Ruud Van Nistelrooy's footballing career began in 1993 playing for FC Den Bosch. He spent four seasons there, in the Dutch second division, before being transferred to Heerenveen. After a few months, PSV Eindhoven had seen enough and, halfway through 1998, paid up EUR 7.5m, a record-breaking amount between Dutch clubs, to sign a striker that had just turned 22 years old. The trust that PSV had deposited in him was soon repaid. Van Nistelrooy finished his first campaign in Eindhoven as Dutch League MVP and top-scorer, with 31 goals, which also placed him as runner-up of the European Golden Boot. The following season, Van Nistelrooy had scored 29 by March 2000.
Manchester United had already reached an agreement with PSV to sign him for GBP 19m. But on 6 March 2000, in a friendly match against Silkeborg, Van Nistelrooy suffered a knee injury. In spite of the injury, he was elected Best Dutch Player and was Golden Boot runner-up for the second consecutive year.
Nevertheless, any long-term doubts regarding his future vanished in March of next year. He returned from his injury, materialised the transfer to Man U, finally, and caused a spectacular raucous in the English Premiership. Among other feats, during his second season in 2002/03, he scored 25 goals, being instrumental in the Premier League title that the 'Red Devils' conquered that year. Van Nistelrooy managed to score 44 goals in all competitions that seasons.
For the Netherlands, Ruud van Nistelrooy has a return of more than a goal every other game, scoring 28 times in 54 appearances. For Manchester United he scored 150 goals in 219 games. Spanning his time at PSV Eindhoven and Manchester United, Van Nistelrooy has scored 43 goals in 54 UEFA Champions League matches, an enviable return for any striker.
However, despite being the English Premiership’s second highest scorer with 21 goals in the 2005–06 season, Van Nistelrooy had to settle for a place on the substitutes’ bench after being dropped for the Carling Cup final against Wigan Athletic. He scored against West Ham on his return to the first team on March 29 but was dropped to the bench again for the next match against Bolton. He did come on as a second half substitute, though, and scored the winner in a 2–1 victory. It was his 150th and final goal for Manchester United. During the World Cup there was considerable doubt as to whether Van Nistelrooy would continue to be a United player, with strong rumours that he might go to Germany or Spain. On July 14 it was confirmed that he wanted to leave the club. On July 28 he passed a medical at Real Madrid.
Career in the Netherlands
Van Nistelrooy started off as a central defender and was then moved to central midfield for Dutch second division side, FC Den Bosch, but was converted into a centre forward at SC Heerenveen in 1997. In 1998, on his 22nd birthday, he was signed by PSV Eindhoven for ƒ14 million or €6.3 million, a then-record sum of money for a transfer between two Dutch football clubs.
Van Nistelrooy repaid the faith by scoring 31 goals in 34 matches in his first season at PSV and being voted Dutch Player of the Year by his fellow professionals. In his second season, he notched up another 29 goals.
Manchester United
Manchester United almost signed Van Nistelrooy on 25 April 2000 for a fee of £18.3 million. However, the deal fell through when Van Nistelrooy failed a medical due to a cruciate knee ligament injury which he suffered against Danish side Silkeborg on 9 March 2000.
However Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson persevered and almost exactly a year later, 24-year-old Van Nistelrooy signed for a then British transfer record of £19 million on 23 April 2001 from PSV. During his first season at Manchester United, he proved his worth by scoring 23 goals in 32 games, achieving a feat of scoring in a record eight consecutive FA Premier League games. He also scored ten Champions League goals capping an incredible debut season by being named the PFA Players' Player of the Year.
During the following year, the 2002–03 season, Van Nistelrooy scored 25 Premier League goals (including a stunning goal which he started from the half way line against Fulham) and 12 goals in European competition while leading Manchester United to the Premier League title. He also broke the record for scoring goals in European competitions for Manchester United in this season.
Van Nistelrooy started off the 2003–04 season in spectacular fashion, scoring twice in his first two league games. He also managed to score his 100th and 101st goals for the club against Everton at Goodison Park on 7 February 2004, as United earned a 4–3 Premiership victory. In that season, Van Nistelrooy was famously attacked by Martin Keown in a match against Keown's team, Arsenal, as well as signing a new contract which would keep him at the club until the summer of 2008 and the age of 32.
In 2004 in a survey on Manchester United's official website Ruud was voted "Ferguson's best bargain buy" by over 10,000 fans worldwide even beating the likes of Roy Keane, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Peter Schmeichel to the accolade.
Van Nistelrooy missed a large part of the 2004–05 Premiership season through injury, but was still the top goalscorer in the Champions League with 10 goals. He is currently the fourth most prolific scorer in European Cup / UEFA Champions League together with Eusébio, with 47 goals, only behind Alfredo Di Stéfano, Andriy Shevchenko, and current leader Raúl.
At the start of the 2005–06 season, Van Nistelrooy returned to form, scoring in United's first four Premiership games. He went on to finish as the second-highest scorer in the Premiership with 21 goals, behind Thierry Henry of Arsenal.
Exit from Manchester United
On February 26, 2006, Van Nistelrooy was an unused substitute at Manchester United's League Cup final against Wigan Athletic. His place in the line-up was given to Louis Saha, who scored the second goal in a 4–0 win. This action caused a lot of controversy within fans and in the media, but the player declined claims that he had had a rift with manager Sir Alex Ferguson. He was also left on the bench for six consecutive matches. However, in the following game against West Ham, Van Nistelrooy returned to the Manchester United starting line-up as captain, and scored the winning goal. In the game the following Saturday, against Bolton Wanderers, Van Nistelrooy found himself back on the bench — however, he came on as a substitute, and for the second successive game, scored the winning goal, his 150th for the club. Having not started for seven of the last eight games, Van Nistelrooy lost his place as the joint-highest goalscorer in the Premiership this season with 21 goals, with Thierry Henry having scored 27. Van Nistelrooy finished his United career as the most prolific goalscorer in the club's history with a greater goals to games ratio than any previous United striker.
Fresh doubt spread over Van Nistelrooy's future when he was left out of the team to play Charlton Athletic in the final game of the season on 7 May 2006. Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that Van Nistelrooy, angry at the decision, left the ground and went home 3 hours before kick-off. Although, other reports suggest that he was forced to leave the ground by Ferguson. Ferguson further said that he was left out of the team because of a number of issues which he claimed affected the spirit at the club. United won the game 4–0, with youngster Giuseppe Rossi playing the match.
On May 9, 2006, Setanta Sports claimed to exclusively reveal the real reason behind Van Nistelrooy's exclusion from the squad for the game against Charlton. According to Setanta, Van Nistelrooy and team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo had allegedly come to blows during a training session. Ruud allegedly criticised Ronaldo's tendency to keep the ball instead of passing to his team-mates, as a result of this outburst, a fight broke out. Van Nistelrooy then, allegedly, said "go running to your daddy". Although Ronaldo's father had died earlier in the season, the article claims that Van Nistelrooy was not referring to Ronaldo's father, but to his fellow Portuguese Carlos Queiroz.
In early September 2006, Van Nistelrooy made a well publicised criticism of his former club, saying he was "stabbed in the back" after years of loyalty to Manchester United.
However in October 2006, Van Nistelrooy stated that despite his fallout with Ferguson, he still admired him and he "owed him a lot" for waiting for him despite his cruciate knee injury. He also insisted he has great fondness of his five years at Manchester United.
In total, Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals from exactly 200 starts and 19 substitute appearances for United, and is the club's all-time leading scorer in European Cup with 38 goals. Ferguson has stated that there are no hard feelings between himself and Van Nistelrooy.
Real Madrid
On 14 July 2006, Ferguson confirmed that van Nistelrooy wanted to leave Manchester United, and Real Madrid announced on July 27, 2006 that van Nistelrooy was transferring to Real (there had been speculation about a possible move to Bayern Munich). His transfer fee was reported to be €15 million (£10.3 m), and he signed a 3-year contract with the club on 28 July. In his second match in the Spanish Primera División, van Nistelrooy scored a hat-trick against newly promoted Levante UD. He scored 2 goals on a Real Madrid 5-1 win over Dynamo Kiev in the first group stage of the UEFA Champions League. During el clasico match on October 22, 2006, Van Nistelrooy scored 7 minutes into the second half to help defeat league champions FC Barcelona. On November 12, 2006, he scored all four of Real Madrid's goals in a 4-1 win against CA Osasuna. Van Nistelrooy also scored on February 10, 2007, against Real Sociedad in a 2-1 win. And on March 10, 2007, van Nistelrooy scored 2 goals against Barcelona, increasing his tally against Barcelona to 3 goals in 2 games. On April 21 he scored a volley in a match against Valencia where Real Madrid won 2-1. Furthermore, on May 6, he scored 2 out of the 3 goals of his team against Sevilla. In the next match, against RCD Espanyol, Real Madrid were trailing 0-2 when van Nistelrooy scored Real Madrid's opener and they won 4-3, with the winner coming from Gonzalo Higuaín in the 89th minute. In Real's penultimate game, away at Real Zaragoza, twice Van Nistelrooy brought Madrid back level, notably scrambling home in the dying minutes. In the same minute as Van Nistelrooy's second goal, Raul Tamudo equalised for Espanyol against Barcelona and Sevilla drew 0-0 at Real Mallorca, ensuring that Real Madrid went into the last match at the top of the table. Real Madrid went on to win the 2006/2007 La Liga title on the final day of the season, with a 3-1 win. Van Nistelrooy finished top scorer in his first season with the club (see Pichichi Trophy) with 25 goals ahead of Diego Milito from Real Zaragoza with 23 goals, Ronaldinho from F.C. Barcelona with 22 goals and Freddie Kanoute from Sevilla with 21 goals.
National Team
Van Nistelrooy was selected to play for the Netherlands at Euro 2004. Prior to the team's opening match against Germany, Van Nistelrooy stoked up his country's already intense rivalry with the Germans by saying that emotions would be intensified by lingering resentfulness over World War II. His comments were severely criticised by the German media. During the match, he scored an acrobatic volley, one of the goals of the tournament, to silence his critics and take Holland to the next round. He shared the goal-scoring lead in the group phase with England teenage sensation Wayne Rooney, whom he later played alongside at Manchester United, and was one of only two players in the tournament to score goals in all three of their team's group matches (the other was Czech Milan Baroš). Van Nistelrooy was selected in the Netherlands squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He played and was substituted in all three games in the league stage and scored in the game against the Ivory Coast. Van Nistelrooy was dropped for the knock-out game against Portugal, which Netherlands went on to lose.
Recently, Netherlands coach Marco van Basten, once again dropped Van Nistelrooy from the squad which played the Republic of Ireland in a friendly game preparing for UEFA Euro 2008 qualification. In an interview shortly after he stated Van Basten is not only selective on football qualities, but also on his "I-like-you-or-not-level". He said Van Basten doesn't want certain personalities in his squad and that they had two conflicts together during the 2006 FIFA World Cup with Van Basten claiming that Van Nistelrooy underperformed in all groups matches. As a result Dirk Kuyt played instead of Van Nistelrooy in their next match against Portugal. After Klaas Jan Huntelaar was injured and unable to play for Holland for the Euro 2008 qualification matches against Bulgaria and Belarus, Van Nistelrooy declined his invitation.
Ruud was the official FIFA/SOS ambassador for the Netherlands for the 2006 World Cup. On the 23rd of January 2007, Van Nistelrooy had officially announced his retirement from international football. However, he has been quoted as saying he would like to represent the Netherlands at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
However, after several phone conversations, Van Nistelrooy and Van Basten restored the peace between them and the latter announced on May 25, 2007, that Van Nistelrooy would return to Oranje and that they would work together again. Van Nistelrooy was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
Manchester United had already reached an agreement with PSV to sign him for GBP 19m. But on 6 March 2000, in a friendly match against Silkeborg, Van Nistelrooy suffered a knee injury. In spite of the injury, he was elected Best Dutch Player and was Golden Boot runner-up for the second consecutive year.
Nevertheless, any long-term doubts regarding his future vanished in March of next year. He returned from his injury, materialised the transfer to Man U, finally, and caused a spectacular raucous in the English Premiership. Among other feats, during his second season in 2002/03, he scored 25 goals, being instrumental in the Premier League title that the 'Red Devils' conquered that year. Van Nistelrooy managed to score 44 goals in all competitions that seasons.
For the Netherlands, Ruud van Nistelrooy has a return of more than a goal every other game, scoring 28 times in 54 appearances. For Manchester United he scored 150 goals in 219 games. Spanning his time at PSV Eindhoven and Manchester United, Van Nistelrooy has scored 43 goals in 54 UEFA Champions League matches, an enviable return for any striker.
However, despite being the English Premiership’s second highest scorer with 21 goals in the 2005–06 season, Van Nistelrooy had to settle for a place on the substitutes’ bench after being dropped for the Carling Cup final against Wigan Athletic. He scored against West Ham on his return to the first team on March 29 but was dropped to the bench again for the next match against Bolton. He did come on as a second half substitute, though, and scored the winner in a 2–1 victory. It was his 150th and final goal for Manchester United. During the World Cup there was considerable doubt as to whether Van Nistelrooy would continue to be a United player, with strong rumours that he might go to Germany or Spain. On July 14 it was confirmed that he wanted to leave the club. On July 28 he passed a medical at Real Madrid.
Career in the Netherlands
Van Nistelrooy started off as a central defender and was then moved to central midfield for Dutch second division side, FC Den Bosch, but was converted into a centre forward at SC Heerenveen in 1997. In 1998, on his 22nd birthday, he was signed by PSV Eindhoven for ƒ14 million or €6.3 million, a then-record sum of money for a transfer between two Dutch football clubs.
Van Nistelrooy repaid the faith by scoring 31 goals in 34 matches in his first season at PSV and being voted Dutch Player of the Year by his fellow professionals. In his second season, he notched up another 29 goals.
Manchester United
Manchester United almost signed Van Nistelrooy on 25 April 2000 for a fee of £18.3 million. However, the deal fell through when Van Nistelrooy failed a medical due to a cruciate knee ligament injury which he suffered against Danish side Silkeborg on 9 March 2000.
However Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson persevered and almost exactly a year later, 24-year-old Van Nistelrooy signed for a then British transfer record of £19 million on 23 April 2001 from PSV. During his first season at Manchester United, he proved his worth by scoring 23 goals in 32 games, achieving a feat of scoring in a record eight consecutive FA Premier League games. He also scored ten Champions League goals capping an incredible debut season by being named the PFA Players' Player of the Year.
During the following year, the 2002–03 season, Van Nistelrooy scored 25 Premier League goals (including a stunning goal which he started from the half way line against Fulham) and 12 goals in European competition while leading Manchester United to the Premier League title. He also broke the record for scoring goals in European competitions for Manchester United in this season.
Van Nistelrooy started off the 2003–04 season in spectacular fashion, scoring twice in his first two league games. He also managed to score his 100th and 101st goals for the club against Everton at Goodison Park on 7 February 2004, as United earned a 4–3 Premiership victory. In that season, Van Nistelrooy was famously attacked by Martin Keown in a match against Keown's team, Arsenal, as well as signing a new contract which would keep him at the club until the summer of 2008 and the age of 32.
In 2004 in a survey on Manchester United's official website Ruud was voted "Ferguson's best bargain buy" by over 10,000 fans worldwide even beating the likes of Roy Keane, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Peter Schmeichel to the accolade.
Van Nistelrooy missed a large part of the 2004–05 Premiership season through injury, but was still the top goalscorer in the Champions League with 10 goals. He is currently the fourth most prolific scorer in European Cup / UEFA Champions League together with Eusébio, with 47 goals, only behind Alfredo Di Stéfano, Andriy Shevchenko, and current leader Raúl.
At the start of the 2005–06 season, Van Nistelrooy returned to form, scoring in United's first four Premiership games. He went on to finish as the second-highest scorer in the Premiership with 21 goals, behind Thierry Henry of Arsenal.
Exit from Manchester United
On February 26, 2006, Van Nistelrooy was an unused substitute at Manchester United's League Cup final against Wigan Athletic. His place in the line-up was given to Louis Saha, who scored the second goal in a 4–0 win. This action caused a lot of controversy within fans and in the media, but the player declined claims that he had had a rift with manager Sir Alex Ferguson. He was also left on the bench for six consecutive matches. However, in the following game against West Ham, Van Nistelrooy returned to the Manchester United starting line-up as captain, and scored the winning goal. In the game the following Saturday, against Bolton Wanderers, Van Nistelrooy found himself back on the bench — however, he came on as a substitute, and for the second successive game, scored the winning goal, his 150th for the club. Having not started for seven of the last eight games, Van Nistelrooy lost his place as the joint-highest goalscorer in the Premiership this season with 21 goals, with Thierry Henry having scored 27. Van Nistelrooy finished his United career as the most prolific goalscorer in the club's history with a greater goals to games ratio than any previous United striker.
Fresh doubt spread over Van Nistelrooy's future when he was left out of the team to play Charlton Athletic in the final game of the season on 7 May 2006. Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that Van Nistelrooy, angry at the decision, left the ground and went home 3 hours before kick-off. Although, other reports suggest that he was forced to leave the ground by Ferguson. Ferguson further said that he was left out of the team because of a number of issues which he claimed affected the spirit at the club. United won the game 4–0, with youngster Giuseppe Rossi playing the match.
On May 9, 2006, Setanta Sports claimed to exclusively reveal the real reason behind Van Nistelrooy's exclusion from the squad for the game against Charlton. According to Setanta, Van Nistelrooy and team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo had allegedly come to blows during a training session. Ruud allegedly criticised Ronaldo's tendency to keep the ball instead of passing to his team-mates, as a result of this outburst, a fight broke out. Van Nistelrooy then, allegedly, said "go running to your daddy". Although Ronaldo's father had died earlier in the season, the article claims that Van Nistelrooy was not referring to Ronaldo's father, but to his fellow Portuguese Carlos Queiroz.
In early September 2006, Van Nistelrooy made a well publicised criticism of his former club, saying he was "stabbed in the back" after years of loyalty to Manchester United.
However in October 2006, Van Nistelrooy stated that despite his fallout with Ferguson, he still admired him and he "owed him a lot" for waiting for him despite his cruciate knee injury. He also insisted he has great fondness of his five years at Manchester United.
In total, Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals from exactly 200 starts and 19 substitute appearances for United, and is the club's all-time leading scorer in European Cup with 38 goals. Ferguson has stated that there are no hard feelings between himself and Van Nistelrooy.
Real Madrid
On 14 July 2006, Ferguson confirmed that van Nistelrooy wanted to leave Manchester United, and Real Madrid announced on July 27, 2006 that van Nistelrooy was transferring to Real (there had been speculation about a possible move to Bayern Munich). His transfer fee was reported to be €15 million (£10.3 m), and he signed a 3-year contract with the club on 28 July. In his second match in the Spanish Primera División, van Nistelrooy scored a hat-trick against newly promoted Levante UD. He scored 2 goals on a Real Madrid 5-1 win over Dynamo Kiev in the first group stage of the UEFA Champions League. During el clasico match on October 22, 2006, Van Nistelrooy scored 7 minutes into the second half to help defeat league champions FC Barcelona. On November 12, 2006, he scored all four of Real Madrid's goals in a 4-1 win against CA Osasuna. Van Nistelrooy also scored on February 10, 2007, against Real Sociedad in a 2-1 win. And on March 10, 2007, van Nistelrooy scored 2 goals against Barcelona, increasing his tally against Barcelona to 3 goals in 2 games. On April 21 he scored a volley in a match against Valencia where Real Madrid won 2-1. Furthermore, on May 6, he scored 2 out of the 3 goals of his team against Sevilla. In the next match, against RCD Espanyol, Real Madrid were trailing 0-2 when van Nistelrooy scored Real Madrid's opener and they won 4-3, with the winner coming from Gonzalo Higuaín in the 89th minute. In Real's penultimate game, away at Real Zaragoza, twice Van Nistelrooy brought Madrid back level, notably scrambling home in the dying minutes. In the same minute as Van Nistelrooy's second goal, Raul Tamudo equalised for Espanyol against Barcelona and Sevilla drew 0-0 at Real Mallorca, ensuring that Real Madrid went into the last match at the top of the table. Real Madrid went on to win the 2006/2007 La Liga title on the final day of the season, with a 3-1 win. Van Nistelrooy finished top scorer in his first season with the club (see Pichichi Trophy) with 25 goals ahead of Diego Milito from Real Zaragoza with 23 goals, Ronaldinho from F.C. Barcelona with 22 goals and Freddie Kanoute from Sevilla with 21 goals.
National Team
Van Nistelrooy was selected to play for the Netherlands at Euro 2004. Prior to the team's opening match against Germany, Van Nistelrooy stoked up his country's already intense rivalry with the Germans by saying that emotions would be intensified by lingering resentfulness over World War II. His comments were severely criticised by the German media. During the match, he scored an acrobatic volley, one of the goals of the tournament, to silence his critics and take Holland to the next round. He shared the goal-scoring lead in the group phase with England teenage sensation Wayne Rooney, whom he later played alongside at Manchester United, and was one of only two players in the tournament to score goals in all three of their team's group matches (the other was Czech Milan Baroš). Van Nistelrooy was selected in the Netherlands squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He played and was substituted in all three games in the league stage and scored in the game against the Ivory Coast. Van Nistelrooy was dropped for the knock-out game against Portugal, which Netherlands went on to lose.
Recently, Netherlands coach Marco van Basten, once again dropped Van Nistelrooy from the squad which played the Republic of Ireland in a friendly game preparing for UEFA Euro 2008 qualification. In an interview shortly after he stated Van Basten is not only selective on football qualities, but also on his "I-like-you-or-not-level". He said Van Basten doesn't want certain personalities in his squad and that they had two conflicts together during the 2006 FIFA World Cup with Van Basten claiming that Van Nistelrooy underperformed in all groups matches. As a result Dirk Kuyt played instead of Van Nistelrooy in their next match against Portugal. After Klaas Jan Huntelaar was injured and unable to play for Holland for the Euro 2008 qualification matches against Bulgaria and Belarus, Van Nistelrooy declined his invitation.
Ruud was the official FIFA/SOS ambassador for the Netherlands for the 2006 World Cup. On the 23rd of January 2007, Van Nistelrooy had officially announced his retirement from international football. However, he has been quoted as saying he would like to represent the Netherlands at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
However, after several phone conversations, Van Nistelrooy and Van Basten restored the peace between them and the latter announced on May 25, 2007, that Van Nistelrooy would return to Oranje and that they would work together again. Van Nistelrooy was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
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