Real offer 20 mln euros for van der Vaart - report

MADRID (AFP) - Real Madrid have offered 20 million euros (31.4 million dollars) to sign Hamburg midfielder Rafael van der Vaart for five seasons, Spanish sports daily Marca said Thursday.

The report comes one day after rival sports daily AS reported that the Spanish champions’ cross-town rivals Atletico Madrid had offered 15 million euros for the 25-year-old Dutch international.

Real Madrid and the Dutch player are in "total" agreement over the transfer, Marca reported without citing sources.

Last week Hamburg’s new coach, Dutchman Martin Jol, said he was counting on the midfielder for the next season which gets underway in mid-August.

Van der Vaart, who joined Hamburg in 2005 and has a contract until 2010, has said that he would like to play in Spain.

"Spain is my preference because my mother Lolita is Spanish," he told Focus magazine in January.

The player wanted to join Spanish side Valencia last season but the management of the German team refused to give the move the green light.

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