Ruud van Nistelrooy

Ruud van Nistelrooy (full name Rutgerus Johannes Martinius van Nistelrooij (see letter IJ)); born July 1, 1976 in Oss, North Brabant, Netherlands) is a Dutch football player currently playing for Manchester United. He wears the number 10 for Manchester United and usually the number 9 or 10 for the Netherlands. He married his girlfriend of eight years, Leontine Slaats, in July 2004.

Biography

A prolific striker with an outstanding finishing ability and excellent reflexes, often regarded as one of the best strikers playing today, he is also a regular penalty taker and has agility and balance for his height (1.88 m, 6 2 in), which is often credited to his previous training in gymnastics. For the Netherlands, van Nistelrooy has a return of a goal every other game, scoring 26 times in 50 appearances. For Manchester United he has scored 150 goals in 219 games, as of April 1, 2006. Spanning his time at PSV Eindhoven and Manchester United, Van Nistelrooy has scored 46 goals in 55 UEFA Champions League matches (43 in 54 excluding qualifying matches which are not officially counted by UEFA), an enviable return for any striker.

However, despite being the Barclays Premiership’s second highest scorer with 21 goals this 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 goal for Manchester United. Whether Van Nistelrooy will remain as a United player after the World Cup is in considerable doubt. There are strong rumours that he may go to Germany or Spain and on 14th July it was confirmed that he wanted to leave the club.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/5180156.stm

Career in the Netherlands

In his schooling days, Van Nistelrooy started off as a central defender and then was moved to central midfield for Dutch second division club-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 £4.2 million, a 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 £18.5 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 the 6th 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 said 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 10 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 and 14 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.

Van Nistelrooy was selected to play for the Netherlands at . 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 bitterness 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 now plays 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 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 Stefano, Raúl, and current leader Andriy Shevchenko. He did however, sign a contract a new contact with Manchester United in January 2004, potentially keeping him at the club till 30 June, 2008

At the start of the 2005–06 season, Van Nistelrooy returned to form, scoring in United's first four Premiership games. He has also maintained his place in the Netherlands starting lineup despite pressure from Bayern Munich striker Roy Makaay.

He has now struck up a great striking relationship with Wayne Rooney, both in great form in the 2005–06 season. The pair struck up the deadliest Premiership partnership by netting more than any other two players combined. Although as of late December, the manager Alex Ferguson has been testing a new attacking partnership of Louis Saha alongside Van Nistelrooy's with Wayne Rooney in a withdrawn role, mainly due to the lack of players in midfield.

Controversy at the Club

On February 26, 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 caused lots of controversy but the player declined claims that he has had a rift with manager Sir Alex Ferguson. He was also left on the bench for six consecutive matches and suffered a goal drought, as he was not getting in the starting line up. 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 24. Nowadays, Saha seems to be in the starting XI more often.

Fresh doubt has been 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. Ferguson claimed that Van Nistelrooy, angry at the decision, left the ground and went home 3 hours before kickoff. Although, other reports suggest that he was forced to leave the ground by his manager Sir Alex Ferguson ^*. Ferguson further said that he was left out of the team because of a "number of issues": "There have been a couple of issues during the week that concerned me in terms of the spirit at the club," he said. "On such an important day, I just felt that Ruud should be left out." He added, "We'll be discussing it with the club's directors." 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 non-inclusion in the squad for the game against Charlton. According to Setanta, van Nistelrooy and team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo had come to blows during a training session. Ruud allegedly criticised Ronaldo's tendency to keep the ball, instead of passing, and then the two fought. Van Nistelrooy then, allegedly, said "go running to your daddy". Ronaldo's father had died earlier in the season, though the article claims that Van Nistelrooy was not referring to Ronaldo's father, but to his fellow Portuguese Carlos Queiroz.^*

On 9 May, 2006, Ruud was told by Sir Alex Ferguson that he would not be allowed to play in the testimonial game for former team mate and ex-Manchester United captain, Roy Keane. Despite an excellent season for Manchester United, Van Nistelrooy is said to have become frustrated by a lack of playing time and is most likely to move on after the World Cup. The decision by the United management to continue to deny Van Nistelrooy opportunities has been seen as controversial due to the striker's immense popularity amongst the Old Trafford faithful, compared to the less popular Saha.

On 13 June, 2006, Bayern Munich admitted to being interested in obtaining Ruud van Nistelrooy's services. However, with the arrival of Andriy Shevchenko at Chelsea FC, Andriy's previous club AC Milan are said to also be chasing Ruud.

He has also been the target of Newcastle, as a replacement for injured Michael Owen or the retiring Alan Shearer.^*

All the rumours of Ruud moving to a new club at the start of the new season were thought to have died away after club manager, Sir Alex Ferguson stated on MUTV that Van Nistelrooy would be continuing his career at Manchester United. However, on 14th July 2006, Manchester United Manager, Alex Ferguson confirmed that Ruud wanted to leave the club. Rumours suggest a transfer to Real Madrid or Bayern Munich is possible. Van Nistelrooy has been said to have agreed terms with Real Madrid already, however the stumbling block seems to concern price. Real are reported to be preparing a bid of £10m with Manchester United likely to hold out for £15m. Real also have injury problems (specifically with regard to star striker Ronaldo) so may yet be forced to meet these demands. But the future of the player at Manchester United remains largely unlikely after falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson. Ruud in all probability will be a Real Madrid player at the beginning of the 2006-07 season. The new coach of Real, Fabio Capello has publicly stated his admiration for the player. Ruud will also be relishing the chance to link up with the former England captain and Manchester United winger David Beckham.

The future of the player may not be as clear as first thought as after the whole Italian FA incident, many players have become available with David Trezeguet being cited as a possible Real Striker.

FIFA/SOS Ambassador for the Netherlands

Ruud is the official FIFA/SOS ambassador for the Netherlands for the 2006 World Cup. ^*

Awards and honours

Dutch Eredivisie: 1999-2000, 2000-2001
Dutch Super Cup: 1999, 2000
English Premiership: 2002-03
FA Cup: 2004
English League Cup: 2005-2006
Community Shield: 2003
Dutch League Top Scorer: 1998-1999, 1999-2000
English Premiership Top Scorer: 2002-2003
Champions League Top Scorer: 2001-2002, 2002-2003
Dutch Player of the Year: 1999, 2000
PFA Player of the Year: 2002
Champions League Most Valuable Striker: 2001-2002

External links

FootballDatabase :: Ruud van Nistelrooij
Biography from the official Manchester United website
Statistics at soccerbase.com
A Career in Limbo at footballingworld.com