HIGH PERFORMANCE
I’m a former Premier League star from a trailer park, if I hadn’t been a footballer I’d have grown weed
Van der Vaart has lifted the lid on his unique upbringing
PREMIER LEAGUE legend Rafael van der Vaart has revealed he would be growing weed if it was not for football.
The former Tottenham and Real Madrid midfielder, 41, reflected on his career with fellow Dutchmen Wesley Sneijder and Marco van Basten.
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On 's chat show, Van der Vaart was quizzed on what "normal job" he would be doing if he was not a famous face.
And he hilariously replied: "I grew up in a trailer park, so I’d probably run a weed shed.”
Sneijder and Van Basten were left in hysterics and exclaimed: "That's a normal job."
Fans were also left in stitches, with one saying: "You can see he was shocked by their reaction, man was actually serious."
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Another added: "Gotta appreciate the honesty."
A third reacted: "Dutch legends are really different than the rest."
Van der Vaart grew up in the town of Heemskerk in the north of Holland and the trailer park he once called home belonged to a Dutch cultural minority called the Woonwagenbewoners.
The name translates as "caravan dwellers" and they have ties to Irish travellers.
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Van der Vaart joined Ajax at the age of ten after learning to play football on the street.
On his upbringing, he said: "That was the way my family lived. My father was born there and it is a lifestyle.
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"Maybe it is not a normal lifestyle but I always liked it.
"I always played football on the street. It was an easy life, then I was ten and went to Ajax and played there for almost 12 years."
Van de Vaart played over 500 times for clubs including Real, Spurs, Hamburg and Ajax - scoring 171 times.
He was also capped a staggering 109 times by Holland, scoring 25 goals.
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