van der Vaart Giving Seminars on Lack of Professionalism

By: chris | January 9th, 2008

I’m beginning to imagine Rafael van der Vaart’s life in Hamburg consists of being followed by a team of beat reporters, most of whom hail from the northwest corner of Italy, who rumble for the day’s quote du jour in a Pigpen-like cloud of dust. Either that or he’s masquerading as a member of the press, using his journalistic freedoms as a medium for his daily diary. Because every single day, out of the whole half dozen news nuggets the Bundesliga tosses out to the English audience, half are about him, and the other half are about the latest tragecomedy taking stage in Munich.

This is how badly RvdV would like to get out of Hamburg, at least this past week:

Thursday.: “I have not yet received an official bid, but I did hear that Juve are interested in me. I can really see myself at Juventus.”

He went on: “I still have another two and a half years on my contract and it is quite a long period. It was very difficult for me to turn down the offer, as it was an excellent proposal and the club did everything it could to keep me here.”

Friday.: “I can already see myself playing for Juventus. I know that Juve are interested in me and have been after me since the summer. They are one of the most important clubs in the world, they have prestige and are very intriguing.”

Saturday.: “I still have two-and-a-half years on my current contract with Hamburg and that is long enough,” said the former Ajax star.

“My dream of playing for a top club is omnipresent, and if I committed to HSV until 2012 that would be too long for me.”

Monday.: “I want to go to a top club,” declared Van der Vaart. “I want to get to know another country.”

“I hope to win something and finish the season well. I have a contract until 2010. I could leave but then again I could also continue to play here next year.”

Tuesday.: “I know Juve are interested in me,” he said, “but there’s nothing concrete. For me playing in Italy would be a great thing, I particularly would like to playing alongside [captain Alessandro] Del Piero, who’s been my idol for a long time.”

It appears Rafael has never heard of the term “no comment”.

If we were to rate his lack of professionalism - he is the captain and all - on a scale from 1-10, what would it be? 9.75? 10? 13? How much disregard do you need to have for your teammates, on a team which is sitting in 3rd, 4 points from top, to continually harp on about the interest being shown to you by another club? Is he playing for the shirt, or is he playing so that Juventus will decide they can’t wait for him, and stump up the cash during this month?

It’s very simple: “I play for HSV. My focus is to give my all to this shirt while I wear it.” Period.

Everybody knows he’s being sold in the summer. Everybody knows he isn’t making s’mores and singing Kum Ba Yah by the campfire with the rest of his teammates. The goal is a big club. Wonderful. Now play for the team you contracted yourself to, nobody held a gun to your head when you signed, and shut up about it already. No matter how talented he is, I would never want RvdV anywhere near my team. It seems quite misleading that there is no “I” in “Rafael van der Vaart”.