A Belgian commentator lashes out hard at Memphis Depay, who endlessly irritates football-loving Netherlands and Belgium alike

Disinterest was spilling out. It’s a fact. The futsal attitude is there, in every duel, in every action. The “look at me being a special footballer” attitude keeps coming back, in every action and in every duel.

Memphis Depay irritates an entire football nation, and we can safely conclude that by now. No, missing out on scoring at a final tournament will still be forgiven. If others score, that’s also fine—Memphis Depay. But the former PSV player is now irritating an entire country, an entire nation with his attitude and the expression of total disinterest. The Netherlands is massively fed up with Memphis, and there is nothing but nothing else to be seen in his attitude and body language that has emerged after his very weak tournament in Germany.

Even in Germany, disinterest started to splatter. Always dropping back to pick up the ball and then losing it again—this is what sticks from the final tournament in the summer of 2024. Memphis played against Japan again just as he did in Germany. Television viewers around the world are getting tired of Memphis. According to many viewers of the Netherlands - Japan match, Memphis Depay also escaped a red card in that game. Memphis struck his elbow in Shono Taniguchi's face, but was 'only' booked with a yellow card.

The offense took place in the 82nd minute, when Memphis jumped into the air after a high ball. In doing so, the all-time top scorer for Oranje twisted his body in such a way that his elbow landed in Taniguchi’s face. The Japanese center-back went down to the ground in a great deal of pain and the American referee Ismail Elfath immediately blew his whistle and produced a yellow card at once from his chest pocket.

But the card could also have had another color, judging by viewers basing their opinion on a video of the foul that was viewed more than a million times in an hour and a half. "This should be a red card because he saw Taniguchi and still intentionally caught him", someone analyzes the footage on X. "The VAR was very lenient; this should have been a straight red card", writes another. "How the video referee doesn’t look at these images is ridiculous. This was just red."

Also Dutch viewers put question marks behind the decision by Elfath and his video referee. "Memphis should be glad he didn't get a red card," they say. "Although that may have been better for the rest of our tournament." A final viewer and X user is critical of the striker's substitution in itself. "Memphis came on dramatically. Looks far from match-fit and could still have gotten a red card too."

As if it were the final nail in the coffin, in Belgium people are also completely done with Memphis, as evidenced by the remarks of a Belgian commentator. In the studio in Belgium, they go completely wild about Memphis Depay, who has nothing, but then nothing at all, left to look for on the highest stage. We fully agree with that; Memphis Depay irritates, all the way to the point of it.