Ruud van Nistelrooy is one of the best players to have appeared in the Premier League.
Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals in 219 games and held the record for scoring in consecutive games until Jamie Vardy stole Van Nistelrooy’s record in 2015.
After leaving Old Trafford for Real Madrid in 2006, Van Nistelrooy continued his career with Los Blancos, before spells with Hamburg and Malaga.
His exit from Man United was somewhat under a dark cloud after rumours of a rift with Cristiano Ronaldo.
It was actually the former’s namesake, Ronaldo Nazario who Van Nistelrooy is the best teammate he’s played with, but their relationship was far healthier than the one he experienced with Cristiano.
Louis Saha on the Van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo fallout
Louis Saha was at Man United at the same time as Ronaldo and a young Wayne Rooney, who had also emerged onto the scene.
Both were seen as the future of the club but with Van Nistelrooy still in fine goal scoring form, the idea of being phased out probably didn’t suit him.
Ronaldo and Van Nistelrooy supposedly didn’t see eye-to-eye with each other and according to Saha, the current Leicester boss allegedly made the five-time Ballon d’Or winner cry following an ill-advised comment.
He told FourFourTwo in 2019: “Did Ruud make Ronaldo cry? Yeah, there were stories because I think they ended up in an argument at the moment when Cristiano’s father had passed away, so it wasn’t the right moment.”
Despite this, the Frenchman believes that the Dutchman never intended for it to get out of hand and will wish he didn’t say that all that time ago.
“Things like that happen when two players have lots of spirit, but I’m sure Ruud regrets some of his words,” Saha added.
Why did Ruud van Nistelrooy leave Man United?
Van Nistelrooy may have fallen out with Ronaldo on some occasions, but something much bigger forced him to
A fall out with Sir Alex Ferguson after being benched in the 2006 League Cup final and the feeling that the club had stagnated, eventually led to him leaving
Explaining the situation during an episode of The Overlap in 2023, the Dutchman said: “Sir Alex Ferguson explained to me that I wasn’t going to start in the League Cup final because Louis Saha played in the other rounds, and it was fine with me.
“We were winning quite a bit in the final and he sent me out to warm-up, and then didn’t put me on. I sat down on the bench, and I said something to him whilst I was a bit angry, that I wasn’t going to be coming on – I snapped a bit.
“The comment and snap in that moment of a final – you cannot do it. But of course, emotions are there.”
In the end, the two were able to settle their differences in a phone call in 2010.