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| Ruud van Nistelrooy* |
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 Dutch leagues. 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 £19m. His time at United was successful, winning the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and FA Community Shield, along with winning the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year twice. Van Nistelrooy hit 150 goals in just 219 games for United, as well as being their all time European record goalscorer, but fell out of favour towards the end of his tenure with Real Madrid then securing his services in 2006. Although an injury blighted the end of his days with Madrid, he did win La Liga twice and the Supercopa de España before signing for Hamburg during the January transfer window in 2010.
Van Nistelrooy made his Netherlands debut in 1998 and went on to score 34 goals in 64 internationals for them, leaving him joint third all-time top scorer for his country. He announced his retirement from international football in 2007, before being persuaded to play again, but announced his retirement again in 2008 after the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament. Van Nistelrooy came out of international retirement again in September 2010, when he was selected by coach Bert van Marwijk to replace the injured Robin van Persie for two qualification matches in the qualifying for Euro 2012 against San Marino and Finland.[2] He was also selected for the two matches following to that, against Moldova and Sweden. He played in the match against San Marino, and directly scored [3] Van Nistelrooy also played in the match against Finland, but he didn't score there, as he only played eight minutes. Van Nistelrooy also featured in the game against Sweden and played six minutes.
International career
Van Nistelrooy has 65 caps and 34 goals for the Netherlands. His first tournament was Euro 2004, where he and the Czech Republic's Milan Baroš were the only players to score in all three group stage matches.
As the Dutch failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, Van Nistelrooy had to wait four years to play in his first and last World Cup. During a 2006 World Cup qualifying match, he scored in the Dutch's 4–0 hammering of bottom-placed Andorra and was yellow-carded for going to Andorra player Antoni Lima and celebrating in front of him, following an incident six minutes before when Nistelrooy missed a penalty and Lima laughed at him.[26] He was a part of coach Marco van Basten's squad for the 2006 World Cup finals, for which he served as the official FIFA/SOS ambassador.[27] He started, and was substituted, in all of the Netherlands' group stage matches, and scored his lone goal against the Côte d'Ivoire. Van Nistelrooy was benched for the Netherlands' final match, which saw them eliminated in the knockout stage by Portugal.
Van Basten left the striker off the squad for a friendly against the Republic of Ireland on 16 August 2006.[28] Dirk Kuyt replaced Van Nistelrooy in their next match against Portugal in September.[29] After Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was unavailable for Euro 2008 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Belarus due to injury, Van Nistelrooy refused Van Basten's request to take his place on the roster.
On 23 January 2007, Van Nistelrooy announced his retirement from international football following some disputes with coach Marco van Basten.[30] However, after several phone conversations and at the persuasion of veteran Edwin van der Sar, both player and coach put aside their differences. Van Basten announced four months later that Van Nistelrooy was returning to the Oranje.[31][32] On 8 September, Van Nistelrooy filled Huntelaar's spot, as previously requested, for the qualifier against Bulgaria, scoring in a 2–0 victory,[33] and scored the winning goal four days later in injury time of the Netherlands' win over Albania.
At Euro 2008, Van Nistelrooy scored for the Netherlands in their decisive 3–0 victory over Italy in the group stage, and scored the equaliser in their eventual 3–1 loss to Russia in the quarter-finals. On 4 August, he again announced his retirement from international competition.[34][35]
During the build up to the 2010 World Cup Van Nistelrooy again made himself available, but was left out by van Marwijk, the Dutch team coach.[36]
After main striker Robin van Persie suffered an injury during a match with his club Arsenal, Van Marwijk gave Van Nistelrooy a chance to reclaim his position as the main striker of The Netherlands' national team. Van Nistelrooy was invited for two of the Netherlands' Group E qualification matches for EURO 2012 against San Marino and Finland.[2] Van Nistelrooy scored in the 5–0 victory against San Marino on 3 September 2010.[37]
Personal life
Family
Van Nistelrooy married his girlfriend, Leontien Slaats, in July 2004. The couple had their first child, a girl named Moa Annette, in September 2006, and a son named Liam in March 2008.[38][39
Charity work
Van Nistelrooy and his wife are both heavily involved with the charity organization SOS Children's Villages. The organisation has been around since 1949 and is an international development charity which serves to protect the interests and rights of children. Van Nistelrooy was officially appointed "FIFA for SOS Children's Villages" Ambassador in the Netherlands on 1 September 2001.[41]
On 17 November 2009, Van Nistelrooy and his wife hosted SOS at Real Madrid City. The purpose of the event was to help create a calendar which would be sold to benefit the organization.[
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| Ruud van Nistelrooy* |
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| Ruud van Nistelrooy* |
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| Ruud van Nistelrooy* |
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| Ruud van Nistelrooy* |
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