Former Tottenham playmaker Rafael van der Vaart joins Danish side Midtjylland

The former Netherlands international played for Real Betis last season, but only made seven appearances and had not featured since January.

"Today is a great day for me and the club," he said in the news conference.

"It's a young club with a lot of young players. Of course, I'm a little bit older so I hope I can help them with my experience. It's a perfect match."

The 33-year-old, who has played for both Real Madrid and Tottenham, earned 109 caps for his country.

The midfielder made his name at Ajax, coming through the ranks at their youth academy at a similar time to Wesley Sneijder.

"The academy here is great," he added. "I had the same in Ajax, which is one of the best youth academy's. Mentally, to reach the top is hard, and staying there is hard so it'll will be good to see the young players.

"There are a few really good teams in this league. You can compare it with the Dutch league as others are not so good.

"I had a long holiday but I want to play football. I trained with Betis for two weeks, but I was not playing for the team."