Inside Van der Vaart and Ibrahimovic’s feud from "jealousy" to leg-break threat

Ajax has one of the most renowned youth academies in the world: after all, Johan Cruyff, Frank Rijkaard, and Dennis Bergkamp have all called it home.

And when Rafael van der Vaart arrived through the doors in 2000, big things were expected of the midfielder.

In fact, so highly rated was Van der Vaart in Amsterdam he was dubbed the next Cruyff.

For a brief period, he lived up to the moniker too, and the Dutchman was even awarded the FIFA Golden Boy award.

However, shortly after breaking into the first team at Ajax, the Dutch side splashed out on a young Swedish striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

"At that time we were both young and I was the best player in Ajax," Van der Vaart recalled to Ukrainian news outlet Football.ua.

"He came to the club and believed that he was the best player at Ajax.

“Back then he did not act like he does now and I think he was a bit jealous.

“I did not have really big problems with him. It was just two egos converging in one place. I think I was a bigger problem for him than he was for me."

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Ibrahimovic announced himself in the Dutch capital with a wondergoal in the Champions League.

And as the Swede's impact on the team increased, Van der Vaart's only wained.

It all came to climax during the international break when the Netherlands faced Sweden in a friendly, and Ibrahimovic injured the Dutchman in a challenge.

Ibrahimovic later said: "I don’t like you, I don’t like you as a captain. I didn’t injure you on purpose and you know it… If you accuse me again, I’ll break both your legs and this time it’ll be on purpose.”

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Ibrahimovic was soon shown the door, as a result of the challenge and other collapsed relationships, when he moved onto Juventus.

But Van der Vaart didn't stick around for too much longer either.

In the absence of their star striker, Ronald Koeman opted to play Van der Vaart in Ibrahimovic's old role.

The Dutchman failed to capture similar highs that he had in midfield while playing his advanced role, and he asked to leave Ajax soon after.

When recalling their relationship to FourFourTwo Van der Vaart said: "Yes, he did say that [I'll break your legs], but Zlatan said it to everyone.

"It’s also true that around that time things just weren’t working between the two of us, but I would rather be in a team with people who are honest, like him, even if it means there are a few arguments.

"But there wasn’t a specific moment we fell out – we generally didn’t get along well."

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