Ruud Van Nistlerooy On Playing With Ronaldo, Never Winning the Champions League, and His Best Ever Goal

We spent some time with Ruud on the first two legs of UEFA and Heineken’s Champion The Trophy tour to talk about some of football’s biggest questions.

ruud van nistlerooy champions league
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ruud van nistlerooy champions league

Ruud Van Nistlerooy is a certified Champions League legend. In his five years at Manchester United, he was the competition’s top scorer three times, after that he moved to Real Madrid where he continued to bang them in. By the time he retired, in 2012, he had scored enough to be the 4th highest scorer in the competition’s history, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and Raul.

We spent some time with Ruud on the first two legs of the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by Heineken, in Jamaica and Panama City, to talk about some of football’s biggest questions and some of his career highlights. 

Ronaldo, because when I played with Ronaldo, Brazilian Ronaldo, he already had a lot of injuries and stuff in his Madrid days. It was just before he was leaving to Milan but you could see the moments of class in training where you thought ‘Oh my god, how good must he have been in his prime?’ and we’ve all seen the images. But when you’re actually with him on the pitch, it’s like ‘wow this is amazing’. It’s just given talent, absolutely remarkable talent. 

He was 17 when he came from Lisbon and obviously a young lad who needed to get used to the Premier League and living abroad and stuff, but you could see the drive he had was unbelievable. He said “I’m going to be the best player in the world” and people were like “yeah, right, alright” but he had the conviction in that. He didn’t just say it but he worked so hard for it every day and if things went well or bad it doesn’t matter, the next day he was there. So from a professional point of view you had a lot of respect for him. He improved so much so quickly.

Ruud on THAT goal against Fulham...

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I got the ball just in my own half, and I turned and started dribbling and gaining speed. Dribble, dribble, I don’t know two, three players, then I cut it back and just tapped. I didn’t kick it I just shoved it in maybe. In those moments it happens to you, you’re not aware of it. It overcomes you. You create something in the moment; it’s unawareness. You’re not aware, after it yes. You could see it in my celebration like ‘wow, an amazing thing happened’. But during the run, it was just the moment that you lived in.  Looking back on it that was the best I was. Obviously at that moment, you don’t know, but now looking back you see that was the best part of my career, it didn’t get any better from there. And it’s interesting because at the time when you’re in that you’re still pushing for the next level. Obviously you can maintain the level, but it didn’t get better. 

It’s hard, because it was a big goal of mine to win it. At least I can lift it here but it’s not the same. Then again, it’s something that wasn’t meant to be, and what makes it bearable is that I’ve done anything possible within my powers and I’ve tried. I gave everything and you can’t do more. It’s just one of these things you have to accept and look at things that went well.

It was a good record because I had one record with eight consecutive and then I went to 10 and it stood for a while. It was good fun because you’re in a range of games where you couldn’t stop scoring, and another game and another game and another win. But Vardy’s story, where he comes from, you can not not like it that he’s beating it because it’s just an amazing story and he’s the one to do it, a guy playing non league I don’t know four or five years ago. Then win the league with Leicester when nobody expected. Fantastic. I didn’t have his number but I put a tweet out to congratulate and he sent something back. Against United he broke it, it needed to happen and honestly I felt happy for him.

Ruud on taking the Champions League Trophy around Jamaica and Panama…

ruud van nistlerooy champions league

I had a manager at Heerenveen [Foppe de Haan]. He’s known for his development of players, sort of like Ferguson. He gets young players in from lower leagues, like me. I was in a lower league, he signed me and he started working with me in a way that I never knew. He sat me with a pen and paper and said ‘you need to think about your own development, where are you now, where do you want to be next year, what are you going to start doing for that tomorrow?’ I was like ‘what?’ I just got up and went to training and went back and home and whatever happened happened and that was just it. But then he got me thinking, I was like ‘yeah, in a year’s time where do I want to be? It would be nice if I could score 15 goals in the highest level, or my hold up game’. So I wrote these things down. He sat with me again and going through the notes and he said ‘what are you going to do in training?’ He started coaching me on these things, how to develop my own game and it really kick started my development, that awareness. For me, he was very important. I came from the Championship and I had one year with Heerenveen and then I signed with PSV already. I used that tool of goal setting and writing down and bring back to a daily basis, in every step I’ve made. So at PSV, and then at United, then at Madrid. Every time I made a move, I did it. It helped me a lot. 

The Monaco striker [Kylian Mbappe]. He’s 18 year’s old, I saw the game against City and you saw some stuff and you thought ‘wow at 18’, very promising. The pace, the power, the finishing. Impressive.

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