NISTELROOYHE IS a goalkeeper's worst nightmare. Defenders fear him. Opposing coaches tremble whenever they realise that plans drafted to contain him are not working.
Since Ruud van Nistelrooy's arrival in the English Premier League in 2001, his lethal goalscoring ability has set him apart from other attackers in the league.
Born 29 years ago in Oss, Holland, he was given the name Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooij.
Like many football superstars, Ruud grew up on a steady diet of football. A very old photograph showed him playing with a football from as early as age six.
Ruud began his playing career with FC Den Bosch in the Dutch Second Division in the 1993/94 season. After four seasons there, Heerenveen, a top flight Dutch club signed him in 1997. That season he justified why he belonged in the big league by scoring 13 goals in 30 appearances.
It was not the one-a-day sort of statistics but Rudd's finishing caught the eyes of an even bigger club, PSV Eindhoven. On Ruud's 22nd birthday, PSV Eindhoven plucked out £4.2 million for the striker - a record transfer fee between two Dutch clubs.
He began repaying PSV on their investment by scoring his first goal against his old club and then followed that up with a hat-trick soon after. In two full seasons at PSV, Ruud scored 60 goals and it was this form that first alerted United to his potential.
He had just scored 29 goals in the 1999/2000 season when Manchester first expressed interest, but Ruud picked up a knee injury in a friendly against Silkeborg in March of 2000. The next month, a proposed move to Manchester United fell through because he could not complete a medical at United, causing the deal to be postponed.
Days later, he collapsed in training with PSV Eindhoven and damaged his cruciate ligament. His season was over, but he was still voted Dutch Player of the Year for the second successive term by his colleagues, and again finished runner-up in the European Golden Boot charts.
Ruud recovered for the 2000/2001 season. He went back on the park for PSV in March of 2001 and came up with a bag of goals. But after just one month back at PSV, Sir Alex Ferguson was determined to have this goalscoring machine on his roster. On April 23, he signed Rudd for £19 million. Ruud's EPL career was about to begin.
Handed the No.10 shirt, Ruud began mining goals almost immediately for Manchester United. In his Old Trafford debut he got two against Fulham. Goals followed against Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur then a double at home to Deportivo.
Ruud scored his first hat-trick for Manchester United at home to Southampton in the 6-1 win as well as scoring twice against Boavista, Spurs, and Sunderland. All told, Ruud netted 36 goals in his debut season.
It was to be the tip of the iceberg though as the 2002/03 season saw him scoring an incredible 44 times to inspire United to the Premiership title. And that was not all. The 2003/2004 season saw Ruud taking his Manchester tally past 100 mark as he scored 28 goals that season. And despite only playing 27 games last season, this instinctive striker came up with 16 goals in the EPL and was top scorer in the European Champions League with eight goals.
