Sylvie van der Vaart

Sylvie van der Vaart, born on 13 April 1978 as Sylvie Meis.
By her 18th birthday Sylvie has decided that she wants to be a model and she is cast for various shoots by casting agencies. After television enters her life, she gains popularity through her performance at FoxKids and music station TMF. She hosts several events at TMF, such as presenting the annual TMF-awards, conducting interviews with international artists such as Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue. In addition, she features in video clips and the Dutch TV-series “Costa”. In collaboration with the firm of JPC she also introduces the “Pure by Sylvie” jewellery line to the Dutch market, which is successful from the start.
After being elected Holland’s sexiest female in 2003, she develops a relationship with Ajax soccer player Rafael van der Vaart. Due in part to the fame from their individual careers they soon become Holland’s most famous “soccer couple”. Their fame expands after their marriage on 10 June 2005 and live coverage of the wedding on SBS, with the broadcast gaining high ratings in Holland.
Both Rafael en Sylvie are now managed by the same agency, Essel Sports in Amsterdam, allowing them to optimally attune their interests to their separate careers. Their fame has its downside, though: at Ajax matches, with Rafael as captain, the adversaries’ supporters take to chanting insults aimed at Sylvie. The ensuing discussion whether or not offensive chants should result in match suspension even triggers a political debate.
In the summer of 2005 Rafael and Sylvie van der Vaart leave for Hamburg, where Rafael will play for soccer club HSV. Sylvie follows her husband’s lead and ends her regular television obligations in Holland. She continues to do single television performances for SBS and her jewellery-line “Pure by Sylvie” is expanded further and introduced to the German market in 2006.
Several interviews with Sylvie are published in Germany and there too her fame spreads rapidly. She is elected “Miss Bundesliga”, the prettiest woman in the German league, with the media providing full-blown coverage of her presence in Germany. Various interviews and photo sessions appear in German magazines and with Rafael’s successful start with HSV and theWorld Cup in Germany just around the corner, their reputation on the German market fast increases.
Several television stations call upon Sylvie with performance requests, but after the announcing her pregnancy in the course of 2006, Sylvie declares her first and foremost focus on her pregnancy in addition to her support of Rafael’s soccer career.
Right before the World Cup in Germany, Damián Rafael van der Vaart is born in Holland. After spending more than a month in Germany with the Dutch National Team, he returns home to Holland after its defeat, taking the chance to enjoy a few weeks’ vacation with their small family. In the middle of July they will leave for Hamburg again, where Rafael’s soccer season for HSV will again commence.