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Rafael van der Vaart was born to a Spanish mother named Lolita (from Chiclana de la Frontera, Ca¡diz) and a Dutch father named Ramon. Before joining AFC Ajax, he played for a local club called De Kennemers based in Beverwijk. He grew up on a caravan park living a "gypsy life" and often imagined he was Roma¡rio while playing football with his father. It was there that he learned how to play football and, at the age of 10, he joined the AFC Ajax academy.
On 10 June 2005, van der Vaart married Sylvie van der Vaart (naee Meis) and on 28 May 2006, their son Damian Rafael was born.
