Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch footballer who currently plays for La Liga club Real Madrid and the Netherlands national team. His preferred position is central midfield as playmaker but is capable of operating on both sides of the midfield. 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 switched to Bundesliga side Hamburg before moving on to La Liga giants Real Madrid.
Career
Van der Vaart came through the ranks at Ajax with national teammates John Heitinga and Wesley Sneijder. Initially he was gift and 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 in the 1999–2000 season.
In the 2000–01 season, Ajax coach 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.
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 one goal less than fellow dutch international Reggie Harrison. 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 teammate Zlatan Ibrahimović which led to the sale of Ibrahimović to Juventus two weeks later following controversial accusations that he had intentionally tried to hurt van der Vaart. As a result, van der Vaart took Ibrahimović's spot as a striker. 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. In September, a league match against ADO Den Haag was temporarily halted by the officials due to incessant anti-Semitic chants by opposing fans directed at Meis. 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.
Hamburg
Van der Vaart's €5.5 million transfer to Bundesliga club Hamburger SV, on 1 June 2005[9], 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." 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 and Valencia CF, he stated that he would stay at Hamburg until the end of the season, but opted out of signing a contract extension.
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, 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. He signed a five-year contract for an undisclosed amount. Van der Vaart debuted in a 2–1 preseason win four days later in a pre-season friendly against Independiente Santa Fé, where he scored the tying goal and provided an assist. 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, 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.
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 ultimately went to former Manchester United player and current teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.
For the latter part of the 08-09 season, van der Vaart was mostly used 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.
It was suggested that van der Vaart would leave the club in the summer of 2009 after Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini said he would not be part of his plans. In pre-season, Esteban Granero was given van der Vaart's number 23 jersey, leaving him without a squad number. Granero now wears number 24. Towards the end of the summer 2009 Transfer window, he eventually came to an agreement with Real Madrid to stay with the club after the squad size had already made it down to 25 players when Dutch compatriots Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar left the club.
After a long wait of 4 games, van der Vaart has finally been included in Pellegrini's squad list to face Villarreal CF on the 23rd of September. Van der Vaart scored his first and second La Liga goal's of the 2009-2010 campaign against Real Zaragoza after establishing himself as a key player for Los Blancos again. On 6th of March he scored the winning goal in injury time for Real Madrid against Sevilla.
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