Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 2:15 PM

Damián van der Vaart made his unofficial debut in the first team of Esbjerg fB on Wednesday evening. The fifteen-year-old midfielder – the son of Rafael van der Vaart – came in as a substitute in the exhibition game with Aarhus Fremad fifteen minutes before the end. Esbjerg lost the exhibition game with the one level lower Aarhus Fremad by the way with no less than 0-4, so that the club site talks about a ‘black evening’.

Van der Vaart moved in with his father in the summer of 2020 to join Esbjerg’s youth academy. Until then he played for Victoria Hamburg, but with the move to Denmark he followed in his father’s footsteps. Van der Vaart senior ended his career at Esbjerg, where he settled because of the handball career of his girlfriend Estavana Polman. His son apparently impressed in his first year at the club, as he signed his first professional contract in May of the previous year on his 15th birthday.

“Damián can read the game well and has a good overview on the field. We look forward to developing this further in the coming years. With his dynamics, he is also very good at managing his teammates and that fits very well with our playing style,” said head of youth academy Lars Vind at the time about Van der Vaart, who will be with Esbjerg until mid-2023. His debut in Esbjerg’s second team followed in November, in which he scored directly against the reserves of Vejle BK. During the preparation for the second half of the season, Van der Vaart trains with the first team.

Now Van der Vaart has also made his unofficial debut in the first team, where his father is an assistant coach. When Van der Vaart came on the field in minute 74, Esbjerg was already 0-3 behind and the score would eventually rise to 0-4. Esbjerg will start the second half of the season at the second level of Danish football in a week. There, Esbjerg is currently in disappointing eighth place, so promotion to the highest level is not an option for the time being.