Declan Rice, the £100m England and Arsenal star, has been criticized as a “useless” player by former Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart. Van der Vaart’s comments came after England’s disappointing performance at the Euro 2024 championship, which concluded on Sunday.
Van der Vaart accused the 25-year-old Rice of only being adept at making backward passes to defenders. England faced a 2-1 defeat against Spain in the Euro 2024 final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Spain took the lead with a goal from Nico Williams in the 47th minute, but Cole Palmer equalized for England in the 73rd minute. Mikel Oyarzabal scored the decisive goal for Spain in the 86th minute.
Rice, who joined Arsenal from West Ham last summer for a reported initial fee of £100 million—making him the most expensive English player—was deemed underwhelming in the match against Spain.
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Van der Vaart, reacting sharply to Rice’s performance, questioned the validity of his price tag, stating: “€100M for Declan Rice? What does he do? He comes to collect a ball only to pass it back to John Stones. He is useless. If you are truly worth €100M, then you should be able to play a ball forward.”