Netherlands international forward Memphis Depay officially joins Atlético Madrid

2023-01-21 17:00

Netherlands international forward Memphis Depay officially joins Atlético Madrid





Atlético Madrid announced on Friday on their official website that the club has signed Netherlands international forward Memphis Depay from Barcelona.


According to Atlético Madrid's official statement, Depay has signed a short-term two-and-a-half-year deal with the club which runs until the summer of 2025. At the same time, he will also wear the No. 9 jersey vacated by legendary Uruguay international center forward Luis Suárez who had left the club after his contract expired last summer.


After completing his joining procedures, Depay said at the presentation press conference that: "I am very happy. The whole transfer process is very fast. I was able to meet directly with the team yesterday (local time) and train together... I can already feel the good tactical understanding between the teammates. The rhythm of the training session is very intense, but I feel very happy, and I also had a good communication with the head coach, so I am really happy and can't wait I want to show everyone here what I can do.”


The 28-year-old Depay was born in Moordrecht, the Netherlands on February 13, 1994. He is 1.78 meters tall and has dual citizenships of the Netherlands and Ghana. He primarily plays as a center forward, but he can also play as a winger or as an attacking midfielder.


Depay, who grew up in a single-parent family, joined the Sparta Rotterdam youth academy when he was young. Later, when he was 12 years old, he was scouted by many big clubs in the Eredivisie and chose to join the PSV Eindhoven youth academy.


Depay completed his first-team debut at the end of February 2012, and then became key player of the team in the summer of 2013.


In the 4 years of playing for the Lampen first-team, Depay won 1 Eredivisie, 1 KNVB Cup and 1 Johan Cruyff Shield (Dutch Super Cup) with the club.


In May 2015, Depay joined Manchester United for £25 million, but because he has not been able to adapt to the rhythm of the Premier League, Depay was sold to Lyon in January 2017.


After coming to Ligue 1, Depay returned to his peak form, and then got the chance to move to Barcelona in the summer of 2021.


This season, Depay has been plagued by leg injuries for a long time since last summer and has not been able to prove himself well. In the first half of the season that have just passed, he only played 4 times for the La Liga giants in all competitions, scored 1 goal, and won the Supercopa de España with the club.


In fact, since the summer of this season, Depay has been continuously linked with transfer rumours. Serie A giants Juventus were indeed very close to signing the former Lyon star, but the final plan failed due to transfer saga which involved Polish center forward Arkadiusz Milik. After that, he successively got linked with his former club Manchester United and the former Serie A defending champion Inter Milan, but in the end it was Atlético Madrid whom he decided to join afterall.