One of Europe's greatest strikers: Who is Ruud Van Nistelrooy?

Rutgerus Johannes Martinus, better known as Ruud van Nistelrooy, is a former Dutch football player. Born in Oss, van Nistelrooy was transferred to Heerenveen for 2 million dollars in 1997 after a good performance with FC Den Bosch.

His success in Heerenveen attracted the attention of PSV and he moved to this club after one season. After scoring 62 goals in 67 league matches in the team where he played for 3 seasons, he moved to the English giant Manchester United. After spending 5 very successful seasons here, he moved to the Spanish team Real Madrid. Nistelrooy, who played in this team for 4 seasons, completed his career by playing one season each in Hamburg and Malaga.

Rutgerus Johannes Martinus "Ruud" van Nistelrooij (born 1 July 1976) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. He was most recently the manager of PSV Eindhoven, and is often considered one of the best strikers of all time. He has been the top scorer in three separate UEFA Champions League seasons, and is the sixth-highest goalscorer in the competition's history with 56 goals. He has also been the top scorer in three different European domestic leagues. In 2004, he was listed in the FIFA 100 of the world's greatest living players.

He scored 35 goals in 70 matches with the Dutch national team. He has been an assistant coach of the Dutch national team since 2014.

Details from his life story

When Ruud van Nistelrooy left Den Bosch and headed to Heerenveen, no one, except probably his new coach Foppe de Haan, even thought that the 22-year-old midfielder would turn into one of Europe's greatest strikers. However, Haan created such a player in a short time that he could only keep the "zero kilometer" goal monster for one year.

The Dutch soon started calling the goal machine created by Foppe de Haan "008: License to Goal", inspired by the "007: License to Kill" movie of the James Bond series. On the other hand, while the British says "Devil Ruud" or "Nistelgoal", the Germans say "Van Tor" and the Spanish say "Van Gol", the truth behind all these nicknames is that Van Nistelrooy is the nightmare of his opponents, no matter which country he goes to, and somehow he gets the ball into the net. was to bring them together.

Not only PSV, to whom he was transferred, but also Martin Ferguson, one of Manchester United's star scouts in those years, were among those who noticed him; And in the first match he watched. “Actually, I went to that match to watch a goalkeeper. I've never heard of someone called Ruud van Nistelrooy before. I asked our contact in the Netherlands, 'Who is this number 10?' during the match, but he said, 'Forget number 10, he is not a United player.' “I still wanted him to follow up and keep me informed,” says Martin Ferguson.

The first thing Sir Alex's son Martin, who was tried by Heerenveen in 1998, was to inform his father. “There is a person named Van Nistelrooy here, you should agree immediately. “He is a great actor,” he told his father on the phone. Sir Alex said that they were already following him and that they would go to meet next weekend, but PSV had already agreed with Van Nistelrooy. This lateness cost Sir Alex and United approximately 21.5 million euros.

The team from the city of Eindhoven had to pay the highest amount paid for a Dutch player at that time, but Van Nistelrooy would show that he was worth this money, or even much more, in his first year, with 31 goals he would score in the league. This figure was the highest figure reached by a PSV player after Coen Dillen's 43 goals since 1956-57, the season in which the Eredivisie was established, and was enough for Van Nistelrooy to be selected as the footballer of the year in the Netherlands.

The issue that upset the Dutch and United the most before Euro 2000 was Van Nistelrooy's chain of injuries. While the tear in his foot that occurred in March had fully healed two months later, another injury in training would cause him to miss both Euro 2000 and a large part of the season. In addition, United, who agreed on his transfer with PSV, had to wait another year. Van Nistelrooy's injury and the length of the transfer brought Manchester United president Martin Edwards and Alex Ferguson into conflict for a short time, but in the summer of 2001, Ruud was now spreading his wings to Europe, and United was getting the name they had been after for three years.

However, the Manchester adventure did not start well. The island press was asking Alex Ferguson whether Van Nistelrooy, who had pocketed a not-inconsiderable salary despite not being able to play on the field for almost a year, deserved it. Ruud had an answer to these criticisms. This time he was accused of arrogance when he said, "It's not much, in fact, it will take me one level further because it shows how much United trusts me." His first hush money came in his first match in the Premier League. The Dutchman, who was promoted to “Devil Ruud” from 008, scored against Fulham twice in the Premier League. He came back and was elected "Player of the Year" in his first season at United, just like in his first year at PSV. Thus, he justified Rinus Michels, the father of total football, who supported his transfer to United by saying "Ruud is a better finisher than Van Basten".

Van Nistelrooy's Manchester days started like a dream and continued as beautifully after the first season. The Dutch striker, who scored 39 times in 45 matches for United throughout the season, would play a major role in United finishing at the top of the Premier League in his second year. In addition, in the match against Fulham that season, the goal he scored after receiving the ball between two players in the middle ground, with the whole team following him, would be among the best in Premier League history.

The goal machine continued to be the nightmare of his opponents. During the four years he spent at United, he managed to make his name among United legends. With the two goals he scored against Lyon, he reached 30 goals in Europe, leaving club legend Dennis Law behind. Law also described his Dutch colleague as saying, “He deserves this very much. Moreover, he praised it with the words "It is incredible that he broke the record in such a short time."

Another issue in which he stood out, apart from his goals during his Manchester years, was the Arsenal matches. First, in the match played at Old Trafford in the 2003-04 season, Patrick Vieira, who fell to the ground after a ball challenge, was sent off when he kicked Van Nistelrooy. In fact, Vieira's kick did not reach the Dutchman, nor did he throw himself to the ground, but he had now become a target for the Arsenal players. When he aimed the penalty at the post in the last minute of the match and the match ended in a draw, first Arsenal defender Martin Keown made a show of joy in front of the Dutchman, and then Arsenal players, especially Ray Parlour and Ashley Cole, started to push Van Nistelrooy. Things soon became chaotic and the eventful match would go down in history as the "Battle of Old Trafford".

Van Nistelrooy had to wait a year for revenge. He first interrupted the unfinished penalty by making a brutal foul on Cole and then scored the goal that put his team ahead from the penalty spot, playing a major role in ending Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten streak. “II. Patrick Vieira would later recall this event, known as the "Battle of Old Trafford", as follows in his biography: "Ruud is a liar and a coward. "Everyone thinks he is a great person, but thanks to his secretive stance, he makes everyone forget the mess he does on the field."

Ruud could tolerate almost anything, but there was one thing he couldn't tolerate: Not playing!

Three league titles in five seasons in Manchester, one League Cup, one FA Cup, one time England's Best Footballer, one World Scorer of the Year award, three times Champions League top scorer... Alex Ferguson, Ruud van Nistelrooy He is quite right to have chased after him for three years, but still, he would not hesitate for a moment to add him to the list of players he had a falling out with and dismissed from the team, such as David Beckham, Paul Ince, Lee Sharpe, Roy Keane, Jaap Stam.

The problems he experienced in 2006 were not limited to Alex Ferguson. He found himself left out of the squad when he fought with his once idol, Dutch National Team coach Marco van Basten, before the match against Portugal in the World Cup. He was on his way to the Iberian Peninsula to make a fresh start after the World Cup. Now the goal was to score goals in the Real Madrid jersey, but he had a small problem in the pre-season. His new coach, Fabio Capello, was Van Basten's coach from Milan and he knew the problem because the communication between them was very good. Capello told Ruud after the signing ceremony that he could give him some time off for this incident if he wanted, but Van Nistelrooy had no time to waste to prove himself again. He managed to score eight goals in the first 10 weeks of the season. The Italian coach also said, "He smells the goal" after the Osasuna match in which he scored four goals. “He is the best in the world right now,” he said about the Dutch player. So to speak, the Dutchman was being reborn in Madrid.

He left all his problems behind in the two seasons he spent at Real Madrid. During this period, he won two La Liga championships, a Spanish Super Cup, and a Pichichi Award given to the top scorer of the season in La Liga... Moreover, he gave signals of returning to the national team, which he left due to the problem he had with Van Basten. But he did not forget to take revenge for the past!

While many thought it was time to hang up his cleats, Van Nistelrooy decided to play one more season and headed to Andalusia at the beginning of the 2011-12 season. Although he did not have much playing time, he played an important role in Malaga qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in its history, with his role as a big brother to the team, especially young striker Rondon. “I would like to play in the Champions League, but it is time to quit. “I am physically not in a position to play high-level football,” he said. He was now aware that he was not the same as before. He was not a name that would play football just for the sake of it, as his only goal was to win, and he said goodbye to football at the age of 35.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, who played more than 450 matches in his 20-year career, managed to score more than 250 goals. And yes, although he is also stubborn and admits that he does everything to win, it is impossible not to agree that he is the best striker of his era.