A Skeleton in the Closet of Rafael van der Vaart’s Professional Football Career?
At this point, it is hard to weigh up the chances of this piece of sensational news being a promotional gimmick. But the German club Hamburg’s former manager Huub Stevens claims in his new book that the Dutch international Rafael van der Vaart had for once intentionally got himself suspended in 2008 at which time the former was in charge of the Rothosen. As well, the current Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder was playing for the Bundesliga club at the time. Quite shockingly, van der Vaart’s intentions as claimed in the book were to make sure that he could attend his wife’s 30th birthday party; and he had actually done that.
According to van der Vaart’s former manager Stevens, he almost knew that the star player’s fifth yellow card of the season was coming prior to a fixture fitted against Duisberg, and he claims to have expressed it to his assistant. As things stood back then; if the Dutch playmaker was handed a yellow card in the clash with Duisberg, he stood to have been suspended for the following game against Hertha Berlin which clashed with his wife Sylvie’s birthday celebrations. So, if van der Vaart was shown a yellow during the match with Duisberg, he would have been virtually free to attend his wife’s birthday party, and that was exactly what the star player had wanted.
Stevens says that van der Vaart was well aware of the situation, and the events unfolded exactly as he had anticipated with the star footballer earning one more booking which the manager believes to have been deliberate; eventually, to be suspended for the game with Hertha Berlin. To add insult to injury, Hamburg ended up losing 1-0 to Hertha Berlin in that match.
It is not hard to imagine though, that Sylvie herself being a famous name both in Germany and the Netherlands even now, she and her husband make for a wannabe couple. Therefore, the birthday celebration of the star footballer’s wife at the time plausibly called for putting in order a glittering affair; the presence of van der Vaart could have only augmented more fanfare on the occasion.
But, if the revelations have any truth in them, the news hardly stand to augur well with the Tottenham star; the Dutch star is rarely seen or heard of being embroiled in unsavory situations or even controversies.
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