| Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooij (Dutch pronunciation: ; born 1 July 1976), commonly known as Ruud van Nistelrooy (), is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is set to work as an assistant coach of the Netherlands national football team on 1 February 2026. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation, Van Nistelrooy was the top scorer in three UEFA Champions League seasons and is the all-time Dutch top goalscorer in the competition's history with 56 goals. He has also been the top scorer in three European domestic leagues. In 2004, he was listed in the FIFA 100 of the world's greatest living players.
Van Nistelrooy began his career with Den Bosch, before moving onto Heerenveen, eventually making a name for himself at PSV Eindhoven, where he won two Eredivisie titles. His goalscoring record at PSV attracted attention from Manchester United; a deal was in place in the summer of 2000, but because of injury problems, his move was secured a year later for a then British record fee of £19 million. His time at United was successful, winning the Premier League, FA Cup, Football League Cup, and FA Community Shield, along with winning the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year twice. Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals in just 219 games for United, as well as becoming at the time their all-time European record goalscorer, but fell out of favour towards the end of his tenure.
Real Madrid secured Van Nistelrooy's services in 2006. Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License - Full article |
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