Ruud Van Nistelrooy - a forgotten legend

Football- A sport where objective is to score goals. Whether beautiful or not, penalties or long range, complex or tap-ins, it doesn’t matter every goal has equal value irrespective of the pleasure a person gets after watching a goal. This is a fact most fans don’t understand while deciding a striker’s legacy on the beautiful game.

In today’s era, poachers are highly undervalued. An in-form Mario Gomez will be less valued than an out- of form Falcao, an in form Huntelaar is less valued than an out- of form Torres. Part of the reason is the evolution of goal-scoring wingers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale and also increasing goal-scoring ability of not out-and-out strikers like Lionel Messi.

This takes me back around 10 years when 3 of the 5 best strikers were actually poachers- Inzaghi, Raul and Van Nistelrooy with the exceptions being Thierry Henry and Ronaldo. All managers cared about were goals, how, when no one cared. Even when we talk about the Greatest strikers of all time we do talk about Gerd Muller, Romario, Hugo Sanchez, Paolo Rossi all being strikers.

While most of them sealed their status as a legend of the game, A certain poacher with equally good eye for goal didn’t to the extent he deserved. Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Born in Oss, this gifted Striker started his career as a midfielder at a relatively unknown club in Netherlands-FC Den Bosch. A few good seasons and he was off to Heerenven. It was here that he started becoming a National Hero.

After just 1 season PSV came calling and broke the then Dutch record fee between 2 clubs to obtain his services. 2 back to back seasons with a goal/game average of more than 1 in the build up to the Euros in their own backyard had made Oranje one of the favourites to lift the cup for the first time since 1988. But then disaster struck. Van Nistelrooy ruptured a ligament and was out of the Euros.

By this time RVN was grabbing eyeballs of several scouts and managers. But all of them were pipped by a player who was on trial at Heerenven- Darren Ferguson, Sir Alex’s son who convinced his father to sign him up. Within a few days, Ferguson’s brother Martin, also scout for the Red Devils checked him and deal was set to be signed when he ruptured his ligament and failed his medical. Although the deal was off for a year, United bid again and pipped off competition from Arsenal and Real Madrid thanks to regular contact maintained between Fergie and the player during the rehab period.

The rest as they say is history. Goalscoring debut in community shield against Liverpool, brace against fulham on league debut and setting the then-record for most goals scored by a foreigner in EPL debut season with a tally of 23 , RVN was turning out to be a bargain despite having been signed for 19.5 million pounds. In his 1^st season itself, “Van the Man” had won champions league top scorer award with a tally of 10 goals, had broken another record by scoring in 8 consecutive games which he himself broke by scoring in 10 games, a record which stands even till today. Despite having won UCL most valuable striker, PFA Fan’s player of the year, PFA’s Player’s player of the year, He had no trophies to show for it. The 1^st season also saw him become the regular penalty taker for the team ahead of David Beckham.

But it was the second season that plummeted him towards greatness. 44 goals in the season, not even bettered by C. Ronaldo, landing the UCL top scorer award for 2^nd time running along with EPL top scorer and A premiership trophy to show for the success. He also won Player of the year award, UEFA Club Forward of the year to show for his highly successful season.

Although his next season started on a bright note with him scoring in the 1^st 2 games, the most memorable moment of the season for him along with the entire league occurred when United hosted The Gunners. At around the 80^th minute mark, Viera was sent off for a foul which the Gunners claim was a dive from the striker. At the 90^th minute, Forlan earned United a penalty and Van Nistelrooy was the man to take it. He missed. Full power rebound against the crossbar and 6 arsenal players celebrating and pushing and taunting Nistelrooy. The Gunners went on to win the league unbeaten although United got their consolation when they beat Arsenal in the semis of FA Cup and won the cup for the 11^th time with a 3-0 win over Millwall with a 2-goal,man of the match performance from the Dutchman.

Van Nistelrooy finally managed to play in his 1^st international tournament for the Dutch side after they had failed to qualify for the FIFA world Cup in 2002, losing the playoffs to Ireland. 4 goals in 5 games with him finishing as silver boot winner behind Milan Baros was a return the Dutchman deserved after a hard season in England. Despite Holland being pitted in the group of death alongside a quality Czech side and 2002 WC runners up Germany, they managed to reach the quarters against all odds where they beat Sweden on penalties to advance to the semis only to lose to the hosts Portugal.2004-05 season saw him become Manchester United’s all time highest Champions league scorer and also win UCL golden boot for the 3^rd time in his career. By middle of the next season the fox in the box had started losing his starting position to Saha and eventually left the Premier League giants at the end of the season with 150 goals in 219 appearances to join Madrid.The duo of Nistelrooy-Beckham was productive again as they won the league after a gap of 4 years and him winning the Pichichi trophy.

2007-08 season saw the beginning of his decline. Constant injuries and another senseless spending season by Madrid left the striker on bench. He left Madrid in winter transfer window of 2009-10 to join Hamburg and then left to join an ambitious Malaga side. He eventually retired after a hard season at Malaga.

Possibly his greatest strength of choosing to be at the right place at the right time on field was absent while choosing the side to play for. He played for both United during their most unsuccessful period in recent times and played for Madrid just after their Galactico era ended.

Yet, he remains the only player to have won the top scorer of the season award in 3 different major European leagues. Although underrated, he still commands the respect of even the greatest defenders in the world. The only thing his fans ca hope is that he gets his Coaching credentials from PSV soon so that one may see him on the field again.