Player profile

Talented playmaker who was tipped for stardom after making his international debut as an 18-year-old but has never truly fulfilled his potential. Van der Vaart featured for Holland at Euro 2004, the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 and has remained a first-choice player under Van Marwijk despite not playing regularly for Real Madrid.

A product of the Ajax youth academy, van der Vaart made his first-team debut aged 17 but after an injury-hit six seasons in Amsterdam he opted to leave because of the pressures of captaining the ailing giants and the media focus on his relationship with TV presenter and ex-model Sylvie Meis.

He made a surprise £3.5m move to Hamburg in 2005 and, while many observers felt it was a backwards step at the time, he shone in the Bundesliga, helping Hamburg qualify for the Champions League in his first season. In 2008 he signed for Real Madrid but has struggled for regular football at the Bernabeu.

Van der Vaart spent the first 17 years of his life living in a caravan. He and wife Sylvie are often compared to Posh & Becks. At a match between Ajax and Den Haag in 2004, van der Vaart and his now-wife were subjected to such offensive chanting that the referee was forced to halt the game and warn the spectators, via the stadium announcer, that the match could be abandoned.