Earlier today, Hamburg confirmed the signing of Rafael van der Vaart from Tottenham. He has agreed a three-year deal with his former club for a fee reported to be £10m.
The 29-year-old has spent the last two seasons at Tottenham after joining from Real Madrid on transfer deadline day 2010.
The Dutchman played at Hamburg from 2005-08, making over 90 appearances and scoring 39 goal.
After the deal had been completed, the German club tweeted: “It’s official. Welcome home”, with a picture of the Netherlands midfielder in a number 23 shirt.
The news came hours after Van der Vaart was dropped from the Dutch squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Turkey and Hungary, with coach Louis van Gaal saying he had not played enough club football recently.
For Tottenham, VDV scored 15 times in 36 appearances during his first season, with an additional 13 in the following campaign.
Hamburg have made a poor start this term, losing at home to Nuremberg in their Bundesliga opener on Saturday and getting knocked out of the German Cup by third tier Karlsruher the week before, they’ll be hoping the return of VDV will improve their fortunes.
Also moving on is defender Danny Rose who has joined Sunderland on a season-long loan while Real Mallorca have agreed to sign Mexico forward Giovani Dos Santos on a four-year deal.