Ruud van Nistelrooy Biography
Ruud van Nistelrooy (full name Rutgerus Johannes Martinius van Nistelrooij, 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 is the main Dutch striker, and the best since van Basten graced the team in the early nineties!
An exceptional striker with an outstanding finish ability and excellent reflexes, often regarded 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 ft 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 25 times in 48 appearances. For Manchester United, he has scored 150 goals in 214 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 joint top 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 aginst 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 Spain or Italy.
During his first season at Manchester United, van Nistelrooy played in 32 games and netted 23 goals and scored in a record eight consecutive FA Premier League games. He scored 10 Champions League goals and was 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 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 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, who 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 Baros).
Van Nistelrooy missed a large part of the F.A. Premier League 2004-05 season through injury, but was still the top goalscorer in the Champions League with 10 goals. He is currently the third most prolific scorer in European Cup/UEFA Champions League together with Eusébio, with 47 goals, only behind Alfredo di Stefano and all-time leader Raúl.
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 Netherland's starting lineup despite pressure from Bayern Munich striker Roy Makaay. As of April 1, 2006, he had already netted 21 goals in the FA Premier League, making him the highest goalscorer, together with Thierry Henry, also with 21 goals. He scored his first goal from outside the penalty box on November 19, 2005 in Manchester United's 3-1 at Charlton.
He has now struck up a great striking relationship with Wayne Rooney, both in great form in the 05/06 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.
On February 26, van Nistelrooy was an unused substitute at Manchester United's League Cup final against Wigan Athletic and replaced by Louis Saha who scored the second goal in a 4-0 win over Wigan. 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, his 150th for the club. 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. Despite having not started for seven of the last eight games, van Nistelrooy retains his place as the joint-highest goalscorer in the Premiership this season with 21 goals, alongside Thierry Henry.