Former Real Madrid and Everton star Royston Drenthe on football retirement… and subsequent rap career
With Drenthe set to release an EP, SunSport travelled to Rotterdam to talk music and football
A FOOTBALLER as talented as Royston Drenthe should be playing professionally somewhere, anywhere.
Still only 30, the former Real Madrid star and one-time Netherlands international instead has a new career - in hip hop.
Once a lightning quick, tricky winger, Drenthe hit the headlines last year when word spread around Europe that he'd hung up his boots and instead decided to pick up a mic.
He now gets his football fix with friends, training once a week and playing in a local Sunday league.
Drenthe, who goes by the moniker Roya2Faces, has an EP finished and ready to be released to the world.
Ten years ago, his future looked very different.
Named player of the tournament at the U21 Euros, where the Netherlands beat England to win the competition, big things were expected of Drenthe.
He moved from boyhood club Feyenoord to Real Madrid in 2007, but after initial success was sent on several loan spells.
At Spanish club Hercules things were going brilliantly until they stopped paying him, while he started superbly at Everton until falling foul of David Moyes for (supposed) partying and tardiness.
Drenthe then moved to Russia but didn't settle.
Reading was his next stop - but he was out of the team after the chairman who brought him in sold up and he struggled to have any impact at Sheffield Wednesday.
Breaking point and the shock decision to retire came after spells in Turkey and Abu Dhabi which saw him go unpaid - he is still fighting for payments through Fifa now, almost two years later.
He's not played football professionally since July 2016 but for those who know him, the move into music was no surprise at all.
Drenthe, who will later invite me to watch him appear on Dutch sports quiz Bureau Sport Test, had collaborated with Dutch rapper U-Niq while still playing and appeared on radio with Ryan Babel when the pair were at Everton and Liverpool.
Drenthe says: "[As kids] we were always rapping on the streets.
"It got serious when I was 18. I was always chilling [with rappers] and they taught me how to write lyrics.
"U-Niq, a big rapper in Holland, taught me to write lyrics by myself.
"Music is a part of my life... when I'm in a car and there is 10 or 15 minutes with no music I always start to think 'what is missing'.
"Before a game I had to listen to something, it was very important for me.
"Without music it was difficult to go [and play]."
Hip hop has exploded in the Netherlands in recent years.
You may be forgiven for thinking that Dutch music centres around house and techno - with DJs like Tiesto, Armin van Buuren and Co dominating clubs - but hip hop is now No1.
Drenthe has released a couple of tracks but is biding his time for his full EP to go out, waiting for a "great moment".
The former footballer is under no illusions about reaching the top of the chart, just hoping to gain fans who appreciate his music.
"I don't want a massive thing, I just want to deliver music. If it's out there people will like it, just listen to it.
"In Holland we have really famous guys who are on top now and I don't want to compare myself with them.
"I just want to deliver my music.
"I don't see myself in a crowd in front of 20,000 people... it would be nice! But I don't think that will be me.
"My life was football and maybe some different things can come, I don't think I will be a massive thing in music."
Drenthe, perhaps surprisingly, doesn't rap about the bling lifestyle.
"The songs have a message," he says, "It's not big cars, big houses, that kind of thing.
"It's not my rap style to rap about that kind of stuff. There is a song with my daughter on it, she sings.
"[My influence] is just what I see and what I think is going on in the moment."
Where did the name "Roya2Faces" come from then?
"I was a professional football player for 12 years.
"In those 12 years... some people I don't even know how they are, if they are still alive.
"Maybe I can blame myself as well... but what I'm trying to say is that everybody can have two faces.
"Everybody has a dark side."
He puffs out his cheeks and adds: "Some people act like they are true with you but afterwards they are... A lot of people have two faces, in a good way and a bad way."
Using his name would have given the former footballer an immediate advantage in the rap game.
Everybody in the Netherlands, and football fans across Europe, know who Royston Drenthe is, but he decided against using it for fear of coming across as a gimmick rapper rather than a serious artist.
He explains: "I didn't do that because everybody will think I want to take advantage of my name.
"One is football, one is rap. My nickname is Roya anyway on the streets.
"If they say Roykey, that's about that guy, nobody has the nickname Roya.
"The nickname was there already."
Despite his obvious dedication to music, Drenthe still gets a lot of hatred on social media - for both his music and football career.
He briefly deleted his accounts before returning and sometimes even puts out content to purposefully wind up his trolls.
"It doesn't affect me and I think that bothers a lot of people," he said.
"Sometimes I just want to trigger them. I think 'OK, you want to play big boy behind your phone or computer then let's battle then'.
"Because they know where I am, Rotterdam is not big. If they want to find me they're going to find me.
"If you have a big mouth mate come and find me.
"It's simple. Why should you think you can say something to me, judging me when I don't even know you, I can't judge you.
"You're talking about me because you are reading things or seeing things, but do you really know me?
"Some people just like to talk."
His social media also sees the stocky retired athlete post a lot of videos from the gym.
The videos have not gone unnoticed, with Drenthe clearly working himself back into shape.
There has been a lot of speculation that he may even be tempted into a return to professional football.
"It's a little bit messy because I don't even know which way I want to go. I want to do everything," he says, smiling.
"I'll still make my music, I'm training hard but everyone is saying 'he's going to play football again', but I want to leave it on that side, I just want to get fit now.
"I'm a father of five kids and I think it's important to be a fit father.
"In the last year I was an unhealthy person, no sports, sleeping late. I was looking in the mirror and I was looking unhealthy, like my face is getting big. It was not nice.
"I've been training one month and I see a different person again."
Asked again later, Drenthe reveals he has had recent offers to return to football, in China and Malaysia.
"If I'm not fit, I'm not interested," he adds. "I'm not gonna be interested in something if I'm not capable of giving them what they expect. We will see."
For now, Drenthe is content playing amateur football with friends.
"It's a good thing. Every Sunday we play, Thursday we train.
"If it's good weather we come. If it's bad weather we stay home!
"Sometimes we don't have enough guys."
Drenthe has posted a number of clips online of him playing football indoors - the opposition may not be up to much, but the pace, dribbling skill and rocket shot are all still there.
He's never had any problem with other players either.
"They know me, how I am," adds Drenthe.
"When I walk in Madrid it's different, they are like that's Drenthe... 'hey Drenthe do you want a photo, how's it going, da da da'.
"Here we are just normal people. I'm just Roya. I'm not something different.
"People think different over there. After these games, it's like 'it was my birthday, can I have a picture for my friends, my kids are fans'.
"It's just normal."
He knows it's a long way off, but Drenthe can't help but wonder if he still has a place in the professional game.
"Retired? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I make the most crazy comeback ever!"
There won't be a second chance at Real Madrid, but a team somewhere would surely take a gamble on the player who was player of the tournament when the Netherlands won the U21s European Championships in 2007.
Brilliant on his day, Drenthe had speed, could beat a man and had a rocket of a left-foot, although he struggled to produce consistently.
Stories about his party-loving entourage, nightclubs in his basement, lateness and outspoken nature hardly endeared him to managers.
But Drenthe insists he is a different person now.
He said: "I don't blame myself for everything, but I blame myself for a lot
"I have these moments when I watch football. I'm not a hater, I'm not thinking I'm better than whoever, but sometimes I see players and I think you are not that much.
"But it's mentality. He's still there, I took myself out of it, so basically he did it better than me.
"I'm older now, I'm more of a leader now. I think if I came back I can be a leader.
"Because I saw too much in football. How I play football now, it's leader football."
Asked where he would like to return, in a perfect world, the man with a Feyenoord tattoo on his calf has only one answer.
"If Feyernoord said to me just come back and f***ing just smash it out of here... That would be f***ing awesome!"
Would a return to football end his music career?
"I will always make more music. Maybe it will be an album.";
Drenthe is philosophical on his career ending prematurely, not exactly unhappy with how it panned out but knowing that he made some mistakes along the way.
He explains: "It's difficult... but life is way too short.
"I would say [to myself] 'you have the opportunity to be a professional, just give everything. Don't let anybody sit on your head. Go for it'.
"If your mind says 'I don't like it, or it has affect on family' then leave it. Don't think money is going to affect your lifestyle.
"I've had offers [to return] for more than £500,000 a year but I couldn't do it... maybe next time."