Royston Drenthe

Royston Ricky Drenthe (born 8 April 1987) is a Dutch former footballer.

Although primarily a left winger, he has also played as a left-back.

Drenthe started his professional career with Eredivisie side Feyenoord in 2005, having graduated from the club's youth academy.

In the 2005–06 season, Drenthe was promoted to Feyenoord's first team, managed by his former youth coach Henk Fräser.

After scoring three goals against Ajax in the Otten Cup youth tournament he began training with the main squad, while still appearing for the reserves.

In the same week where he helped his club to a 5–1 win at Ajax with the second team, Drenthe was offered a professional contract at Feyenoord.

Manager Erwin Koeman handed him his Eredivisie debut against Vitesse at the Gelredome, and the player finished the season with three matches.

Drenthe made 17 appearances for the Netherlands under-21s between 2006 and 2008, and was a member of the team that won the 2007 European Championship.

Since then, he has made one appearance for the Netherlands B team, and one appearance for the full national team.

Born in Rotterdam, Drenthe, who is of Surinamese descent, joined local side Feyenoord's youth system at the age of 13, playing mainly as a winger during his junior years.

After disciplinary issues during a trip to Switzerland with the B-side, coach Marcel Bout wanted him to leave the club, but the issues were resolved after the intervention of Rob Baan, the club's director of football.

Bout hardly used Drenthe in his subsequent lineups, and, at the end of the season, the 16-year-old was named as one of eleven players whose future at the club was questionable.

He eventually moved to Feyenoord feeder club Excelsior.

Drenthe improved during the two years he played at Excelsior, with manager Marco van Lochem successfully playing him as left back.

After impressing his former side's coaching staff, he was asked to rejoin the club, which he accepted.

In 2006–07, Feyenoord signed veteran Belgian Philippe Léonard, while Pascal Bosschaart was also still part of the squad.

After the former suffered an injury and the latter was transferred to ADO Den Haag, Drenthe became first-choice as Feyenoord finished seventh in the league.

He made 37 appearances for the side before switching to La Liga club Real Madrid in 2007.

During his five years in Madrid, he made 65 appearances for the club, spending time on loan at Hércules and Premier League side Everton, making 19 and 27 appearances for those clubs respectively.

After winning the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship with the Netherlands, Feyenoord accepted a €14 million bid by Real Madrid after Drenthe threatened to take his club to court if they did not want to let him go.

Drenthe was presented as a Real Madrid player on 13 August 2007, alongside compatriot Wesley Sneijder.

He made his official debut as a midfielder in the second leg of the season's Spanish Supercup against Sevilla, and scored the 1–1 equaliser from 40 yards out, with the ball hitting the crossbar and crossing the line.

The Merengues, however, lost 3–5 at home and 3–6 on aggregate.

Drenthe played regularly for Real Madrid in his debut season, in both left-wing positions, but began appearing less after the development of Marcelo, being dropped from the list of 18 by manager Bernd Schuster in several games.

At one time, after being left out for the match against Valencia, Drenthe stormed out of the training ground.

He finished the campaign with 18 league appearances (plus four in the season's UEFA Champions League), scoring his first league goal against Real Valladolid in a 7–0 home routing on 10 February 2008.

Despite rumours of him leaving the club on loan, Drenthe featured in 15 of Real Madrid's first 18 games of the 2008–09 season.

However, he also suffered from anxiety issues after being booed by the club's supporters during a 1–0 home win against Deportivo de La Coruña and did not feature for the club for a period, although manager Juande Ramos offered the player his support and insisted he would help him.

The manager later revealed that the player asked not to be picked for the three games after the Deportivo fixture.

On 31 August 2010, after having appeared rarely in his third season, Drenthe was loaned to Hércules in a season-long move.

He made his debut on 11 September in a 2–0 away win against Barcelona, and scored his first goal for the club on 14 November, netting from a free kick against Real Sociedad in a 2–1 home victory.

His performances with the Alicante team were subsequently praised by the Spanish press.

However, the player would soon fall out of favour with the club's board of directors and coaching staff after arriving one week after the winter break ended, citing a "loss of confidence in Hércules management", rather than what was previously perceived as "a protest over unpaid wages".

On 3 April 2011, in his second game after his suspension, Drenthe scored twice to help Hércules to its first away win since September, a 3–1 against Real Sociedad.

He ended the season with 15 starts in 1,299 minutes of action, with his team being finally relegated.

He then joined Russian Premier League side Alania Vladikavkaz in February 2013 on a free transfer, making six appearances in a brief spell at the club, before he joined Reading in June 2013.

In January 2015, he joined Kayseri Erciyessor, before moving to UAE Pro League side Baniyas Club in September 2015.

After being released by Baniyas in July 2016, Drenthe announced his retirement from playing.

He has since begun recording music under the name Roya2Faces.

After two years, Drenthe came out of retirement to play for Sparta Rotterdam in 2018.