Football Player's Biography 7: Rafael van der Vaart

Full name	Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart
Date of birth	February 11, 1983 (age 28)
Place of birth	Heemskerk, Netherlands
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)^[2]
Playing position	Central Attacking midfielder

Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈraːfa.ɛl vɑn dɛr ˈvaːrt] (

listen); born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch footballer who plays for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Netherlands national team. His preferred position is as an attacking midfielder however he can also operate in other positions such as second striker. Van der Vaart began his career at Ajax's famous youth academy and worked his way into the first team debuting as a 17-year-old. He moved to Bundesliga side Hamburg, then to Real Madrid, then on to Tottenham Hotspur on the final day of the 2010–11 Premier League summer transfer window.
Van der Vaart is well known for his technical ability, the capacity to use both feet as well as his sometimes aggressive attitude on the Football pitch. Since moving to Tottenham Hotspur, van der Vaart has been a prolific goalscorer in the Premier League and is widely regarded as a world class player.

Early life

Van der Vaart was born in Heemskerk, Netherlands to a Dutch father and a Spanish mother from Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz. Before joining AFC Ajax, he played for a local club called De Kennemers based in Beverwijk.^[3] He grew up on a caravan park living a "gypsy life" and often pretended to be Romário while playing football.^[4] He watched the English Premier League as a youth.^[5] It was at the caravan park that he learned how to play football and, at the age of 10, he joined the AFC Ajax academy.^[4] Van der Vaart has said of his upbringing: "That was the way my family lived. My father was born there and it is a lifestyle. Maybe it is not a normal lifestyle but I always liked it. I always played football on the street. It was an easy life, then I was 10 years old and went to Ajax and played there for almost 12 years".^[6]

Club career

Ajax

Van der Vaart came through the ranks at Ajax with national teammates John Heitinga and Wesley Sneijder. Initially he signed for Ajax on a trial basis as a ten-year-old but was eventually enrolled permanently after impressing the coaches. At the age of 17, Van der Vaart made his debut for the Ajax senior side in a 1–1 draw with FC Den Bosch on 19 April 2000 in the 1999–2000 season.
In the 2000–01 season, Ajax manager Co Adriaanse increased Van der Vaart's playing time by moving him to the attacking midfielder position. He was voted as European Talent of the Year by Italian football website CalcioManager.^[7]
The next season, Van der Vaart suffered a serious knee injury and was out for several months. Shortly after returning to action, he re-injured the same knee on 2 April 2002, requiring an operation that involved the removal of his entire meniscus. He missed the rest of the season and finished with fourteen goals.
In 2002–03, Ajax won the Amsterdam Tournament, though injury limited Van der Vaart to 21 league appearances, in which he scored 18 goals. An injury forced him to miss the run-in to Ajax’s successful Eredivisie campaign and their Dutch Cup triumph against FC Utrecht in the 2001–02 season, but it did not stop him being named Holland’s Talent of the Year. And the following season, after his return to fitness, he scored a vital goal in the Champions League away to Lyon, which propelled Ajax into the knockout stages. Back on the domestic front, meanwhile, Rafael scored an impressive 18 goals in 21 league games in the Eredivisie.
In 2003–04, he was once again an influential figure, as Ajax claimed another league title. By that stage, van der Vaart had firmly established himself as one of the stars of the Ajax team, not to mention one of the most popular players in Holland.
Van der Vaart was named team captain by coach Ronald Koeman for the 2004–05 season. During an international match against Sweden on 18 August 2004, he was injured by then Ajax teammate Zlatan Ibrahimović which led to the sale of Ibrahimović to Juventus two weeks later following controversial accusations that the Swede had intentionally tried to hurt Van der Vaart. As a result, Van der Vaart took Ibrahimović's spot as a striker.^[8] His on-pitch performance suffered due to being played out of position and he was stripped of the team captaincy by Koeman as a result, while the media criticized him for being overweight and spending too much time in the Dutch nightlife with his then-fiancée, The Music Factory VJ Sylvie Meis.^[9]
In September, a league match against ADO Den Haag was temporarily halted by the officials due to incessant chants by opposing fans directed at Meis.^[10] The incident, coupled with his ongoing injury problems that resulted in an average of only 23 league appearances in five seasons with Ajax, led him to announce that he was leaving the club at the end of the year.

Hamburger SV

By now his performances were attracting interest from some of Europe’s top clubs. He had previously been strongly linked to AC Milan, but in the summer of 2005 he signed for Bundesliga outfit Hamburg SV. Van der Vaart's €5.5 million transfer to Bundesliga club Hamburger SV, on 1 June 2005,^[11] raised many eyebrows. Many other top-flight clubs had shown interest in the midfielder but he chose Hamburg. The Ajax legend Johan Cruyff himself commented in his De Telegraaf column, "I don't know what to say about it or what Rafael van der Vaart is doing in Hamburg."^[10] He played a massive part in Hamburg’s impressive away form that season, scoring in each of their first four games on the road; in fact, in the course of his first one and a half seasons with the German club, they did not lose a single match away from home while he was on the pitch. Van der Vaart finished his first season as the team's top scorer as Hamburg finished third in the league and won the 2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup. He assumed the team captaincy for the 2006–07 season. The 2006/07 season proved to be a difficult one for his club, and despite Rafael’s three goals in the Champions League group stages, they made an early exit from the competition, while languishing for several months in the bottom half of the Bundesliga table. However, the arrival of Rafael’s countryman Huub Stevens as head coach saw Hamburg march up the standings and they finished the season in a respectable 7th place, qualifying for, and indeed winning, the Intertoto Cup.
"I am set to spend another season in Hamburg," van der Vaart told Germany's Welt am Sonntag paper. The Hamburg captain and Netherlands midfielder van der Vaart, 25, said he had not signed a pre-contract with Real Madrid and added that he hoped for another good season at the northern Germans. "Now we have the team to achieve something," said van der Vaart, whose team placed fifth in the last Bundesliga season. In the 2007–08 season, Van der Vaart scored 12 league goals as Hamburg finished fourth in the league, while reaching the round of sixteen in the UEFA Cup. During the UEFA Cup away win at FC Zürich, he tore ankle ligaments and was out of action for several weeks. Despite interest from clubs such as Chelsea^[12] and Valencia,^[13] he stated that he would stay at Hamburg until the end of the season, but opted out of signing a contract extension.^[14]

Real Madrid

Towards the end of the 2007–08 season, Van der Vaart was linked to a move to several clubs including Atlético Madrid and Juventus. Atlético made a €15 million bid for the Dutchman,^[15] which Hamburg rejected, and in the end it was their cross-town rivals who got Van der Vaart's signature instead.
On 4 August 2008, Real Madrid and Hamburg reached a €13 million agreement for Van der Vaart's transfer, Real Madrid's only summer signing.^[16] He signed a five-year contract for an undisclosed amount.^[17] Van der Vaart debuted in a 2–1 preseason win, four days later, against Independiente Santa Fé, where he scored the tying goal and provided an assist.^[18]
He changed his squad number from 19 to his favored number 23 after teammate Wesley Sneijder took number 10 following Robinho's 31 August departure to Manchester City.^[19] He marked his league debut for Real Madrid with a strike against CD Numancia in a 4–3 victory. On 24 September, he scored his first career hat-trick in a 7–1 thrashing of Sporting Gijón.^[20] In October 2008, Van der Vaart was one of the many La Liga players to be nominated for the Ballon d'Or but the award eventually went to Manchester United player and future teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.^[21] For the latter part of the 2008–09 season, Van der Vaart was mostly utilized as an impact substitute by coach Juande Ramos which led to speculations of a fall-out between coach and player. Despite transfer rumors linking him with Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, he denied having any links with the English clubs.^[22]
In the summer of 2009, it was speculated that Van der Vaart would leave Real Madrid after being told he was not going to be part of the team's plans by coach Manuel Pellegrini. His number 23 jersey was even given to Esteban Granero in preseason, leaving him without a squad number. However, towards the end of summer transfer window, he eventually came to an agreement with Real Madrid to stay with the club after the squad size had been reduced to 25 players as Dutch compatriots Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar were forced to leave the club. Van der Vaart was handed his original number 23 jersey while Esteban Granero was given number 24. After a wait of 4 games, Van der Vaart was finally included in Pellegrini's squad list to face Villarreal on 23 September.^[23] An injury to Kaká gave Van der Vaart a chance to establish himself as a key player for Los Blancos again. On 20 December he scored two goals on a 6-0 win against Real Zaragoza. Van der Vaart stated his desire to stay at Real Madrid, at least until the end of his contract.^[24]

Tottenham Hotspur

On 31 August 2010, two hours before the transfer window closed, Tottenham Hotspur made an offer of £8 million for van der Vaart. According to Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, an £18 million transfer to Bayern Munich had collapsed the day before and Van der Vaart had suddenly become much cheaper, although such a price reduction was later denied by Real Madrid.^[25]^[26]^[27] Due to problems with computer servers used in the transaction between Tottenham and Real Madrid, preventing the necessary paperwork from being completed, Spurs requested special dispensation from the Premier League to allow the transfer to proceed.^[28]^[29]^[26] The Premier League confirmed on 1 September that the transfer had been permitted after they gave Tottenham special dispensation due to 'technical problems'. He signed a four-year contract at White Hart Lane.^[30]^[31] It was announced that Van der Vaart would wear the number 11 shirt for Spurs.^[32] Van der Vaart later denied speculation that he had been a failure at Real Madrid, claiming that he always gave his best over the last few years for both club and country, and that he wanted to show his quality for his new club.^[33]^[34]
Van der Vaart made his Premier League debut for Spurs in a 1–1 draw against West Bromwich Albion on 11 September 2010,^[35]^[36] and his Champions League bow for the club three days later against Werder Bremen, providing an assist for Peter Crouch in a 2–2 draw.^[37]^[38] Van der Vaart scored his first Premier League goal from the penalty spot in a 3–1 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 18 September 2010.^[39]^[40] After starting his Spurs career by scoring three goals in four Premier League matches, and with a goal and an assist in two Champions League matches, Van der Vaart was named Goal.com World Player of the Week on 4 October 2010.^[41] He was later named Premier League Player of the Month for October.^[42] A hamstring injury kept Van der Vaart out of action for much of December,^[43] but he returned to the Tottenham side on Boxing Day, scoring twice in a 2–1 win away to Aston Villa.^[44]

International career

Rafael van der Vaart gained the notice of the youth team coaches and was called up for the youth squads. He played in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship with present senior teammates Maarten Stekelenburg and John Heitinga and former Real Madrid teammates Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Arjen Robben.
The 18-year-old Van der Vaart then made his senior international debut against Andorra on 6 October 2001.^[45] He was a member of the squads that participated in Euro 2004, Euro 2008, and the 2006 World Cup. Despite figuring prominently in a number of qualifying stage matches, Van der Vaart has had a lack of luck when it came to the final tournament.

Euro 2004

A sub-par performance by the Dutch during their opening game of Euro 2004 persuaded former manager Dick Advocaat to change the side's formation into one which he felt the talented Van der Vaart did not fit in to. With Advocaat's new system seemingly working, Van der Vaart would be reduced to play a bit-part role at Euro 2004, as the Oranje reached the semi-finals.

2006 World Cup

Despite that setback, Van der Vaart produced some superlative performances in the Bundesliga the following season, and it seemed that Van der Vaart's turn to shine on the big stage was to finally come — at the 2006 World Cup. However, niggling injury problems resurfaced, and Van der Vaart was not risked by Dutch coach Marco van Basten for the opening World Cup encounter against Serbia and Montenegro. With victory in that opening game, the national team coach would once again decide to continue fielding a Van der Vaart-less lineup. And once again, van der Vaart was reduced to a bit-part role in the squad although since then he has become a more regular fixture in the starting XI.

Euro 2008

Van der Vaart was called up for Euro 2008 despite missing several qualification matches due to an ankle injury. As van Basten had decided to change their formation to 4–2–3–1, Van der Vaart was deployed in the midfield along with Wesley Sneijder and either Dirk Kuyt or Robin van Persie, behind lone striker Ruud van Nistelrooy to great effect. In the opening game of the competition, the Dutch team won 3–0 against the world champions Italy with Van der Vaart playing a role in the build-ups. Van Basten decided to field him again in the starting line-up in the next match against France; the Oranje later went on to win 4–1.

2010 World Cup

Despite enduring a torrid time at club level,^[46] Van der Vaart remained a first-choice player for van Basten's successor Bert van Marwijk in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. On 10 September 2008, he ended a 10-month goal drought with a vital strike against Macedonia in a 2–1 win.^[47] He ended the campaign with 2 goals and several important assists.
On 12 August 2009, Van der Vaart captained the Dutch in the absence of Giovanni van Bronckhorst in a friendly against England. He scored the second goal off a Gareth Barry mistake to put the Netherlands two goals up in the first half but Jermain Defoe netted a brace to seal a 2–2 draw.
Van der Vaart was included in the preliminary squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.^[49] On 27 May, Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk announced that Van der Vaart was part of the final squad of 23 participating in the competition.^[50] He was in the starting line-up for their first match in the competition, a 2-0 victory over Denmark.^[51]^[52]^[53] Van der Vaart then participated in the following two matches against Japan^[54] and Cameroon,^[55] but eventually lost his spot in the starting line-up to his recently recovered fellow midfielder Arjen Robben after being substituted in the match against Cameroon.^[56] He was brought off the pitch after giving away a penalty to Cameroon by blocking the ball with his arm from a free kick.^[57] However he made another appearance in the semi-final against Uruguay, after coming on for the injured Demy de Zeeuw.^[58] He helped Oranje win the match with 3-2, thus sending them to the final.^[59] He also played in the final against Spain, substituting Nigel de Jong just before injury time. Netherlands lost the game 1-0 to a goal from Andrés Iniesta.^[60] He was handed the captain's armband during the match, after Giovanni van Bronckhorst was substituted off.

Personal life

On 10 June 2005, Van der Vaart married Sylvie van der Vaart (née Meis) and on 28 May 2006, their son Damián Rafael was born. Some of the media have described the couple as the "new Beckhams" but both of them denied the claims saying that they prefer to just live a normal life.^[62]
In the summer of 2009, Real Madrid wanted to sell Van der Vaart, but the player decided to stay in Madrid because his wife was undergoing cancer treatment there.^[63] A year later, upon his move to England, Van der Vaart stated, "She had a very serious illness and it is true that she had to be treated at the Clinica Quiron. Last season, they wanted me to leave but I couldn't leave for that reason. Now she is well and the only thing that happened was that Madrid wanted to sell and I wanted to get back to enjoying playing football, and Tottenham are a great team that are going to give me the football opportunities that I need.