Rutgerus Johannes Martinus "Ruud" Van Nistelrooy was born on June 1, 1976 in the city of Oss (Netherlands).
Van Nistelrooy started his professional career in 1993 at FC Den Bosch, a Dutch second division club.
Due to his physical size he started to play defense but little by little everyone started to realize that what he liked was to score goals.
Gradually Van Nistelrooy was gaining space in the team.
It was in the 1996/97 season that Van Nistelrooy started attracting the attention of other clubs by scoring 12 goals in 31 games.
At the end of this season Van Nistelrooy would end up being hired by SC Heerenveen, team of the 1st division, for 360 thousand euros.
For FC Den Bosch, Van Nistelrooy participated in 71 games and scored 20 goals.
In the 1997/98 season, his first season with SC Heerenveen, he showed great quality finishing with 16 goals in 36 games played.
This good start in the 1st division attracts him the interest of PSV, who hired him for 6.3 million euros.
In 1998 Van Nistelrooy was summoned for the first time to represent the Netherlands team.
As soon as he arrived at PSV in the 1998/99 season, Van Nistelrooy managed to win the Dutch Super Cup.
Van Nistelrooy ended this season by winning the highest scorer of the championship and the second highest scorer in Europe.
This led to Van Nistelrooy winning the Dutch best player of the year award.
In the 1999/2000 season, PSV and Van Nistelrooy won the Dutch championship and for the 2nd consecutive season Van Nistelrooy was the league's top scorer with 29 goals in 23 games played and again wins the Dutch Player of the Year award.
In the 2000/01 season, Van Nistelrooy started as best he could by winning the Dutch Super Cup.
This season he became two-time Dutch champion by winning the champion's title again.
At this point several clubs started to become interested in Van Nistelrooy.
At the end of the season Van Nistelrooy would eventually be signed by Manchester United in a transfer worth £18.5 million.
On PSV he played 91 games, scored 75 goals and won 4 titles.
In the 2001/2002 season, his first season with Manchester United, despite not winning any Van Nistelrooy titles, performed at a good level both in the Premier League and in the Champions League.
He would end up being the top scorer in the Champions League.
The 2002/2003 season was a fantastic season for Van Nistelrooy.
he won the title of Premier League champion and the FA Community Shield.
At the world level he was the best scorer in the Premier League, he was elected the best player in the Premier League, he was the best scorer in the Champions League for the second time, he was voted the best striker by UEFA and the 6th best in the world by FIFA.
In the 2003/2004 season, Van Nistelrooy wins the FA Cup and is named the 10th best player in the world by FIFA.
At the end of the season Van Nistelrooy participated for the first time in an edition of the Eureo, but the Netherlands would end up being eliminated in the semi-finals.
In the 2004/2005 season, Van Nistelrooy suffered an injury that caused him to lose much of the competition, but he still wins the Carling Cup and ends the Champions League as the competition's top scorer.
In the 2005/2006 season, Van Nistelrooy did not win the individual award for the best scorer in the Premier League, ranking 2nd.
However this season he started to be on the bench and this increased speculation about a possible departure from the club.
One of the situations that may have led to this was the fact that Van Nistelrooy went out with Cristiano Ronaldo with the argument that he did not apse the ball.
Taking this into account, at the end of the season Van Nistelrooy left for Real Madrid for 24 million euros.
At Manchester United he participated in 249 games, scored 150 goals and won 4 titles.
Still in 2006, Van Nistelrooy was present at the World Cup representing the Netherlands but he did not have long minutes of play and the Netherlands were eliminated in the round of 16 by Portugal.
In the 2006/2007 season, at the service of Real Madrid, Van Nistelrooy arrived showing his value by winning the title of La Liga champion, finishing as the best scorer of the championship with 25 goals.
In the 2007/2008 season, Van Nistelrooy had a painful season due to the various injuries he had. However he ends up winning the Spanish Super Cup and the title of champion of La Liga.
Even with his injuries he scored 20 goals in 32 games played.
He participated, for Hoalnda, in the 2008 World Cup and although the Dutch team was nominated as a favorite, it would end up being eliminated in the round of 16.
At the end of the World Cup he decided to end his career in the national team.
In the 2008/2009 season he suffered a serious knee injury and ended up playing only 10 games.
In the 2009/2010 season his injuries are getting in the way again and because of that he went from 1st option to 3rd option.
Due to little chance of playing on January 23, 2010 Van Nistelrooy was transferred to Hamburg (Germany).
At Real Madrid Van Nistelrooy participated in 94 games, scored 64 goals and won 3 titles.
After seeing the Netherlands team lose the Euro 2010 final he decided to go back on his retirement from the national team and decided to be available for the national team again.
At Hamburg Van Nistelrooy spent a season and a half where he played 44 games and scored 17 goals.
In the middle of the 2011/2012 season, Malaga hires Van Nistelrooy at no cost.
This season Van Nistelrooy helped Malaga qualify for the Champions League.
At the end of this season he decided to end his career and retire.
For the clubs (FC Den Bosch, PSV, Manchester United, Real Madrid, hamburg and Malaga) he participated in 539 games, scored 347 goals and won 11 titles.
For the Netherlands team he made 70 games and scored 35 goals.