Ruud van Nistelrooy (full name Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooij, see letter IJ; born July 1, 1976 in Oss, North Brabant, Netherlands) is a Dutch football player currently playing for Manchester United. He wears the number 10 for Manchester United and the number 9 for the Netherlands

Ruud is an exceptional striker with phenomenal finishing. He is also a regular penalty taker, and has exceptional agility and balance for his height of 1.88 m 6 ft 2 in), which is often credited to his previous training in gymnastics. Ruud's strike-rate is nothing short of phenomenal. For the Netherlands, Ruud has a remarkable return of a goal every other game, scoring 22 times in 44 appearances. His record for Manchester United has been truly startling. Ruud has scored 128 goals in 148 games for the Red Devils. His record in the Champions League, spanning his time at PSV Eindhoven and Manchester United, boasts an incredible 46 goals in 55 Champions League matches.

Career in the Netherlands

Van Nistelrooy started as a striker for Dutch second division club-side, FC Den Bosch, but he was converted into a centre forward at SC Heerenveen in 1997. His coach advised him to learn from Dennis Bergkamp at Ajax Amsterdam, and van Nistelrooy would drive for miles to watch his older compatriot play in person. In 1998, on his 22nd birthday, he was signed by PSV Eindhoven for £4.2 million, a transfer record between two Dutch clubs.

Van Nistelrooy repaid the faith by scoring 31 goals in 34 matches in his first season at PSV and being voted Dutch Player of the Year by his fellow professionals. In his second season, he notched up another 29 goals.

Manchester United had tried to buy van Nistelrooy in 2000, but he had a serious knee injury in training which saw him forego the 2000 European championships. Van Nistelrooy was finally signed in April 2001 for £19 million, a year after severely damaging his knee cruciate ligament.

Manchester United

During his first season at Manchester United, Ruud played in 32 games and netted 23 goals and scored in a record eight consecutive FA Premier League games. He scored 10 UEFA Champions League goals and was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year.

During the following year, the 2002-2003 season, Ruud scored 25 Premier League goals and 14 goals in European competition while leading Manchester United to the Premier League title. He also broke the record for scoring goals in European competitions for Manchester United in this season.

Ruud started off the 2003-2004 season in spectacular fashion, scoring twice in his first two league games. He missed a last-minute penalty in an important match against Arsenal, He also managed to score his 100th and 101st goals for the club against Everton at Goodison Park on 7 February 2004, as United earned a 4-3 Premiership victory.

Van Nistelrooy was selected to play for Netherlands at Euro 2004. Prior to the team's opening match against Germany, van Nistelrooy stoked up his country's already intense rivalry with the Germans by saying that emotions would be intensified by lingering bitterness over World War II. His comments were severely criticised by the German media. During the match, he scored an acrobatic volley, one of the goals of the tournament, to silence his critics and single handedly take Holland to the next round. He shared the goal-scoring lead in the group phase with England teenage sensation Wayne Rooney, who he plays alongside at Manchester United, and was one of only two players in the tournament to score goals in all three of their team's group matches (the other was Czech Milan Baroš).

Ruud missed a large part of the 2004/2005 season through injury, but was still the top goalscorer in the Champions League with 10 goals. Van Nistelrooy is the second highest goalscorer in Champions League history, with Real Madrid's forward Raul being the first.

Van Nistelrooy's success for Manchester United has made him a target for many of Europe's top teams. He has often been rumoured to be leaving Utd, with Real Madrid touted as his most likely destination. The more recent speculation has him being swapped for Michael Owen but these stories have been dismissed by Manchester United and van Nistelrooy himself, who has stated that he wishes to keep playing for United for as long as he can. He is widely considered the greatest striker in the world. Nistelrooy is really good he was ace then he had an injury but now hes back on top and i think he has worked hard and worked with his team to score more goals which now he is doing at least every two matches.