Ex-Real Madrid star quit football to launch a rap career, but is now bankrupt
Royston Drenthe is bankrupt following a career that promised so much when he signed for Real Madrid in 2007.
The former Dutch international, who had a stint at Everton in 2011, was last seen playing for amateur side Kozakken Boys in the Dutch third tier in 2019.
Now 33, his life is at a crossroads as it has been revealed he has squandered his £3.2million fortune.
Drenthe told Voetbalzone that he “didn’t know exactly what is going on”.
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He also added: “I am always under a magnifying glass, but it will be resolved as it should.”
Once a lightning quick, tricky winger, Drenthe hit the headlines in 2017 when word spread around Europe that he’d hung up his boots and instead decided to pick up a mic and launch himself as a rapper.
Drenthe, who goes by the moniker Roya2Faces, recorded an EP and released it to the world.
However, it seems that career choice, lead by his passion for music, has failed to pay the bills.
Yet it looked like he was on course to emulate flying Dutch wingers of the past when he came through at Feyenoord, and should still be with a professional club.
Named player of the tournament at the 2007 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 that same year for £12m, 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 briefly returned with Sparta Rotterdam in 2018, but was discarded after a season helped the club gain promotion to the Eredivisie – the top tier of Dutch football.