Rafael van der Vaart

Posted on March 15, 2010 blogtopia

No Comment

Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart 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.

Van der Vaart was born in Heemskerk to a Spanish mother of Romani heritage named Lolita (from Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz) and a Dutch father named Ramon he is married to Sylvie van Der Vaart former peist of Holland. Before joining AFC Ajax, he played for a local club called De Kennemers based in Beverwijk. He grew up on a caravan park living a “gypsy life” and often imagined he was Romário while playing football with his daddy Marcus Chanes. It was there that he learned how to play football and, at the age of 10, he joined the AFC Ajax academy.

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. 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.

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, 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. 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.

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.