Rafael van der Vaart has opened up about his relationship with Robin van Persie in the latest VPs Willem & Wessel. The former Ajax player says that he did not have a good relationship with the current Feyenoord coach at a young age.
“Van Persie was, of course, I also played with him in the youth teams, just a jerk. He didn’t like me either and I was of course also his competitor,” he looks back on the VoetbalPrimeur website. “We actually had quite a difficult relationship for a long time and that has gotten better, better and better. And now too, we have very good contact,” Van der Vaart reveals.
“He just changed a bit. We were all cocks back then,” he continues. “If I look back, I wasn’t that nice until I was 20 or 21. Sneijder and Van Persie didn’t think much of each other and I was of course a friend of Wesley, but later everything turned out fine. And we could play football together very well,” Van der Vaart concludes realistically.
