Ruud van Nistelrooy

Rutgerus Johannes Martinius van Nistelrooy (originally spelled Van Nistelroooij) born 1 July , 1976 in Oss, North Brabant). He is a Dutch Footballer who plays in the position of centre forward for Real Madrid. He has previously starred for Dutch National Team and Manchester United, where he holds the record for being the club's top scorer in the European Cup.

For the Netherlands, Ruud van Nistelrooy has a return of more than a goal every other game, scoring 28 times in 54 appearances. For Manchester United he scored 150 goals in 219 games. Spanning his time at PSV and Manchester United, Van Nistelrooy has scored 43 goals in 54 UEFA Champions league matches, an enviable return for any striker.

However, despite being the English Premiership’s second highest scorer with 21 goals in the 2005-2006 season, Van Nistelrooy had to settle for a place on the substitutes’ bench after being dropped for the Carling cup final against Wigan. He scored against West Ham but was dropped to the bench again for the next match against Bolton. He did come on as a second half substitute, though, and scored the winner in a 2–1 victory. It was his 150th and final goal for Manchester United. During the World Cup there was considerable doubt as to whether Van Nistelrooy would continue to be a United player, with strong rumours that he might go to Germany or Spain.On 14 July it was confirmed that he wanted to leave the club.On 26 July he passed a medical test at Real Madrid. on his return to the first team on 29 March

Real Madrid announced that van Nistelrooy was transferring to Real, His transfer fee was reported to be €15 million (£10.3 m), and he signed a 3-year contract with the club on 28 July. In his second match in the LA Liga, van Nistelrooy scored a hat-trick. He scored 2 goals on a Real Madrid 5-1 win over Dynamo Kiev in the first group stage of the Uefa Champion League. During classic match on 22 October 2006, Van Nistelrooy scored 7 minutes into the second half to help defeat league champions Barcelona.On 12 November 2006 , he scored all four of Real Madrid's goals in a 4-1 win against Osasuba. Van Nistelrooy also scored on 10 February 2007, against Real Sociedad in a 2-1 win. And on 10 March 2007, van Nistelrooy scored 2 goals against Barcelona, increasing his tally against Barcelona to 3 goals in 2 games. On April 21 he scored a volley in a match against Valencia where Real Madrid won 2-1. Furthermore, on May 6, he scored 2 out of the 3 goals of his team against Sevilla. In the next match, against Espanyol, Real Madrid were trailing 0-2 when van Nistelrooy scored Real Madrid's opener and they won 4-3. against newly promoted Levante

Van Nistelrooy is top goal scorer in LA Liga with 22 goals, surpassing Milito from Zaragoza and Kanoute from Sevilla with 20 goals apiece.