Wayne Rooney

Ruud van Nistelrooy (full name Rutgerus Johannes Martinius Ruud 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 usually the number 9 or 10 for the Netherlands.

An exceptional striker with an outstanding finish ability and excellent reflexes, often regarded one of the best strikers playing today, he is also a regular penalty taker, and has agility and balance for his height (1.88 m, 6 ft 2 in), which is often credited to his previous training in gymnastics. For the Netherlands, van Nistelrooy has a return of a goal every other game, scoring 25 times in 48 appearances. For Manchester United, he has scored 150 goals in 214 games as of April 1, 2006. Spanning his time at PSV Eindhoven and Manchester United, van Nistelrooy has scored 46 goals in 55 UEFA Champions League matches (43 in 54 excluding qualifying matches which are not officially counted by UEFA), an enviable return for any striker.

However, despite being the Barclays Premiership’s second highest scorer with 21 goals this season , Van Nistelrooy had to settle for a place on the substitutes’ bench after being dropped for the Carling Cup final against Wigan Athletic. He scored aginst West Ham on his return to the first team on March 29 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 goal for Manchester United. Whether Van Nistelrooy will remain as a United player after the World Cup is in considerable doubt. There are strong rumours that he may go to Spain.

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