Van der Vaart: This young football is on the pitch

The footsteps are huge, the pressure is hardly imaginable: when world champions and Champions League winners get offspring, millions of fans take a close look. Are the sons just as awesome as their famous fathers? The leap to the professional for young people does not always work.

Rafael van der Vaart (42) became a professional at Ajax Amsterdam, and he ran more than 100 times for the Dutch national team. Damian van der Vaart (19), his son with Sylvie Meis (47), is still a little removed from that – but at least: He has a professional contract with Ajax in his pocket. In January 2025 with the 19-year-old until 2027. So far, however, he has not been allowed to appear in the A team, instead he should establish himself in the U23.

Jürgen Klinsmann (61) became a striker with the German national team world and European champions and played for Inter Milan and FC Bayern. His son Jonathan Klinsmann (28), on the other hand, is a goalkeeper: With his current club FC Cesena, he rose to Italian series B and made it number one between the posts for the first time. Previously, he played second goalkeeper for La Galaxy, among others, and ran for the U23 of the USA.

It will be particularly exciting for the next generation of Ronaldo: Cristiano Júnior, the 15-year-old son of the five-time world footballer, has now been nominated. Like his father, he currently plays in Saudi Arabia at Al-Nassr FC. When Cristiano Ronaldo (40) has only inherited half of his ambition to his son, there is still a lot to do with the football world.

Zinédine Zidane (53) won the Ballon D’Or, became world champion with France and won the Champions League three times as a coach. His four sons all wanted to step into his footsteps – with very different success.

Enzo (29), the oldest, played in the youth of Juventus and Real Madrid, but never made the breakthrough. Also in the second Spanish and French league, he could not prevail and finally landed at the Spanish third division team CF Fuenlabrada. At the age of 29 he ended his career there in 2024.

Brother Luca (27) made it as a goalkeeper to two missions for Real Madrid and up to the U20 of the French national team, but now “only” plays in the second Spanish league at FC Granada. Théo (23) is also on the road in Laliga 2: he plays at Córdoba and was also in the French U20. The younger brother Elyaz currently has nine missions in the U20. At the club level, he still struggles for his chance and recently moved from real youth to Betis Seville to the U19.

But there are also soccer sons who give up the dream even earlier again-Romeo Beckham (22), son of world star David Beckham (50), ended his football career at the age of 21, for example. After becoming the best template of the season at Inter Miami II, he switched to FC Brentford B in 2023, which, however, only plays friendly games. There he ended his sporting career last year to focus on his model career.

Even earlier, Cristian Totti (19), whose father Francesco Totti (48) wrote history as a world champion, hung the football shoes on the nail. Like his famous dad, he played in various youth teams of AS Rome before switching the club several times. His last stop was Olbia Calcio in Series D, in December he resolved his contract after only six missions. His former coach Marco Amelia that Cristian had talent and potential, but: “The fact that he is the son of Totti influenced the reviews.”