Van der Vaart to lift up midfield scoring

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Hamburg midfielder and Dutch international Rafael van der Vaart (25) is high on the Barcelona list and could become the offensive and scoring midfielder the club is looking for. Barcelona is already following Van der Vaart for several years and he was already close to joining Barcelona in 2006.

Over the last months Hamburg has declined several offers from European top clubs for Van der Vaart but the player, whose mother is Spanish and comes from a 'culé' family, would like to set another step in his career and prefers to leave for the Liga. Van der Vaart's contract with Hamburg, the club he joined in the summer of 2005, expires in 2010 and the Dutchman is rejecting all renewal proposals.

Hamburg would be holding on to a transfer price of 20 million euro°, although it has been rumoured that a clause in his contract allows Van der Vaart to leave in the summer of 2009 for only 1,5 million euro°, which could lead the German club to try selling the player this summer. Van der Vaart is represented by Turkish player's agent and intermediary Bayram Tutumlu who has a good relationship with Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain.

Madrid sports tabloid As says that the transfer of Van der Vaart is strongly supported by Barcelona unofficial adviser Johan Cruijff and that Getafe manager Michael Laudrup, who is one of the candidates to replace Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard, would have asked to sign Van der Vaart.

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