Rapper, fashionista, with love from Ghana - 9 things you should know about Barcelona's no.9 Depay

Memphis Depay is currently one of the biggest stars in the Spanish La Liga.

The 28-year-old Dutchman plys his trade with Catalan giants FC Barcelona and is one of the coolest athletes in football and sports generally.

As he marks his 28th birthday today, here are 10 things you should know about the Dutch attacker:

1 African Ancestry

Depay was born to a Ghanian father - Dennis Depay and a Dutch mother Cora Schensema on the 13th of February 1994 in a small South Holland village of Moordrecht in the Netherlands.

So Memphis is actually of Ghanaian descent although, in 2012, Memphis dropped his last name to sever ties with his father following an earlier remark when he said, "Do not call me Depay, call me Memphis."

2 Set Piece Prowess

Memphis is also known for his incredible set-piece and free-kick ability.

In the 2014/15 season with Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, he was statistically the best set-piece taker in the whole of Europe, scoring 7 times in 33 attempts, the most across all European leagues and the second-best on accuracy.

3 Relationship

Memphis current relationship status remains unknown.

In June 2017, news circulated on social media that Memphis was engaged to popular US model and social influencer Lori Harvey, the youngest daughter of popular American television personality Steve Harvey.

Although since then, they have ended their engagement and relationship in 2018.

Memphis has been extremely discreet especially when it comes to women and relationships even though rumours had it that he had previously been in two relationships before he dated Lori.

4 Transfer Moves

After Memphis won the “Dutch Footballer of the Year” for his performances during the 2014/15 season.

He also earned the title “Best Young Player” in the world in the year 2015 by France Football.

In June 2015, he joined the English giants, Manchester United, for a fee of £25 million.

After a disappointing spell at Manchester United, he joined French side Olympique Lyon, becoming the club's best player and one of the very best in Ligue 1 scoring 63 goals in 139 appearances.

In June 2021, La Liga club Barcelona announced the free transfer of Memphis on a two-year contract after agreeing to take a massive pay-cut under ex-Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman.

According to his grandmother, since the age of four, he had been aspiring to be a player for Barcelona.

4 Music Career

Memphis began pursuing a hip-hop career in June 2017 when he released his Los Angeles-inspired freestyle, "LA Vibes".

The music video featured Quincy Promes, Memphis' teammate at the Netherlands national team.

The song's music video earned around 150,000 views within hours of being uploaded to YouTube.

 In December of 2017, Memphis released his freestyle track "Kings & Queens" and on 3 October 2018, he collaborated with musical artists Winne and Nana Fofie and producer Rass King for his Ghana-inspired single, "AKWAABA".

 He also released his third freestyle, "Porto Cervo (Interlude)", with Winne. Memphis released his fourth freestyle, "5-mill" in response to his Instagram account reaching 5 million followers, although the freestyle was met with criticism claiming that Memphis' public image was hampered through his cigar smoking and his careless attitude.

In December 2018, he released his second single, "No Love", over his cancelled engagement with model Lori Harvey. The song is multilingual, switching back and forth between English and Dutch.

Memphis currently has over 73,000 monthly listeners on the digital music streaming platform Spotify and over 720,000 subscribers on his YouTube.

5 Wealth

This multitalented musician/footballer currently has a net worth of around $23 million.

At Barcelona, his yearly compensation dropped from €7 million to €5 million meaning his weekly pay dropped from around £115k per week to £82k. His main source of income is from football, he also earns decently through his music and recently announced his partnership with Energy drink company Red Bull.

Memphis also owns his signature clothing line - Memphis Depay Clothing.

6 His Incredible Lion Tattoo took about 24 hours to complete

Depay is a massive fan of body art and expresses himself a lot through tattoos.

He has numerous tattoos on his body and the most notable of all is his incredible back tattoo of a Lion which covers his entire back.

Speaking about the tattoo he said, “The lion on my back represents me – I have the heart of a lion. I got it done in Manchester. It took a long time because it’s so big, maybe like 24 hours in total.

“The lion is for me, ‘the king of the jungle,’ and I always stayed on my feet even though it was rough.”

He also has numerous other tattoos, among which is on his left arm - which is a tribute to his grandfather who died before he had turned 15 years old. 

He also has a tattoo on his left torso to show Christ the Redeemer and the date 18.06.14 - the day he scored his 1st international goal for the Netherlands.

Similarly, he also has a tattoo on the inside of his lip named “successful”, which means successful in Dutch. The last one is on his upper torso with the words “dream chaser”.

7 Pet Criticism

In April 2020, Memphis was criticised by several animal rights organisations for posting pictures of himself with a liger(a hybrid of a lion and a tiger) cub while on vacation in Dubai. Memphis responded by stating that 'ligers' are not even wild animals.

8 Social Media Life

Memphis is one of the most active sports athletes on social media and one of the fashion freaks around in sports today. He joined Twitter in April 2011 and has over 2.1 million followers on his @Memphis account. Similarly, on his Instagram - he has more than 13.4 million followers and over 5.6 million followers on Facebook as well.

9 Love for Ghana

For a couple of years now, the football star continues to visit Ghana to undertake charity work.

In June he paid another visit to the West African nation and this time around got engaged in more activities. He sat with the students in class, took a sign language lesson and dressed as one of the students.

The footballer also slept in one of the dormitories to show his love for the country.

At one of his recent visits, he said, “The children of Cape Deaf, in Ghana, fill me with pure happiness.

Seeing the way they live with such positive energy is an inspiration and I was blessed to sit in a sign language class with them and learn new things.”