Rafael van der Vaart

Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

Van der Vaart began his career at Ajax's youth academy and worked his way into the first team, debuting as a 17-year-old.

Known for his playmaking skills, he drew comparisons to Johan Cruyff.

He was named Dutch Football Talent of the Year and became the first recipient of the Golden Boy Award while at the club.

At the age of 17, Van der Vaart made his debut for the Ajax senior side in a 1–1 draw with Den Bosch on 19 April 2000 in the 1999–00 season.

After he broke into the Ajax first team, Van der Vaart was "hailed as the new Johan Cruyff".

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 European Talent of the Year by Italian football website CalcioManager.

Van der Vaart earned 109 caps for the Netherlands between 2001 and 2013.

This injury forced him to miss the run-in to Ajax's successful Eredivisie campaign and their Dutch Cup triumph against Utrecht in the 2001–02 season, but it did not stop him being named the Netherlands' Talent of the Year, mainly thanks to the 15 goals in just 27 games that he scored before the incident.

The next season, Van der Vaart suffered a serious knee injury against RKC Waalwijk on 10 February 2002 which required an operation that involved the removal of his entire meniscus.

In 2002–03, Ajax won the Amsterdam Tournament, though injury limited Van der Vaart to 21 league appearances, in which he scored 18 goals.

After his return to fitness, he scored a vital goal in the UEFA Champions League away to Lyon, which propelled Ajax into the knockout stages.

In the first half of 2003–04, his performances were poor.

Van der Vaart admitted he was overweight, and the media criticized his celebrity lifestyle with his then-fiancée, The Music Factory VJ Sylvie Meis.

He became an influential figure once again 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, as well as one of the most popular players in the Netherlands.

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.

He was unhappy at being played out of position, and following his refusal to play on the wing in a Champions League match in December, he was stripped of the team captaincy by Koeman.

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.

At this point, Van der Vaart's performances were attracting interest from some of Europe's top clubs.

He had previously been strongly linked to Milan, but in the summer of 2005, he signed for Bundesliga outfit Hamburger SV in Germany.

Van der Vaart's €5.5 million transfer to Hamburg, on 1 June 2005, raised many eyebrows.

Many other top-flight clubs had shown interest in the midfielder but he chose Hamburg.

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."

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.

He represented the country at three UEFA European Championships and two FIFA World Cups, reaching the final in 2010.

He moved to Bundesliga club Hamburger SV, then to Real Madrid, then on to Tottenham Hotspur before returning to Hamburger SV in 2012.

In the latter stages of his career, Van der Vaart had brief spells playing in Spain and Denmark before announcing his retirement in 2018, and return in 2019 with a testimonial match.

In 2019, Van der Vaart began his darts career, joining the British Darts Organisation.

Van der Vaart was born in Heemskerk to a Dutch father and a Spanish mother from Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz, who had moved to the Netherlands weeks after birth.

He grew up on a trailer park, belonging to a Dutch cultural minority called the Woonwagenbewoners, who had ties to the Irish Travellers and the Yenish people, and he often pretended to be Romário while playing football.

It was at the trailer park that he learned how to play football and, before joining Ajax, he played for a local club called De Kennemers based in Beverwijk.

At the age of ten, he joined the Ajax Academy.

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."

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.