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.

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.

[5] 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.

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.

[9][10] In the 2000–01 season, Ajax manager Co Adriaanse increased Van der Vaart's playing time by moving him to the attacking midfielder position.

[11] 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.

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.

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

[15] 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.

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.

The arrival of Van der Vaart's countryman Huub Stevens as head coach, however, saw Hamburg march up the standings and they finished the season in a respectable seventh place, qualifying for, and also winning, the Intertoto Cup.

After garnering interest from Real Madrid from Spain, Van der Vaart responded by saying, "I am set to spend another season in Hamburg," of which he told Welt am Sonntag.

Atlético made a €15 million bid for the Dutchman,[22] which Hamburg rejected, and in the end, it was their cross-town rivals who got Van der Vaart's signature instead.

[24] Van der Vaart debuted in a 2–1 pre-season win four days later, against Colombian side Independiente, where he scored the equalising goal and provided an assist for the winner.

[27] 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 forward and future teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.

[29] During 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.

According to Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, an £18 million transfer to Bayern Munich had collapsed the day before and Van der Vaart had suddenly become much cheaper, although such a price reduction was later denied by Real Madrid.

[32][33][34] Due to problems with computer servers used in the transaction between Tottenham and Real Madrid, preventing the necessary paperwork from being completed, Spurs requested special dispensation from the Premier League to allow the transfer to proceed.

[50] On 20 April 2011, Van der Vaart revived Tottenham's Champions League ambitions by scoring twice to hold North London rivals Arsenal to a 3–3 draw at White Hart Lane.

He ended the season as Spurs' top scorer in the Premier League, scoring 13 goals – nearly a quarter of Tottenham's total – while also providing the most assists, with nine.

[56] Van der Vaart scored a long-range effort against Watford in the FA Cup to send Tottenham through to the next round of the competition with a 1–0 victory.

He was on the pitch at White Hart Lane on 17 March 2012 when Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba went into cardiac arrest; Van der Vaart later described it as "horrible to witness ... the absolute low in my football career".

[63] On 31 July 2016, Van der Vaart was spotted in a skybox at MCH Arena just outside Herning alongside agents Alan Hvedehave and Mikkel Beckmann, both before and during the league game between Danish Superliga clubs FC Midtjylland and Silkeborg.

[65] Just four days later, however, ahead of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League third round qualifying match against Videoton, Steinlein confirmed that the club was in fact trying to work out a deal with him.

[75] On 22 August 2019 Van der Vaart confirmed, that he would play a game for Esbjerg's reserves in the ninth tier of football in Denmark.

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 then manager Dick Advocaat to change the side's formation into one which he felt the talented Van der Vaart did not fit into.

With Advocaat's new system seemingly working, Van der Vaart would be reduced to play a bit-part role at Euro 2004, as Oranje reached the semi-finals.

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.

[96] Since August 2016, Van der Vaart has been in a relationship with Dutch handball player Estavana Polman[97] who played for Danish club Team Esbjerg.