10 talented players who were too stubborn to succeed

#2 Rafael van der Vaart

Rafael van der Vaart is an extremely talented player who has represented Netherlands in multiple International tournaments and played for Real Madrid, Ajax, Tottenham Hotspur and Hamburg, but the Dutchman has been central to several issues throughout his career, which is probably why his career graph has spiralled downwards.

He started off at Ajax, where despite becoming the captain of the team under Ronald Koeman, he was still surrounded by controversy. He was injured by Ibrahimovic in an International match against Sweden, which led to the sale of Ibrahimovic to Juventus, as a result, Van der Vaart took the Swede’s spot as striker.

He was unhappy at being played out of position and following his refusal to play on the wing in a Champions League match, he was stripped of the team captaincy by Koeman. At the end of the season, he left Ajax to join Hamburg. After two good years at Hamburg, he joined Real Madrid and then later moved to Spurs in 2010.

Although his spell at Spurs was good, he was sold back to Hamburg after just two seasons. During his second spell at the German club, Van der Vaart didn’t have the same impact and Hamburg didn’t offer him a contract extension and it is funny because he refused to sign a contract extension during his first spell at the club.

He left the club at the end of the 2014/15 season when his contract expired to join Real Betis on a free transfer.

In a space of five years, Van der Vaart went from playing for Real Madrid to joining Real Betis after he was released by Hamburg because he refused to adapt to the roles he was offered at numerous stages in his career.