Ruud van Nistelrooy
Personal information
Full name	Rutgerus Johannes Martinius van Nistelrooij
Date of birth	July 1 1976 (1976--) (age 31)
Place of birth	Oss, North Brabant , Netherlands
Height	{}
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Real Madrid
Number	17
Youth clubs
1993–1997	FC Den Bosch
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993–1997 1997–1998 1998–2001 2001–2006 2006-	FC Den Bosch SC Heerenveen PSV Manchester United Real Madrid	069 (17) 031 (13) 067 (62) 150 (95) 043 (27)
National team2
1998–	Netherlands	058 (30)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:56, 13 October 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 19:14, 6 September 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Rutgerus Johannes Martinius van Nistelrooy (originally spelled Van Nistelrooij) (born 1 July 1976 in Oss, North Brabant) is a Dutch footballer who plays as a centre forward for Real Madrid and the Dutch national team. He previously starred for Manchester United, where he holds the record for being the club's top scorer in European competition.

Biography

Personal life

Van Nistelrooy married his girlfriend, Leontine Slaats, in July 2004. The couple had their first child, a baby girl named Moa Annette on 26 September 2006.^[1][2][3]

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.

He started his professional career with Den Bosch as a midfielder in 1993 after playing part-time for Nooit Gedacht and Magriet. Played only twice for Den Bosch in his first season, and it wasn't until 1997 that he hit form.

After netting 12 goals in 13 games, Heerenveen came calling and he made the switch, scoring 13 goals in 31 games in his first season.

In first season at PSV scored 31 goals in 34 matches - the highest in the league and second-highest in Europe and was voted Dutch Player of the Year by fellow professionals.

Van Nistelrooy was tracked by many of the top clubs due to his prolific record with PSV, in his second season at the club he had netted another 29 goals and was again the top scorer in Holland.

He returned to action in March 2001 and was immediately back among the goals, scoring twice to help PSV into the Dutch Cup final.

His first international goal came in 1999 in a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Morocco.

Darren Ferguson, son of Sir Alex, alerted his father to the player's capabilities but PSV Eindhoven stole in to pay Heerenveen £3.4m on his 22nd birthday. Just four months later he made his debut for Holland against Germany.

The transfer initially collapsed in the summer of 2000 when Van Nistelrooy broke down in training with a cruciate knee ligament injury just days after an £18.5million move to Old Trafford had hit the skids after United's medical team had found problems with his medial ligaments.

United were forced to pay PSV for an increased price of £19million for the player's services and the forward passed through a medical.

He eventually joined Manchester United a British record fee of £19million in April 2001. He signed a five-year contract with the then Premiership champions.

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 in training in March 2000.

However, Manchester United and Alex Ferguson persevered, and almost exactly a year later, 24-year-old van Nistelrooy signed for a then British transfer record, and still the Dutch football 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 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 the Champions League (a tournament record) while leading Manchester United to the Premier League title.

Van Nistelrooy started off the 2003–04 season in spectacular fashion, scoring twice in his first two league games. Which added on to his run of form at the end of the previous season meant he equalled the all time top flight scoring in consecutive games record of 10 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 he broke Denis Law's European goal scoring record for Manchester United. Van Nistelrooy was famously attacked by Martin Keown in a match against Keown's team, Arsenal, after missing a penalty against the London side for the third time, 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 8 goals. He is currently the fourth most prolific scorer in European Cup/UEFA Champions League together with Eusébio, with 52 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

Van Nistelrooy was an unused substitute in the Football League Cup Final 2006 against Wigan Athletic. Louis Saha started instead, scoring the second goal in a 4–0 win. This action was seen as controversial by fans and the media, but the player denied claims that he had had a rift with the manager. He was subsequently left on the bench for six consecutive matches. However, he returned to the starting line-up as captain against West Ham, and scored the winning goal. He also scored the winning goal as a substitute against Bolton. However, the period spent as a substitute enabled Thierry Henry to overtake him as the Premiership's leading scorer.

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. Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that van Nistelrooy, angry at the decision, left the ground and went home 3 hours before kick-off. United subsequently won the game 4-0.

On 9 May 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.^[4] Both players have denied any such incident.

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. 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.^[5] However he subsequently stated that he still has respect for the United staff, and 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 27 July 2006 that van Nistelrooy was transferring to Real (there had been speculation about a possible move to Bayern Munich).^[6] His transfer fee was reported to be €18 million (£12.3m), and he signed a 3-year contract with the club on 28 July.

First season 2006-2007

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 Kyiv in the first group stage of the UEFA Champions League. During the el clasico match on 22 October 2006, van Nistelrooy scored 7 minutes into the second half to help defeat league champions FC Barcelona. On 12 November 2006, he scored all four of Real Madrid's goals in a 4-1 win against CA Osasuna. Van Nistelrooy also scored on 10 February 2007, against Real Sociedad in a 2-1 win. And on 10 March 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 RCD 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, and equalling the longest consecutive scoring streak in La Liga history by hitting the target in seven straight matches; a feat only achieved by Hugo Sanchez^[7]. Ruud van Nistelrooy was voted as the Best Signing, Best Player, Best Striker and as the author of the Best Goal of last season by over 140,000 users in a survey published by As.com. Real Madrid was chosen as Best Team of the campaign.

Second season 2007-2008

Ruud scored his first league goal for the new season against Villarreal CF that got Real Madrid in first place in the league for the defending champions. On 18 September Van Nistelrooy scored the winning goal against Werder Bremen, as well as setting up a Raúl header in the 16th minute, to give Real Madrid the 3 points of the group stages in the UEFA Champions League. On October 3rd he scored two goals against Lazio Roma in the second match in the group stages.

In 2007, Van Nistelrooy was selected as a nominee for the FIFA World Player of the Year.

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 the Netherlands 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.^[8] 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.^[9] After Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was injured and unable to play for the Netherlands 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.^[10]

On 23 January 2007, van Nistelrooy had officially announced his retirement from international football.^[11] 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 25 May 2007, that van Nistelrooy would return to the Oranje and that they would work together again.^[12][13]. Confirming this fact, van Nistelrooy was among the 33-player provisional squad, and then confirmed among the 20-player definitive squad, for a friendly match between the Netherlands and Switzerland, which will take place on 22 August 2007.^{[14] [15]}

On September 8, 2007, Van Nistelrooy scored in his first competitive international match back from retirement in the Euro 2008 Qualifying 2-0 home win over Bulgaria^[16], and only four days later scored the winning goal in injury time of Holland's away clash with Albania.

Van Nistelrooy was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.^[17]

Trivia

• Van Nistelrooy was born on the same day as Patrick Kluivert, the man he replaced as centre forward for the Netherlands.

Statistics

Club

All-Time Club Performance

Club	Season	Domestic League		Domestic Cup		League Cup		European Competition		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
FC Den Bosch	93-94	2	0			-	-	0	0	2	0
	94-95	15	3			-	-	0	0	15	3
	95-96	21	2			-	-	0	0	21	2
	96-97	31	12			-	-	0	0	31	12
Total		69	17			-	-	0	0	69	17
SC Heerenveen	97-98	31	13			-	-	0	0	31	13
Total		31	13			-	-	0	0	31	13
PSV Eindhoven	98-99	34	31			-	-	7	6	41	37
	99-00	23	29			-	-	8	3	31	32
	00-01	10	2			-	-	0	0	10	2
Total		67	62			-	-	15	9	82	71
Manchester United	01-02	32	23	1	2	1	1	11	10	45	36
	02-03	33	25	3	4	4	1	10	14	50	44
	03-04	30	20	3	6	1	0	7	4	41	30
	04-05	17	6	3	2	0	0	6	8	26	16
	05-06	28	21	2	0	1	1	8	2	39	24
Total		140	95	12	14	7	3	42	38	201	150
Real Madrid	06-07	38	25	1	2	-	-	7	6	46	33
	07-08	5	2	0	0	-	-	2	3	7	5
Total		43	27	1	2	-	-	9	9	53	38
Career Totals		350	214	13	16	7	3	66	56	436	289

National team

All-Time National Team Performance

National Team	Year	Friendlies		International Competition		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Netherlands	1998	1	0	0	0	1	0
	1999	8	1	0	0	8	1
	2000	1	0	0	0	1	0
	2001	2	1	5	6	7	7
	2002	3	1	1	0	4	1
	2003	2	0	6	5	8	5
	2004	4	0	7	6	11	6
	2005	1	0	8	5	9	5
	2006	2	2	3	1	5	3
	2007	1	0	3	2	4	2
Total		25	5	33	25	58	30

Awards and honours

Club

• Dutch Eredivisie: 1999-2000, 2000-2001 : With PSV Eindhoven
• Dutch Super Cup: 1999, 2000 : With PSV Eindhoven
• English Premiership: 2002-03 : With Man United
• Community Shield: 2003 : With Man United
• FA Cup: 2004 : With Man United
• English League Cup: 2006 : With Man United
• Spanish La Liga: 2006-2007 With Real Madrid

Individual

• Dutch League Top Scorer: 1998-1999, 1999-2000
• Dutch Player of the Year: 1999, 2000
• Champions League Top Scorer: 2001-02, 2002-03
• Champions League Most Valuable Striker: 2001-2002
• PFA Player of the Year: 2002
• English Premiership Top Scorer: 2002-03
• Spanish La Liga Top Scorer: 2006-2007

References

External links

• Ruud van Nistelrooij profile, detailed club and national team statistics, honours (palmares) and
• Ruud van Nistelrooy career stats at Soccerbase
• UEFA Profile
• Ruud van Nistelrooy at the Internet Movie Database

Awards and achievements titles
Preceded by Jaap Stam	Dutch Footballer of the Year 1998 – 2000	Succeeded by Mark van Bommel
Preceded by Teddy Sheringham	PFA Players' Player of the Year 2002	Succeeded by Thierry Henry
Preceded by Steven Gerrard	PFA Fans' Player of the Year (Premiership) 2002	Succeeded by Thierry Henry
Preceded by Raúl González	UEFA Champions League Best Forward 2002 – 2003	Succeeded by Fernando Morientes
Preceded by Nikos Machlas	Dutch Eredivisie Topscorer 1998 – 2000	Succeeded by Mateja Kežman
Preceded by Thierry Henry	Premier League top scorer 2002 – 2003	Succeeded by Thierry Henry
Preceded by Samuel Eto'o	Spanish League top scorer 2006 – 2007	Succeeded by Incumbent

•  • [ e] Netherlands squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
	1 van der Sar • 2 Jaliens • 3 Boulahrouz • 4 Mathijsen • 5 van Bronckhorst • 6 Landzaat • 7 Kuyt • 8 Cocu • 9 van Nistelrooy • 10 van der Vaart • 11 Robben • 12 Kromkamp • 13 Ooijer • 14 Heitinga • 15 de Cler • 16 Maduro • 17 van Persie • 18 van Bommel • 19 Vennegoor of Hesselink • 20 Sneijder • 21 Babel • 22 Timmer • 23 Stekelenburg • Coach: van Basten

Real Madrid C.F. (current squad)
1 Casillas • 2 Salgado • 3 Pepe • 4 Ramos • 5 Cannavaro • 6 Diarra • 7 Ral • 8 Gago • 9 Soldado • 10 Robinho • 11 Robben • 12 Marcelo • 13 Codina • 14 Guti • 15 Drenthe • 16 Heinze • 17 van Nistelrooy • 18 Saviola • 19 Baptista • 20 Higuan • 21 Metzelder • 22 Torres • 23 Sneijder • 24 Balboa • 25 Dudek • Coach: Schuster