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 almost signed Van Nistelrooy on 25 April 2000 for a fee of £18.5 million. However, the deal fell through when Van Nistelrooy failed a medical due to a cruciate knee ligament injury which he suffered against Danish side Silkeborg on 6 March 2000.
However Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson persevered and almost exactly a year later, 24 year old Van Nistelrooy signed for a then British transfer record of £19 million on 23 April 2001 from PSV. During his first season at Manchester United, he proved his worth by scoring 23 goals in 32 games, achieving a feat of scoring in a record eight consecutive FA Premier League games. He also scored 10 Champions League goals capping an incredible debut season by being named the PFA Players' Player of the Year.
During the following year, the 2002–03 season, Van Nistelrooy scored 25 Premier League goals (including a stunning goal which he started from the half way line against Fulham FC) and 12 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.
Van Nistelrooy started off the 2003–04 season in spectacular fashion, scoring twice in his first two league games. 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. In that season, Van Nistelrooy was famously attacked by Martin Keown in a match against Keown's team, Arsenal, as well as signing a new contract which would keep him at the club until the summer of 2008 and the age of 32.
In 2004 in a survey on Manchester United's official website Ruud was voted "Ferguson's best bargain buy" by over 10,000 fans worldwide even beating the likes of Roy Keane and Wayne Rooney to the accolade.
Van Nistelrooy missed a large part of the 2004–05 Premiership season through injury, but was still the top goalscorer in the Champions League with 10 goals. He is currently the fourth most prolific scorer in European Cup / UEFA Champions League together with Eusébio, with 47 goals, only behind Alfredo Di Stéfano, Andriy Shevchenko, and current leader Raúl.
At the start of the 2005–06 season, Van Nistelrooy returned to form, scoring in United's first four Premiership games.
On February 26, 2006, Van Nistelrooy was an unused substitute at Manchester United's League Cup final against Wigan Athletic. His place in the line-up was given to Louis Saha, who scored the second goal in a 4–0 win. This action caused a lot of controversy within fans and in the media, but the player declined claims that he has had a rift with manager Sir Alex Ferguson. He was also left on the bench for six consecutive matches. However, in the following game against West Ham, Van Nistelrooy returned to the Manchester United starting line-up as captain, and scored the winning goal. In the game the following Saturday, against Bolton Wanderers, Van Nistelrooy found himself back on the bench — however, he came on as a substitute, and for the second successive game, scored the winning goal, his 150th for the club. Having not started for seven of the last eight games, Van Nistelrooy lost his place as the joint-highest goalscorer in the Premiership this season with 21 goals, with Thierry Henry having scored 27.
Fresh doubt spread over Van Nistelrooy's future when he was left out of the team to play Charlton Athletic in the final game of the season on 7 May 2006. Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that Van Nistelrooy, angry at the decision, left the ground and went home 3 hours before kickoff. Although, other reports suggest that he was forced to leave the ground by Ferguson. Ferguson further said that he was left out of the team because of a number of issues which he claimed affected the spirit at the club. United won the game 4–0, with youngster Giuseppe Rossi playing the match.
On May 9, 2006, Setanta Sports claimed to exclusively reveal the real reason behind Van Nistelrooy's non-inclusion in the squad for the game against Charlton. According to Setanta, Van Nistelrooy and team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo had allegedly come to blows during a training session. Ruud allegedly criticised Ronaldo's tendency to keep the ball, instead of passing, and then the two fought. Van Nistelrooy then, allegedly, said "go running to your daddy". Although Ronaldo's father had died earlier in the season, the article claims that Van Nistelrooy was not referring to Ronaldo's father, but to his fellow Portuguese Carlos Queiroz.
Both players have denied any such incident.
In early September 2006, Van Nistelrooy made a well publicised criticism of his former club, saying he was "stabbed in the back" after years of loyalty to Manchester United.
However in October 2006, Van Nistelrooy stated that despite his fallout with Sir Alex, he still admired him and he "owed him a lot" for waiting for him despite his cruciate knee injury. He also insisted he has great fondness of his five years at Manchester United.
In total, van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals from exactly 200 starts and 19 substitute appearances for United and remains hugely popular with the United faithful.
All the rumours of Ruud moving to a new club at the start of the new season were thought to have died away after club manager, Sir Alex Ferguson stated on MUTV that Van Nistelrooy would be continuing his career at Manchester United. However, on 14 July 2006, Manchester United Manager, Alex Ferguson confirmed that Ruud wanted to leave the club. Real Madrid announced on July 27, 2006, that Ruud van Nistelrooy has become a Real player. 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 Spanish Primera division, Van Nistelrooy scored a hat-trick against newly promoted Levante. He scored 2 goals on a Real Madrid 5-1 win over Dynamo Kiev in the first group stage of the UEFA Champions League. During el clasico match on October 22, 2006, Van Nistelrooy scored 7 minutes into the second half alongside another goal from Raul to beat league champions and rivals Barcelona. On November 12, 2006, he scored all four of Real Madrid's goals in a 4-1 win against Osasuna.
--Wikipedia
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