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{{commons2|Ruud van Nistelrooy}}
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*[http://www.rvn10.com/ Page Official]
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*[http://www.footballdatabase.com/index.php?page=player&Id=657&b=true&pn=Rutgerus_Johannes_Martinius_van_Nistelrooij Ruud van Nistelrooij] profile, detailed club and national team statistics, honours (palmares) and
*[http://www.footballdatabase.com/index.php?page=player&Id=657&b=true&pn=Rutgerus_Johannes_Martinius_van_Nistelrooij Ruud van Nistelrooij] profile, detailed club and national team statistics, honours (palmares) and
*{{soccerbase|id=15858|name=Ruud van Nistelrooy}}
*{{soccerbase|id=15858|name=Ruud van Nistelrooy}}

Revision as of 18:54, 14 January 2008

Ruud van Nistelrooy
Personal information
Full name Rutgerus Johannes Martinius
van Nistelrooy
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 Real Madrid
Number 17
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18 November 2007

Rutgerus Johannes Martinius "Ruud" 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. He has been the top scorer in three different European leagues as well as having been top goal scorer of UEFA Champions League for three times.

Biography

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. He became known in Europe after he scored three goals against HJK Helsinki in Champions League 1998, in a game which PSV won 1-3. 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 the Netherlands. 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 the Netherlands 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.[1]

Manchester United

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.

Playing for Manchester United against Tottenham Hotspur.

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. Overall he finished the season with 44 goals in all competitions.

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, Ray Parlour, Bisan Lauren & Ashley Cole in a match against 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 third most prolific scorer in European Cup/UEFA Champions League coming before Eusébio, Alfredo Di Stéfano and Andriy Shevchenko with 57 goals only behind Raúl and current leader Filippo Inzaghi

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 against Chelsea in April 2006.

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, with Giuseppe Rossi replacing him.

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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]

Real Madrid

Van Nistelrooy with team-mates celebrating a goal against Bayern Munich

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).[5] His transfer fee was reported to be €18 million (£12.3m), 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 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[6]. 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.[citation needed]

Van Nistelrooy on the road with Real Madrid

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 in the second match in the group stages. On November 11, Van Nistelrooy gives Real Madrid the victory against Mallorca making Real Madrid first in the league.

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 best 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. Ruud was the official FIFA/SOS ambassador for the Netherlands for the 2006 World Cup.[7]

Van Nistelrooy training with the Netherlands

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.

Van Nistelrooy in Germany during the World Cup.

On 23 January 2007, van Nistelrooy had officially announced his retirement from international football.[10] 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.[11][12] 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.[13][14] 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[15], and only four days later scored the winning goal in injury time of the Netherlands's away clash with Albania.

Van Nistelrooy was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.[16]

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.[17][18][19]

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 16 11 0 0 - - 6 4 22 15
Total 54 36 1 2 - - 13 10 68 48
Career Totals 359 222 13 16 7 3 76 57 451 299

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 4 2 5 2
Total 25 5 34 25 59 30

Awards and honours

Club

Individual

References

  1. ^ "Man Utd clinch Van Nistelrooy deal". BBC Sport Website. 23 April, 2001. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "The facts behind Ruud's walk-out". Setanta Sports. 2006-05-10. Retrieved 2006-08-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Van Nistelrooy felt 'stabbed in the back'". RTÉ Sports. 2006-09-07. Retrieved 2007-05-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Eurosport: Fergie reveals why Ruud had to go
  5. ^ "Real Madrid sign Dutch striker Van Nistelrooy". Reuters UK. 2006-07-27. Retrieved 2006-08-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Van Nistelrooy goals rescue Real". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  7. ^ "FIFA for SOS Children's Villages Ambassadors". SOS Children's Villages. 2006-02-21. Retrieved 2006-08-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Van Basten drops Van Nistelrooy". The Australian. 2006-08-12. Retrieved 2006-08-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Van Nistelrooij haalt uit naar bondscoach" (in Dutch). nos.nl. 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2007-09-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Van Nistelrooy in Dutch decision". news.bbc.co.uk. 2007-01-23. Retrieved 2007-01-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "Ruud to make Holland return". home.skysports.com. 2007-05-25. Retrieved 2007-05-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "Ruud primed for Dutch return". RTÉ Sport. 2007-05-25. Retrieved 2007-05-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Holland to make Ruud awakening". home.skysports.com. 2007-08-06. Retrieved 2007-08-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "Van Nistelrooy en Van Persie terug in Oranje". www.vi.nl. 2007-08-17. Retrieved 2007-08-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/fixturesresults/round=2241/match=83687/report=rp.html
  16. ^ "Ruud van Nistelrooy". The FIFA 100. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
  17. ^ "New father Van Nistelrooy rejoins Real squad". Yahoo! Sport. 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2007-09-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Proud dad Ruud set for Real berth". CNN.com. 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2007-09-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "Van Nistelrooy happy". RealMadrid.com. 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2007-09-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

Template:Commons2

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Dutch Footballer of the Year
1998 – 2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by PFA Players' Player of the Year
2002 		Succeeded by
Preceded by PFA Fans' Player of the Year (Premiership)
2002 		Succeeded by
Preceded by UEFA Champions League Best Forward
2002 – 2003 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Dutch Eredivisie Topscorer
1998 – 2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Premier League top scorer
2002 – 2003 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Spanish League top scorer
2006 – 2007 		Succeeded by
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