Depay leaves United for Lyon for around €25M

Memphis Depay has bid farewell to Manchester United as he embarks on the next chapter of his career.

Olympique Lyonnais unveiled the winger Friday following a transfer initially worth approximately €25 million, and now he'll aim to help his new employer scale the 11-point gap between it and Ligue 1 leader Nice.

The move concludes an English stay that seldom showed the potential he displayed in his previous stint at PSV Eindhoven.

Depay, 22, was signed by Louis van Gaal in May 2015 for around €34 million, and was taking home roughly £75,000 a week at United.

Noted for his pace, strength, set-piece taking, and technical ability, Depay scored 22 goals and supplied five assists in his last 30 Eredivisie matches before moving to the Premier League. An initially promising start in Stretford tailed off, however - he lost his place in Van Gaal's lineup before being shunted further out of the first-team picture by current United boss Jose Mourinho.

But the Portuguese gaffer hasn't declared this is the last of Depay at the club, confirming there's a buy-back option written into his Lyon contract.

"Of course, because, potentially, he is a very good player," Mourinho explained at Friday's press conference. "I think when Mr. Van Gaal decided to buy him, he did well. He knew him very well from the national team, he was very young in the World Cup, he had flashes of top quality.

"He was playing well in Holland too; we know that the Dutch league is not the same, but he was showing very good things. I think Mr. Van Gaal and United did well to buy him - he didn’t succeed in these 18 months, I would say, but he's very young. I think it's important for the club to keep control of this talent and we wish that he plays very well at Olympique Lyon. And why not, to come back here, because everybody likes him."

Depay said he hoped to make his debut in Sunday's huge visit from Marseille.