Rafael van der Vaart

Rafael van der Vaart came through the Ajax academy and made his first-team debut at seventeen, quickly establishing himself as one of the most technically accomplished midfielders the club had produced in years. The Ajax home shirt from 2000/01 in the collection carries #23, the number he wore during his early appearances before cementing a starting place and taking a more prominent squad number. The Adidas shirts used by Ajax in that period, with the red and white vertical stripe and the ABN AMRO sponsor, is one of the more recognisable shirts from Dutch football at the turn of the millennium. A Van der Vaart Ajax shirt from that era represents the starting point of a career that would take him to the top of European football.

Netherlands: a decade of tournament football

Van der Vaart was a consistent presence in the Netherlands squad across more than a decade of international football, and the orange home shirt from 2006/7 with #10 sits in a period that included two major tournaments. The Nike template from that cycle was worn at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and Euro 2008, where the Netherlands reached the quarter-finals. He wore #10 for the national team throughout the peak years of his career, and the orange Nike home shirt with the black name set in the Dutch font is one of the cleaner international templates from that generation. For collectors following his career across clubs and country, the Netherlands shirt is an essential part of the picture.

Real Madrid, Tottenham, HSV and the clubs still to come

Van der Vaart's club career beyond Ajax took him to Hamburg, Real Madrid, Tottenham, back to Hamburg, and eventually Betis and Midtjylland. His spell at Tottenham between 2010 and 2012 under Harry Redknapp is where many Premier League supporters came to know him best, arriving on deadline day from Real Madrid and immediately becoming one of the most technically impressive players in the league that season. A Van der Vaart Tottenham shirt from that period sits in one of the more celebrated chapters of his career. The HSV connection runs even deeper with supporters in Germany, where he spent the majority of his later years and became genuinely loved. A Van der Vaart HSV shirt represents a player at home in a city that reciprocated that feeling. Real Madrid, Tottenham and HSV shirts will be added to this collection shortly.

Why Van der Vaart shirts hold dollector appeal

Van der Vaart sits firmly in the cult hero category, a player whose technical quality was never in doubt but whose career unfolded across clubs and countries rather than settling at one dominant force. That breadth is part of what makes collecting his shirts interesting. Each club represents a distinct chapter, and the name sets across Ajax, Netherlands, Real Madrid and HSV cover different eras, different kit manufacturers and different points in the game's visual history. All shirts at First11Shirts are 100% authentic. Orders placed before 18:00 ship the same day, with free worldwide shipping on orders over 100 euro.