Former Inter winger Andy van der Meyde discussed his career and time with Inter in an interview in today’s print edition of the Dutch sports magazine Voetbal International.
First, he discussed how he joined PSV in 2010 but failed to make a single appearance for the club.
“I trained but didn’t play. With all due respect, I played in front of 75,000 people at the San Siro and 50,000 spectators at the Amsterdam Arena, so playing Monday night for fifteen people at De Herdgang, the PSV training centre, isn’t really nice. Then Rutten, the PSV coach at the time, told me that we wouldn’t meet and that they wouldn’t renew my contract. Another disappointment, yet another one.”
The 40-year-old spoke about the final years of his career.
“I thought, ‘What do I do now? I spent a week in the dark. In Azerbaijan I was able to earn €1.2 million in two years. But I didn’t want to play anymore. I always had to train, play, rest well and watch what I ate and drank. Well, I didn’t really do that last thing!”
Van der Meyde discussed his party lifestyle after retiring from professional football in 2012.
“My career was over. I had a big apartment in Amsterdam. It was party, party, party. Drinking, drugs, girls. All that crap came flooding back. I was having a good time because I was breathing a sense of freedom. I was also barely known. Seven years away from the Netherlands and nobody knew me at parties. It was nice, I could do what I wanted.”
He spoke about former Inter midfielder Wesley Sneijder, who was mocked by some fans for his physical appearance at the 2018 World Cup, after his retirement.
“I understand very well what Wesley Sneijder is going through now. He lived his life as a monk and did everything he could for football. Now he’s having a good time. He drinks and eats what he wants and got fatter. Everybody’s talking about him. But I think, let him enjoy life for a while and don’t worry about it. He doesn’t have to play for the national team anymore.”
Finally, Van der Meyde spoke about the 2010 World Cup and how that killed his passion for football.
“After the World Cup I also had some difficult moments. I saw those guys playing and I thought, ‘I could have been there, you bastard, it’s all your fault’. But okay, it was different. Even when I left England and didn’t play for a year, I had a hard time watching football without thinking I could have been there too. It’s a real shame, because except for my time at Ajax and a bit at Inter, I never had much fun playing football again. I’d forgotten how to have fun, but football has become an obstacle for me.”
Van der Meyde spent two years in Italy with Inter between 2003 to 2005. He failed to settle at the club, making 54 appearances in that time, scoring four goals and providing six assists before being sold to Premier League side Everton. There, his career nosedived and he spent a year playing exclusively with the reserves. Despite spending four years in the north of England with Everton, he only made 24 appearances for the club, for a total of 1091 minutes, providing only one assist in that time.
