The players of the Dutch national team lift the boycott of Today Inside after three years. The reporter of the program, Noa Vahle, spoke with Memphis Depay this afternoon.
Three years ago, the players of the Dutch national team boycotted Today Inside (then Veronica Inside) because of a joke by Johan Derksen about the controversial rapper Akwasi. It is rumored that Memphis Depay was one of the initiators of the boycott. He was then criticized for a long time in VI.
Noa speaks Memphis
The new Orange national coach Ronald Koeman promised in January to work on lifting the boycott and he now seems to have succeeded. Noa Vahle, the daughter of Linda de Mol who works as a reporter at VI, held an interview with Memphis this afternoon, it can be seen on the Today Inside website and at the bottom of this article.
Noa: “I like to finally talk to you. Yesterday evening at a quarter to eleven I received a message that we were welcome at the player interviews today. Of course we haven’t been for two and a half years. What happened yesterday or last week or I don’t know when that will happen again?”
Stripe below
Memphis does not want to waste too many words on it. “Actually not much at all. I think with the players there was just a line under it. We will continue and you are welcome again, but anyway: having an interview like this is nice and if there is criticism, that is fine too.”
He continues: “At the time we were like: here is our limit. Now we just move on and I hope this can be done again. (…) Yes, I mean: at the time we were like: we will just continue, and now we will still continue with you there, so that is fine with me.”
Expectation
Noa wonders if Memphis now expects the men of VI to keep a low profile. “What do you expect from Today Inside in the future?”
Memphis then says: “I don’t expect anything, I don’t expect anything. I don’t watch TV anyway. There are expectations of me that I perform here and I am already busy enough with that. That’s my focus on. What you want to do is always up to you.”
Too much criticism?
Noa: “But maybe the level of criticism was too much?”
Memphis: “You go… Yes, you get a bit of the same answer now. It wasn’t really about criticism. There were other things that went a little too far. What I say: we have drawn a line under it and I hope that everyone can now just move on.”
Noa: “Then I think we will close this chapter and continue.”
Memphis: “Okay.”
Fragment
Noa’s interview with Memphis: