Former Tottenham and Holland playmaker Rafael van der Vaart has announced his retirement from football with immediate effect.
The 35-year-old has struggled with injuries this season and has only made three appearances for Danish side Esbjerg.
After starting his career at Ajax’s academy, he had a successful spell at Real Madrid before Tottenham paid £8million for him.
If there is one moment to use My Way, this is it. It wasn’t an easy decision to say goodbye to the game I love the most. But words can’t express how grateful I am for those 18 wonderful years of professional football. Thank you all! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/SDpmb5oSUV — Rafael van der Vaart (@rafvdvaart) November 5, 2018
In a message posted on Twitter, van der Vaart, who won 109 caps for the Netherlands, announced his retirement by saying: “If there is one moment to use My Way, this is it.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to say goodbye to the game I love the most. But words can’t express how grateful I am for those 18 wonderful years of professional football. Thank you all!”
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Press Association sport staff');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '67855ea4-ea30-4cec-bcd7-ea8380cc5324');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:world');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Former Tottenham playmaker Rafael van der Vaart retires from football'});
