When he signed for Real Madrid back in 2007, Royston Drenthe was considered one of the top young players in world football. However, he failed to deliver on his potential, as he managed only 59 appearances for the club before his departure five years later.
This week, Drenthe was speaking on The Wild Project, and one of the topics he discussed was that move to Real Madrid, as per Diario AS.
“Before signing for Real Madrid, Barcelona wanted me, also Chelsea, but they wanted me to stay at Feyenoord for a year and I wanted to leave directly, so I decided that I preferred to go to Real Madrid because, although almost all my family was Barcelona – because of Ronaldinho, because in Holland they follow Barcelona a lot – Ronaldo was still playing for Madrid and he was still a king. I wanted to play where Beckham, Ronaldo and Zidane had been. In Holland they call me a legend just for having played for Real Madrid. That’s why I rejected Barcelona, because I knew that Real Madrid was a historic club.”
Drenthe also opened up on his departure in 2012, in which he criticised the conduct on then-manager Jose Mourinho.
“In the pre-season in Los Angeles, me and Marcelo were playing. Marcelo was injured and I had to play the whole pre-season. Everything went well. I don’t know why they went to sign Fabio Coentrão. Mourinho told me: ‘If you train like this, you don’t have to worry.’ Everything was fine. But in the last three days of the camp, Valdano came and told me that it was better if I left. It wasn’t the coach, it was Valdano. The coach didn’t have the balls to tell me. He told me that it had nothing to do with him. That stage ended in a sad way but I have a good memory because I learned a lot.”
Drenthe, who was in Spanish football as recently as 2023, also claimed that he was racially abused by Lionel Messi during a loan spell at Hercules.
“In a game when I was at Hercules, against Barcelona, Messi called me a s***** n*****. Then he told me that the Argentine players among them were called s***** b*****, for them it was a normal thing, for example they said it to Garay and he didn’t care, but they have to understand that a boy like me didn’t like it. It’s not the same if my friends told me in training, than if a rival told me it. After that we have not talked about it again, the issue passed. I have a lot of respect for him because he has been one of the best players in the world.”
