Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (born 11 February 1983 Heemskerk, The Netherlands) is a Dutch footballer who currently plays for La Liga club Real Madrid, and the Netherlands National Football Team. His preferred position is central midfield as playmaker but is capable of operating on both sides of the midfield. Van der Vaart began his career at Ajax's famous youth academy and worked his way into the first team debuting as a 17-year-old. He switched to Bundesliga side Hamburg before moving on to La Liga giants Real Madrid

Towards the end of the 2007–08 season, van der Vaart was linked to a move to several clubs including Atlético Madrid and Juventus. Atlético made a €15 million bid for the Dutchman, which Hamburg rejected, and in the end it was their cross-town rivals who got van der Vaart's signature instead.

On 4 August 2008, Real Madrid and Hamburg reached a €13 million agreement for van der Vaart's transfer, Real Madrid's only summer signing. He signed a five-year contract for an undisclosed amount. Van der Vaart debuted in a 2–1 preseason win four days later in a pre-season friendly against Independiente Santa Fé, where he scored the tying goal and provided an assist. He changed his squad number from 19 to his favored number 23 after teammate Wesley Sneijder took number 10 following Robinho's 31 August departure to Manchester City, He marked his league debut for Real Madrid with a strike against CD Numancia in a 4–3 victory. On 24 September, he scored his first career hat-trick in a 7–1 thrashing of Sporting Gijón.

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 ultimately went to former Manchester United player and current teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.

For the latter part of the 08-09 season, van der Vaart was mostly used as an impact substitute by coach Juande Ramos which led to speculations of a fall-out between coach and player. Despite transfer rumors linking him with Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool; he denied having any links with the English clubs.

It was suggested that van der Vaart would leave the club in the summer of 2009 after Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini said he would not be part of his plans. In pre-season, Esteban Granero was given van der Vaart's number 23 jersey, leaving him without a squad number. Granero now wears number 24. Towards the end of the summer 2009 Transfer window, he eventually came to an agreement with Real Madrid to stay with the club after the squad size had already made it down to 25 players when Dutch compatriots Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben left the club.

After a long wait of 4 games, van der Vaart has finally been included in Pellegrini's squad list to face Villarreal CF on the 23rd of September.