Is Memphis Depay about to become the king of Dutch strikers?

Think of the great Dutch strikers and the names roll off the tongue: Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robin van Persie.

For most, Memphis Depay, the 31-year-old front man formerly of PSV, Manchester United, Lyon, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, who now plies his trade with Corinthians, would figure some way down that list.

Nonetheless, should the flamboyant forward claim the 51st goal of his international career against Poland at the Stadion Feijenoord on Thursday night, or away to Lithuania on Sunday, he will become the Netherlands’ all-time leading goalscorer – a distinction he currently shares with Van Persie.

‘He turned up for a reserve game in a Rolls Royce and a cowboy hat’

That fact may come as a surprise in some quarters, not least among those who followed his underwhelming spell at Old Trafford, initially under compatriot Louis van Gaal and then with Jose Mourinho, who relegated him to the reserves. But Depay is nothing if not resilient, and even that setback could not curb his instinct for the ostentatious for long, as Wayne Rooney has recalled.

“I was at a reserve game once, being a bit low-key, and he turned up in a Rolls Royce and a cowboy hat,” said Rooney. “I had to speak to him.”

The former United captain was neither the first nor the last to do so, but Depay has come a long way since leaving United in January 2017 with just two seven goals from 53 appearances to show for his 18 months at the club. 

A productive four years at Lyon would follow, with a return of 76 goals in 178 games enough to earn Depay a move to Barcelona, where he would score 14 times in 42 appearances before a £2.6m switch to the Metropolitano Stadium.

‘Who do you think you are? You’re nothing!’

It has been a nomadic career, but one in which goals on the international stage have been a constant.

Depay, who has 102 caps, claimed his first goal for the Netherlands as a 20-year-old at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he netted against Australia to become his country’s youngest goalscorer at the tournament.

And should he now claim the all-time goalscoring record, it would not be the first time he has gone past Van Persie. In his 2019 autobiography, Depay recounted how he once drew his former Dutch colleague’s ire by beating him with a stepover in training. “Who do you think you are?” stormed Van Persie. “You’re nothing!”

But Van Persie, who later apologised for his outburst, was wrong. True, Depay is no Cruyff; but he is certainly something. And if he eclipses Van Persie once and for all in the Dutch goalscoring stakes this week, there will be no need for apologies.