How Good Was Ruud Van Nistelrooy Really?

Manchester United was incredibly interested in grabbing the young Vanessa Leroy as quickly as possible. However, something nobody could have ever guessed was about to happen. But first, a word from our sponsor at CuriosityStream. CuriosityStream is an on-demand streaming platform for award-winning science, sports, technology, history, and nature documentaries. With everyone staying indoors during this pandemic right now, what better time than to just relax and watch some amazing non-fiction titles. If you sign up using my code RAYMAR right now, you have an insanely cheap deal to access their entire library of thousands of educational documentaries on pretty much any topic you could think of for only $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year. An insanely good deal. Personally, I've been watching documentaries about viruses because it's interesting to see how something so small could stop us from watching football and living our normal lives. So make sure you use my promo code RAYMAR or sign up using the link in the description below and check them out now. Anyways, as I was saying, after Vanessa Leroy's amazing second year with PSV, he had earned his opportunity to be called up to play for the Netherlands in the 2000s European Championships as one of, if not the most promising young star in the world at the time. During that second season, there was concern for Vanessa Leroy as he had a ligament injury and was advised to go to surgery if his transfer to Man United was to happen right away. However, this would prove to be devastating as he decided to hold off on it because he wanted to play in the 2000 Euros and if he went through with the surgery, he would have to sit out while recovering and going through rehab. Because of this, his transfer to United would end up curtailed and would happen a year later. While in training and working on some heading drills, this happened. He would jump for the ball and land awkwardly and receive a devastating knee injury. When you hear a player screaming in pain like that followed by a moment of silence, that's when you know they've realized it was pretty bad. We could never really tell how different or much better he would have been if he had just decided to take the surgery and never suffered that year-long injury in the first place. And finally, after a year of rehabilitation, Manchester United returned to make him an offer and finally signed him to play in England at the Old Trafford. It's no secret that in most cases, players who come to the Premier League tend to freeze up and underperform with some struggle to meet expectations despite scoring for fun in other leagues. With only a very few exceptions like Thierry Henry and Sergio Aguero for example. Some critics again had their doubts saying Van Nistelrooy wouldn't be the same player after the injury and couldn't translate his game to the competitive nature of the Premier League. After all, they claimed that he hadn't played football in a year and they weren't sure about his fitness. It would only take him one game to prove them wrong once again and that would be in his debut in Old Trafford against Fulham, where United was down 2-1 before Nistelrooy scored two goals and got them the win. Immediately after that, all doubts were thrown out the window. Just in his first year with Manchester United, he would go on to have a .73 goals per game ratio with 36 goals and 2 assists in 49 appearances, breaking a Premier League record for scoring in most consecutive games which was held by Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer by scoring in 10 matches in a row, while also scoring his first hat-trick for the club and winning the PFA Player of the Year award. After his first full season, critics had only one complaint about Van Nistelrooy and that was his style of play, which I will finally get to. Critics would often label him as a one-trick pony and even a goal hanger, as most of his goals would come from very close, and some of you might even consider them tap-ins. In fact, of the 150 goals scored by Ruud van Nistelrooy while playing for Manchester United, only one of them came from outside the box, which I believe for many of you I'd imagine might be mind-blowing. Some of you might even criticize his style of play. In the same way, a lot of haters will say that Cristiano Ronaldo only scores easy tap-ins, or tap-naldo, as the true haters might say. And while theoretically, it might seem easier to defend a player that only seems to score inside the box, for him, the opposite was true. Van Nistelrooy was elite in his positioning, timing, movements, and finishing. He was incredibly tough to mark properly for defenders, and all it took was a nicely placed pass from either David Beckham, Paul Scholes, or Ryan Giggs, and Van Nistelrooy would finish the rest. He was incredibly strong, had surprising touch for someone who didn't dribble much, and had insane shooting power. The closer he got to the goal, the higher the chances of him scoring, even if it was from a difficult or well-covered angle from the keeper. The 2002-2003 season was his best at United, with 44 goals and 7 assists in 52 games, an amazing goal scoring ratio of 0.85 goals a game. He would also go on to win the Premier League title, be named the Premier League Player of the Season, win the Premier League Golden Boot, and was the Champions League top scorer. During his entire time in the Premier League, he would score at the very least over half the games he played, with a total goal scoring ratio of 0.68 throughout those 5 years. And while he may not be United's all-time goal scorer, he has the highest goal scoring and goal per minutes ratio than any other player in the club's history. He would then move on to Real Madrid in 2006. If anyone questioned if the move to Madrid was because he was washed up, they would be proven quite wrong. In fact, Sir Alex Ferguson had to make a choice between him and Cristiano Ronaldo, as they had increased tensions in the club. It was even rumored that he once told Cristiano to run to his dad during training, shortly after he had passed away. And the funny thing was they would later on once again become teammates in Real Madrid for a short while. In Madrid, he would score his first hat-trick in just his second match in the league, finishing the season as La Liga's top scorer with 33 goals and 5 assists in 47 games. Another amazing 0.70 goals per game ratio, while also helping Real Madrid win the league title as well. Then again in the 2007-2008 season, he would help them win back-to-back La Liga titles while scoring 20 goals and having 8 assists in 33 matches. A goal scoring ratio of 0.60 goals a game. His best year for Real Madrid, efficiently and statistically, would come in the 2008-2009 season, as he scored 10 goals and had 2 assists in 12 appearances. A 0.83 goals per game ratio. Unfortunately, during this season, he would suffer a string of injuries and just stopped being the same player as he was getting old as well. Overall, his time in Madrid was amazing, scoring 64 goals in 96 appearances. Again averaging 0.68 goals a game like he did at Manchester United. And while he never managed any international success with the Netherlands, he's had 70 caps for the team and scored in about half of his appearances with 35 goals. And while he did play some years bouncing around Hamburg and Malaga, they weren't exactly too important as he was already nearing the end of his career. Ultimately, the man would score 349 goals in 592 appearances. A career goal scoring ratio of 0.59 goals a game. Which compared to many many players, especially strikers, is just absolutely incredible. He may have had a very specific style of play, but if you were to put the man in your team, he'd score in almost 60% of the games he'll play. Which is what he was good at doing. One of the most efficient strikers in history. It's understandable why his highlights or career might not have been too flashy or popular because of the way he played, but make no mistake, he was an absolute legend and could get the job done. But that's all from me today guys. I want to give a huge shout out to my senior team members, Ivan Lora and OP Multanen for their support and especially Alaric Aguilar for being my first legend over at Patreon. He wants me to make a video about Zlatan, so I guess I'll have to do it. 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