Manchester United: Memphis Depay and how to heal a family rift
Manchester United’s Dutch forward Memphis Depay is a heartless swine. Well, that’s we anyone sensible can deduce from the Sun’s story:
Memphis, I miss you – EXCLUSIVE: The real reason £25m Man Utd star drops ‘Depay’ from shirt
The reason Memphis dropped Depay from his shirt is something the player commented on in 2013, telling Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant:
“You get reactions like: ‘What’s that boy thinking? That he’s a star?’But those people don’t know what’s going on. It’s very tricky for me, because you’d prefer to play with your last name on your jersey, like everybody. But the rift with my father is irreparable. I don’t speak to him. I have no contact with family on my father’s side. And I never will again.”
Now the Sun tells us:
THE heartbroken father of Manchester United ace Memphis Depay has begged his son to heal their bitter rift. In an exclusive interview with the Sun on Sunday, Dennis Depay reveals for the first time how Memphis has shunned him, his half-brother and half-sister since becoming a star footballer.
Nothing heals a rift faster than speaking to the Sun about the child who “shunned” you. In the list of ways to heel a rift, the top five are:
5. Washing your dirty linen in public
4. Calling them a ‘slag’ on Jeremy Kyle
3. A televised fight with Ricky Gervais
2. A tabloid rift ‘n’ tell
1. Kidnap
The Sun says:
The 21-year-old Dutch winger even refuses to have his surname Depay on the back of his shirt, using his first name instead, because he claims his father abandoned him at the age of four.
Devastated Dennis, 50, said: “Saying that I didn’t see him after he was four is a lie. It is unbelievable, it is not nice. He is my son and I love him. I am the man who gave him his first ball. He was not abandoned by me. That is not true. I was always there for him. I saw him on YouTube talking about his dad, saying he didn’t want to put my name on his back. It made me feel terrible. I would love to be back in touch with him. I miss him so much.”
Dad Dennis, who lives in a “modest home in a rundown suburb of Amsterdam” adds:
“We used to do so much together when he was young. I loved him so much. He loved swimming, but he loved football more. I bought him his first football and you could see he was talented. He was so strong. We even played inside the house because the living room was so big. When we went swimming we would take a ball and play outside on the grass afterwards. Everywhere he went he had to take a ball. When we went to church he would take a ball with him. He was crazy about football from an early age, you could see this was a boy who loved football.”
Pro footballers loved playing football when he was kid. Who knew?
When Memphis was 4, Dennis split from the boy’s mother Cora:
“There was no problem with access. I could see Memphis whenever I wanted. He stayed with me lots of times and I’d buy him clothes — and footballs. I was always visiting him and they know it.”
Having established the link between himself and the boy’s football career, Dennis says Cora moved in with father-of-ten who hit him.
“One day Memphis arrived at my home and had brought all his things. He said, ‘I don’t want to live with my mum any more, I want to live with you’. I called his mum, who was crying. She only had one child, so he returned home.”
In 2012, Memphis signed for the once mighty PSV Eindhoven. Dennis has a theory:
“His family said I would be after his money and to leave me alone, that I will take his money to Africa. But I don’t need his money. I have been working all this time. That’s when the problems started…. Everything they have said is a lie.”
Adding:
Dennis, who has not been paid for this interview, said: … “The family is enjoying the success but that is not for me. I am happy with what I have. I don’t want money but I would like to have contact with him. I hope that one day this will sort itself out. I love my son and he knows it. He knows the truth. I miss him so much, what is happening is miserable, not nice. The family know I have done a lot for them but then money comes along and they ruined my name. It is crazy.”
Memphis Depay earns around £100-000 a week.
Posted: 7th, September 2015 | In: manchester united, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
