{"id":450102,"date":"2011-06-29T10:48:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T10:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/"},"modified":"2011-06-29T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T10:48:00","slug":"rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<h3>By Miles Chambers<\/h3>\n<h4>29 Jun 2011 11:48:00<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<div readability=\"79.6894824708\">\n<div readability=\"17.0756302521\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rafael van der Vaart celebrates his opener in Spurs' 3-1 win over Inter (Getty Images)\" src=\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115500\/115590_news.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rafael van der Vaart celebrates his opener in Spurs&#8217; 3-1 win over Inter (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<h4>Related Links<\/h4>\n<h4>Teams<\/h4>\n<h4>Players<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/people\/netherlands\/2253\/rafael-van-der-vaart\">Rafael van der Vaart<\/a> has admitted leaving <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/teams\/spain\/124\/real-madrid-news\">Real Madrid<\/a> was hard but says he &#8216;fell in love&#8217; with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/teams\/england\/105\/tottenham\">Tottenham<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 28-year-old moved to White Hart Lane from the Bernabeu last summer, in a deadline day transfer coup for a fee believed to be in the region of \u00a37 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The midfielder revealed he was also advised by former Dutch international Edgar Davids that Spurs are a great club and that the Premier League would suit his game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI had some contact with Edgar, who had also played for Spurs, and he told me it was a great club and the people are good. He also said the league would fit me well,\u201d he told the club\u2019s official magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He added: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy to leave Real Madrid because I had a great life there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThey are the biggest club in the world so I was quite happy, but when Spurs came in I spoke with the manager and the chairman, fell in love with the club and wanted to join Tottenham.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Van der Vaart impressed in his first few weeks with Spurs, scoring three goals in his first four Premier League matches, and eventually scored 15 goals in 36 appearances in his first season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He also played his role in Tottenham\u2019s debut Champions League campaign, helping them reach the quarter-finals where they were knocked out by his former club Madrid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This season the former Hamburg and Ajax player will have to make do with Europa League football after Harry Redknapp\u2019s side finished fifth in the league.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span id=\"divAdnetKeyword\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><em>Our<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/GoalUK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/93900\/93900.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"48\" height=\"11\" \/><\/em><\/a><\/span><em>\u00a0provides the best breaking news online and our\u00a0<\/em><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GoalUK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/93800\/93899.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"49\" height=\"10\" \/><\/em><\/a><\/span><em>\u00a0football fan community is unmatched worldwide. Never miss a thing again!<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the original post:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/news\/2896\/premier-league\/2011\/06\/29\/2552892\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell\" title=\"Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> By Miles Chambers 29 Jun 2011 11:48:00 Rafael van der Vaart celebrates his opener in Spurs&#8217; 3-1 win over Inter (Getty Images) Related Links Teams Players Rafael van der Vaart has admitted leaving Real Madrid was hard but says he &#8216;fell in love&#8217; with Tottenham . The 28-year-old moved to White Hart Lane from the Bernabeu last summer, in a deadline day transfer coup for a fee believed to be in the region of \u00a37 million. The midfielder revealed he was also advised by former Dutch international Edgar Davids that Spurs are a great club and that the Premier League would suit his game<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":450103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-450102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Miles Chambers 29 Jun 2011 11:48:00 Rafael van der Vaart celebrates his opener in Spurs&#039; 3-1 win over Inter (Getty Images) Related Links Teams Players Rafael van der Vaart has admitted leaving Real Madrid was hard but says he &#039;fell in love&#039; with Tottenham . The 28-year-old moved to White Hart Lane from the Bernabeu last summer, in a deadline day transfer coup for a fee believed to be in the region of \u00a37 million. The midfielder revealed he was also advised by former Dutch international Edgar Davids that Spurs are a great club and that the Premier League would suit his game\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-29T10:48:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/\"},\"wordCount\":336,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Entertainment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/\",\"name\":\"Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-29T10:48:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/rafael-van-der-vaart-leaving-real-madrid-was-hard-but-i-fell-in-love-with-tottenham\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Rafael van der Vaart: Leaving Real Madrid was hard but I fell in love with Tottenham - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"By Miles Chambers 29 Jun 2011 11:48:00 Rafael van der Vaart celebrates his opener in Spurs' 3-1 win over Inter (Getty Images) Related Links Teams Players Rafael van der Vaart has admitted leaving Real Madrid was hard but says he 'fell in love' with Tottenham . The 28-year-old moved to White Hart Lane from the Bernabeu last summer, in a deadline day transfer coup for a fee believed to be in the region of \u00a37 million. 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