Memphis Depay is sure Louis van Gaal will help him realise his dream of becoming an all-time great at Manchester United.
Van Gaal stole a march on his rivals in May when he completed the signing of Depay from PSV Eindhoven for £25 million (Dh143.8m).
Paris Saint-Germain offered Depay a fortune, but once he knew he was wanted by Van Gaal, Depay’s mind was made up.
“After (United) came in for me and I spoke with the manager it was very clear for me. I had already made my decision,” the forward said.
Depay scored 22 league goals for PSV last season and much is expected of him in his first term at United.
He has made a promising start. The coaching staff have informed senior officials at board level that Depay has been scoring some excellent free-kicks in training during United’s pre-season tour of the US, just like he did for PSV.
And in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the 21-year-old scored his first goal for the club in the 3-1 friendly win over San Jose Earthquakes.
But Depay is an ambitious person. His aims in life are to dream, believe and achieve – the three words tattooed under his right pectoral muscle.
He has plans on becoming one of the best players in Manchester United’s long and illustrious history.
Former players like Bryan Robson, Denis Irwin and Lou Macari, who described Depay as a "tank", have all been impressed by the 21-year-old and he wants to leave a lasting legacy at the Premier League club.
“I am very hungry. I want to be a legend at one time in history,” Depay said.
“But the important thing to do for me is to focus on the next game, not to be that far in my head because I have to do my job in every game.
“Maybe one time I can be a legend. Of course it is an honour to have that positive sound from the fans and the legends that talk about me. I am grateful for that.”
Depay has a long way to go before he can be mentioned in the same breath as those United greats.
But he feels he has the perfect person at his side to help him kick off that journey in manager Van Gaal.
The two know each other well having worked together with the Dutch national side.
Van Gaal gave Depay his Netherlands debut against Turkey in October 2013 and eight months later he selected the powerful forward in his World Cup squad.
Depay, who prefers to be known as “Memphis” as he does not want to be associated with his father, who split from his mother when he was four, declined an invitation to describe Van Gaal as a “father figure” during an interview with the British media in San Jose, California on Wednesday.
But there is no doubt that Depay regards Van Gaal as a brilliant manager who will get the best out of him.
“I don’t want to say he is like a father figure,” Depay said.
“But he is a great manager. He can make players better.
“I feel I will be a better player every time I train with him. I feel stronger. I feel fit. That is one of the things he can really do to you.
“Everything he tells me to do better I can take that in my mind and work on it. I am very young and I want to do everything better so I become a better player.”
Depay has not set himself any personal targets this season, but he has one aim for the team – to challenge for the Premier League title.
“I think that is realistic. We are Manchester United,” he said.
“I think we have real qualities. We have to prove that in the games.
“We have to be creative. The defence has to be strong so we win games and we can play for trophies.”
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
Company%20profile
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).
Second leg
Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm
Games on BeIN Sports
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The%20Killer
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Aayan%E2%80%99s%20records
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The Byblos iftar in numbers
29 or 30 days – the number of iftar services held during the holy month
50 staff members required to prepare an iftar
200 to 350 the number of people served iftar nightly
160 litres of the traditional Ramadan drink, jalab, is served in total
500 litres of soup is served during the holy month
200 kilograms of meat is used for various dishes
350 kilograms of onion is used in dishes
5 minutes – the average time that staff have to eat
Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
