In KC for World Cup, Netherlands star Memphis Depay scores . . . a rare Pokémon card
In Kansas City for the World Cup, Netherland’s superstar Memphis Depay — the Dutch team’s well-muscled, tattooed, all-time leading scorer with 55 career goals — has been on the hunt recently for two valuable prizes.
Neither is soccer-related.
Depay’s quarry instead was at the center of an entirely different international obsession, and one that 32-year-old Oranje phenom, with a tattoo of Jigglypuff on one arm, has recently re-embraced:
Pokémon.
Yes, the popular Japanese trading card game (cartoons, movies and video franchise) that has made anime characters like Pikachu, Charizard and Geninja nearly as famous as Depay or Lionel Messi. (OK, maybe a fraction as famous as Messi, but still famous).
As a recent TikTok video with more than 620,000 views shows, Depay’s search for two elusive characters has brought him, on at least five occasions, to the Collector’s Cache, a gamers’ and trading card store in a strip mall, at 13354 College Blvd, in Overland Park.
20 million Instagram followers
Employees at the shop, a fixture for 38 years and owned by Behman Zakeri, weren’t absolutely sure who Depay was when he first walked in with security in tow.
“Memphis came in on his own. He did not announce it to us or anything,” said store manager Jacob Mooney.
Depay, who played Pokémon as a kid and recently returned to it, made his intentions clear.
He was looking for rare versions of two cards of two characters — Mega Gengar ex and Mega Dragonite ex — from Pokémon’s new Ascended Heroes expansion set, which debuted this year. He was looking to complete his own collection with the S.I.R. or “special illustration rare” versions of the cards. Mooney said that because the cards are so uncommon, each can cost about $1,000 to $1,500.
The shop didn’t have either one, Mooney said.
But he said Depay ended up buying so many other costly vintage cards and booster packs of the Ascended Heroes cards that the store, by policy, needed to verify his identify to secure the purchase.
Depay complied in good humor Mooney said, but he also reportedly joked to the employee, “He’s like, ‘You want to see my 20 million followers?’” It’s the number of Depay’s fans on Instagram.
‘Ripping cards’
Mooney said that Depay, on days off, kept returning to the shop to chat with the employees while “ripping cards,” tearing open booster packs to see what might be inside.
Then, on a recent day, as caught on video, he tears into a new pack, flipping one after another.
“If he pulled a Gengar,” an employee starts.
“We go crazy,” Depay says.
He flips six cards. Then freezes.
“Whooaaa!” It’s hard from the video to know who’s screaming — employees, Depay, both.
Broad smiles. Elated, Depay high-fives and clasps hands with an employee as if they scored a goal together. He later holds his card up to the camera: Mega Gengar ex.
“You have to watch and see it first-hand,” Mooney said. “It was the second pack that he actually opened. It was just pure manifestation. It was amazing. The Mega Gengar, the hardest card of the entire set to get. It’s like lightning striking.”
The Netherlands World Cup team has fresh fans among the Pokémon crowd in Overland Park. Although some say they’re still rooting for the United States, they are also rooting for one player, whether his team wins or loses.
“We’re definitely pulling for the team to go and do well,” Mooney said Monday afternoon.
On Monday night, in the Round of 32, the Netherlands lost to Morocco in a 3-2 penalty shootout after the match in Guadalupe, Mexico finished 1-1.
Game over, the team will be headed home.
