he says cheerily. "It's about going back to Curaçao, living on the island, on a farm with animals, and no-one is going to disturb you. And that people are not on my level, blah-de-blah-de-blah - we are on top."
He scrolls down, skipping to another section. "Let me say… if you were there with me when I was down, so when I was up, you are also there with me. I'm saying… what else do I say? We are going good, everybody struggles, but not everybody is capable of, when they struggle, telling people that - they keep it for themselves. Some are explaining to you when they are struggling, and some keep it to themselves. Some lyrics are also a little bit bragging, sorry!"
Anita laughs heartily as I suggest he can brag as much as he likes on his own tracks. But he is more serious as he considers whether the part referencing struggles is rooted in personal experiences. "Yeah, in football, yeah, and I've got a good example. I was playing with a guy, Gregory van der Wiel, and when we were playing football you'd never know there was nothing - he was on top of the world, let's say that. And now he is not playing football any more, he comes out with this."
In an open letter on his website in 2020 van der Wiel, the former Paris Saint-Germain and Netherlands defender, wrote about his experiences of panic attacks and anxiety. "And I think that is a great thing. A lot of football players or normal people as well can go from his experience and maybe it can help them as well. He was really struggling with mental health. I talked to him a few days ago, and he said it's going good now with him - it's not there yet, where he wants to be, but I think it's a great thing to tell people about those things. And it also helps that it is not stuck in your mind, and that you are not dealing with it alone. It's a great thing to talk about it, and there's a lot of people that can help you with those things."
While "everybody deals with things", Anita says he has enjoyed a relatively peaceful life thus far and credits the support of his family and parents. "I'm still their baby!" he adds. But time has granted him perspective as he reaches the end of his playing days. "I'm fortunate that I made a good career, that I saved good, that I can explore now what I want to do. But now that I've stopped I know that there's way more in life than only football. And it's a beautiful thing.
"But it's also a scary thing, I can imagine, for a lot of people and players. They are now in an ocean - and this is the same thing I say in the lyrics - and you're jumping in the deep, because it's an unknown territory. If you've got good people around you, they can help you with a lot of things. It's the same thing with mental health. It's also like jumping in the deep, but there are a lot of people who know about these things and can help you.
"My thing is that you have to talk. Don't keep it in you. There are a lot of great people in the world that can help you."
Is it difficult to be expressive as an active footballer? "Most football players are more like, I don’t know if this is the right word, conservative - they are more to themselves than out loud, because you know the media's going to talk this, talk that, so they are more to themselves. But I think more players are different in real life to what they show the football world."
Why is that? Is wariness of media scrutiny that big a factor? "Yeah, I think the media are going to write stuff. People say the same things - 'you have to focus on football', 'stay in your lane' and stuff. But we are also normal people. But I think nowadays, everything starts to change a bit. Players are more themselves than back in the day, I think."
Back in the day, a term that ages the 36-year-old more than he’d perhaps hoped, Anita was a reliable, unshowy central midfielder or full back who played 155 times for the Magpies after joining in August 2012. "I'm still super, super proud that I made that step," he says of his move to Tyneside. "I can tell you now that there was another English club that were in the running back in the day. It was Arsenal and Newcastle United. But Alex Song was playing in the midfield at Arsenal, and they said to my agent - who was Mino Raiola - they had to sell him first, and then they can talk to me direct.
"But Newcastle was, 'we really, really want Vurnon'. They were vocal and they expressed themselves really well, so that gave me a really good feeling. In the end I chose Newcastle. And when I look back, it was a really, really good choice for me."
Alan Pardew led an unlikely revival the previous season, finishing fifth in the Premier League, but Anita was joining a fractured club. He picked up bits of context from the local players in the dressing room "but not the full extent." He joined late in the window, the only first team signing made that summer, but says his familiarity with high expectations at Ajax meant he felt little pressure. A more pressing concern with the directness and physicality of the Premier League, a tone shift from the Dutch top flight. "But a few months later, I got it."
And the language. "I thought I knew English, but I came there and I was like, 'sorry? Sorry? Sorry?' The accent was at first a bit difficult for me. But after a few months I got that as well. Nice people, warm people, people who if you go to a grocery store they stop you for a chat. In Holland they’d see you - 'there's an Ajax player' – and they're just looking, but they're not going to talk to you. I found it really, really good in Newcastle."
He says his time in Newcastle "made me a man". "It's still my club as well. I'm not there, but it's part of my history. I'm super proud," he continues. "And now, looking back and talking to people, (they say) 'hey, you played at Newcastle?' And you realise, 'damn'. You go to the stadium, you're going to away games… everything hits more now than when you’re in it.
"And that's the only point in my career where I was thinking I wanted to enjoy it more. You're always onto the next game, the next game. You enjoy it, but you're not really in it. I don't know how to explain it. But now that you're a few steps away from it, you see, 'damn, I was there'."
Anita left in the summer of 2017 at the end of Championship-winning season, joining Leeds United on a free transfer before spells with Willem II, CSKA Sofia, RKC Waalwijk and Al-Orobah. He is now beginning to view himself as an ex-footballer. He left Volendam in the summer after their promotion to the Eredivisie and has been playing for Ajax's amateur side, training three times a week and working out what to do next, with some help from de Godenzonen. "It's been a long career, but I decided a few months ago that's it's enough," he says. "I didn't post anything yet, that I'm officially retired, but mentally, I'm there now.
"I'm relaxed about it. I know I'm going to find something. I can adapt in every situation, and I'm just glad Ajax gave me the platform to explore. Through my career I've been nice to everybody, that helps as well, that the doors are open everywhere for you, so that's something I'm going to teach my children - down the line, you never know who you're going to meet and who can help you, so always be polite, and doors will be open. I'm not afraid of the future."
Having represented the Netherlands in 2010, Anita switched allegiance to Curaçao in 2021, winning his 17th and final cap two years later. His parents have now moved back to the island where he was born. He smiles. "They said, 'we did our job with you!'" There were offers from abroad in the summer and some would have given him a chance of playing at next summer's World Cup, when his homeland will make their major tournament bow.
But with a young family back home, it felt like the right time to stop. "I had a long career. They always supported me. It's now also time to do something back for the family," he says. "I had a good run."
