Rafael van der Vaart (Netherlands)

Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈraːfa.ɛl vɑn dər ˈvaːrt]  ( listen); born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch footballer who plays for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and the Netherlands national team. His preferred position is central midfield as playmaker. 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.

Van der Vaart was born in Heemskerk 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.^[2] He grew up on a caravan park living a "gypsy life" and often imagined he was Romário. It was there that he learned how to play football and, at the age of 10, he joined the AFC Ajax academy.^[3]

Van der Vaart came through the ranks at Ajax with national teammates John Heitinga andWesley 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 coach Co Adriaanseincreased 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.^[4]

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.

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 teammateZlatan 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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7]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.

Van der Vaart's €5.5 million transfer to Bundesliga club Hamburger SV, on 1 June 2005^[8], 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."^[7] 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.

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^[9] and Valencia CF,^[10] he stated that he would stay at Hamburg until the end of the season, but opted out of signing a contract extension.^[11]

Towards the end of the 2007–08 season, Van der Vaart was linked to a move to several clubs includingAtlético Madrid and Juventus. Atlético made a €15 million bid for the Dutchman^[12], 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.^[13] He signed a five-year contract for an undisclosed amount.^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16]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.^[17] 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.^[18] For the latter part of the 08–09 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.^[19]

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 left 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 CF on the 23rd of September.^[20] 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 a brace against Real Zaragoza. Van der Vaart stated his desire to stay at Real Madrid, at least until the end of his contract.^[21] On 6 March he scored the winning goal in injury time for Real Madrid against Sevilla and, two weeks later, scored a crucial equalizing goal as Real came from behind to defeat Sporting Gijón.

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 andJohn 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.^[22] He was a member of the squads that participated in UEFA Euro 2004, UEFA Euro 2008, and the 2006 FIFA 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.

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 semifinals.

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 FIFA 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, Rafael 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.

Van der Vaart was called up for UEFA Euro 2008 despite missing several qualification matches due to an ankle injury. As coach Marco 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 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.

Despite enduring a torrid time at club level^[23], Van der Vaart remained a first-choice player for van Basten's successor Bert van Marwijk in the 2010 FIFA 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.^[24] 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.^[25]

Van der Vaart was included in the preliminary squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.^[26] On 27 May 2010, Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk announced that Van der Vaart would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the competition.^[27] He was in the starting line-up for their first match in the competition, a 2-0 victory over Denmark. van der Vaart then participated in the following two matches against Japan and Cameroon, but eventually lost his spot in the starting line-up to his recentely recovered fellow midfielder Arjen Robben after being substituted in the match against Cameroon. He was brought off the pitch after giving away a penalty to Cameroon by blocking the ball with his arm from a free kick. However he made another appereance in the semi-final against Uruguay after coming on for the injured Demy de Zeeuw. He helped Oranje win the match with 3-2, thus sending them to the final. In that final, he also played, substituting Nigel de Jong just before injury time.^[28] Netherlands played Spain and lost the game 1-0 to an Andrés Iniesta goal. After Giovanni van Bronckhorst was substituted off, he was handed the captain's armband.

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.^[29]