“It is not true that I returned to football because it was ruined”

Royston Drenthe (8-4-1987, 33, Rotterdam, Netherlands) has returned to Spanish football nine years later to help Third Division Racing Murcia rise. His life has many edges and a lot has been written about it, and that is why AS wanted to interview him to review the best episodes of his personal career and in football.

I would like to know how the possibility of returning to Spain arises and why you signed for Racing Murcia.

I was playing for the Kozakken Boys, a club belonging to the Tweede Divisie (similar to the Second B of Spain) in my country, Holland, and my cousin, Rajiv van La Parra (Wijnaldum's stepbrother), who came to play for Logroñés in November of last year (he is now a member of the Würzburger Kickers, of the Second Bundesliga of Germany) called me to tell me that the agent who brought him to Spain contacted the owner of Racing Murcia, Morris Pagniello, because he wanted to sign me. We started the negotiations, we reached an agreement and here I am.

For how long have you signed?

Until the end of the season. Let's see if we achieve the goal of playing the playoffs and then moving up, and then let's see what the club wants and what I want.

What do you hope to achieve in Murcia?

I am a winner, I always have been, and I have not come to hang out, but to do my best to help Racing Murcia to go up to Second Division B.

When you finish this stage in Murcia, do you want to continue active or is this your last experience in football?

As I am now physically and how I am playing, I think I can give much more in football. In April I will be 34 years old, I want to continue working and I will continue to take care of myself, because I do not want to retire yet.

Let's go with your football career. You stood out very early in Feyenoord, you were the best player in the U21 European Championship that was held and your country, the Netherlands, won in 2007 and Madrid signed you when you were only 20 years old. How was that signing?

It is true that everything came very quickly when I was very young and as a great dessert, the call of the best club in the world, which I already expected, but when I arrived, I checked. Being at Real Madrid helped me grow as a person and as a footballer for my next stages. I became a man. I'm not going to deny that there were negative things, but I keep all the positives.

Why did you choose Madrid? Because I know you had other important offers from big clubs in Europe …

Many of my relatives liked Barça, but my stepfather, with whom I had a great relationship, was very much from Madrid because of Ronaldo Nazario and he instilled that feeling in me since I was little. So when Madrid's offer came years later, I didn't think too much about it, in addition to the fact that Mijatovic did a lot so that I could fulfill my dream of playing at the Bernabéu.

You made your debut in the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup against Sevilla, at the Bernabéu, with a great goal. How do you remember that game?

I was very nervous, so much so that I did not know that we had to win by two goals difference, because Madrid had lost in the first leg (1-0), in which I did not play. In my goal, which was 1-1, after Renato overtook Sevilla, I hit him with all my desire, I came out of a cut and did not think about it. The ball fell after hitting the crossbar and I knew I had entered because I saw Raúl raise his arms. I ran out to celebrate like crazy. It was a great way to debut, although it could have been better if we had won the title (Sevilla won at the Bernabéu 3-5).

Shortly after that game, you suffered a spectacular traffic accident when you collided with a police car on Calle Alcalá. You came out unscathed, but how did that affect you?

It is true that it was a great scare, also I had only been in Madrid for two weeks, but it did not affect me enough to condition my performance in training and in games. It is something that can happen to anyone, especially when young.

Surely a large part of the Madrid fans thought that you were going to bring much more joy to the club, after your great goal and your good debut in the Super Cup against Sevilla, but the truth is that you did not get to consolidate either with Schuster, or with Juande Ramos, neither with Pellegrini and Mourinho was the one who opened the door for you to leave Madrid. How do you explain it?

I think that Schuster, Juande and Pellegrini did trust me, what happens is that Madrid is a very big club, with great players and not all of us fit into the eleven. Even Mourinho, at the beginning of the 2010 preseason, when he arrived, counted on me, but one day before the summer market closed he called me to tell me that I had to go on loan, I asked him why, and he answered that it was up to Valdano.

Do you think you came to a club as big as Madrid too young?

I don't know, it's difficult to say when is the best time to get to a club as big as Madrid. It is true that I was very young, I was only 20 years old, but that wonderful opportunity came and I tried to handle it as I could.

In the three seasons you were at Madrid, you met big stars. Who was your best friend in the locker room and who gave you the best advice?

Many helped me, but with Míchel Salgado, who was my soccer-tennis partner, I had a great relationship, and also with Guti and Sneijder, who were friends inside and outside the dressing room.

Your lifestyle in Madrid gave a lot to talk about. Do you regret something?

I don't know, but I was 20, 21, 22 years old then, and now I'm 33, and my way of thinking has changed a lot.

Were you happy at Real Madrid?

Yes, in the club and in the city. I feel like a Madridista and when I go to Madrid, I don't feel like I'm on vacation, that I'm a stranger, I know the city a lot because I've grown up there.

In 2010, Madrid loaned you to Hercules and from there you played in three different clubs in England, then in Russia, Turkey and at the end of the 2015-16 season in the United Arab Emirates you announced that you were leaving football. Why did you make that decision?

Because I had entered a stage of my life in which I was not happy in football, but not because of playing, but because of certain aspects that surround it. I was 29 years old, but it was what I felt I should do, I needed time for myself, and then I realized that I was right in that decision.

What did you do in that parenthesis?

Being with my family in Holland, with my friends, with music … have time for myself as I have told you.

And what made you change your mind two years later? Because in 2018 you played for Sparta in Rotterdam and then for Kozakken Boys …

I stopped playing, but there were people in my country who wanted me to come back. Henk Fraser, coach of Sparta Rotterdam and the one I had in the youth team at Feyenoord called me, convinced me to try me out for a few days and I felt so good that I decided to play again. It was to start over and feel football again.

It was even said that you returned to football because you had ruined yourself. Is it true that in recent years you have had financial problems?

It is not true that he returned to football because he was ruined. At Sparta in Rotterdam my salary was not small, but it was normal. It is true that I have done things that have not turned out well, but I have not remained with my hands crossed, when there have been problems, I have tried to solve them.

What have been your biggest mistakes so that you have not gone further in football?

Phew! Look, one of the things I regret was when I was at Everton and they told me that if I wanted to continue, I had to lower my salary, and I did not accept. I should have done it, because I was at a great stage in my footballing life and I would have done better.

Do you think that you have not been respected in football?

I don't know, but if you see what I've done in football… I don't need to be told how good I am, I don't care, but a lot has been written and said about me without knowing me. In fact, there are people who say to me now: “Roy, I thought you were a bastard and a posh and I have realized that you are not.”

What has hurt you the most of all that has been said about you?

Maybe when they messed with my family.

Speaking of family, what is it like to be the father of seven children?

I try to have a very close relationship with everyone, even if they are from four different mothers, and they know each other, they know they are brothers and I have cared for everyone from the first day. Three are already relatively older, at 12, 11 and 10, and he spoke to them very often. With the little ones I see them whenever I can, but it is difficult for me not to be with them anymore.

You are still young, you are only 33 years old, but what do you expect from life?

I want to keep learning and improve as a person. I want to be a good father and help people when someone asks me to.

What plans do you have when you retire from football?

I do not know yet. Maybe I will get the title of coach, but right now I don't know if that's what I want in the future.

Thank you very much for attending AS.

To you.