My Idol in football - Ruud Van Nistelrooy

Name: RUUD VAN NISTEROOY
Current Team: Read Madrid.
Date of Birth: 01 /07/1976
Place of Birth: Oss Holland
Height: 6'2"
Position: Forward
18 caps and 8 goals for Holland.After an abortive attempt in 2000, Manchester United finally managed to sign Van Nistelrooy from PSV Eindhoven in April 2001 for a British record fee of £19 million.Van Nistelrooy has gone on to score 36 goals in 49 appearances for Manchester United.


After a season in which Van Nistelrooy found his goalscoring talents sidelined by injury he burst back onto the Premiership scene in 2005/06. The Manchester United striker returned to his plundering best alongside Wayne Rooney, topping the division's goalscoring charts.He had suffered his first barren season in United colours in 2004/05, scoring a paltry six league goals.Van Nistelrooy was tracked by many of the top clubs due to his prolific record with PSV, in his second season at the club he had netted another 29 goals and was again the top scorer in Holland. The striker was tracked by Manchester United and looked certain to move to Old Trafford in the summer of 2000. But the transfer collapsed when Van Nistelrooy broke down in training with a cruciate knee ligament injury just days after the £18.5million deal had hit the skids after United's medical team had found problems with his medial ligaments.He returned to action in March 2001 and was immediately back among the goals, scoring twice to help PSV into the Dutch Cup final.United were forced to pay PSV an increased price of £19million for the player's services and the forward passed a thorough medical.From his career lying in tatters on an Eindhoven training ground Van Nistelrooy became one of the most coveted strikers in Europe.After a goal on his debut in the Charity Shield against Liverpool, his start to the 2000/01 season was slower than expected, - perhaps a legacy of the much-criticised 4-5-1 formation Sir Alex Ferguson employed in United's stuttering start to the season. He was also on fire in the Champions League where he finished top scorer in the competition with ten goals. In Europe he played in that lone role and grew into a target man of real class, though it was in tandem with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer that the Dutchman really flew.Back to fitness for 2005/06, Van Nistelrooy found the goals flowing freely once more. His partnership with England striker Wayne Rooney continued to blossom and while United had problems in other areas of the pitch the strikeforce was deadly.He made his 200th club appearance in 2005/06 and bagged his 150th goal to continue an amazing goals to games ratio for the Red Devils.