I was supposed to interview Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Netherlands in July but having made the trip, the chat was shelved. Days later, he took on the role of assistant to Erik ten Hag at Manchester United.
Van Nistelrooy, 48, is now United’s interim manager, having taken on the job following the exit of Ten Hag last week. But his future at the club is uncertain after the announcement that Ruben Amorim is to be Ten Hag’s full-time replacement.
Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals in just 200 United starts between 2001 to 2006, but his time in Manchester as a player ended on a sour note. I went to speak to him in Madrid for his first interview to an English-speaking outlet after his departure and he admitted he would have acted differently in his final months. Sir Alex Ferguson saw that interview and as a result, the pair became friends again in 2010.
He had a stellar playing career before switching to coaching, working his way up from PSV’s under-10s to become head coach. He resigned that role in 2023.
Though my attempt to interview him in the Netherlands this summer after his year out of the game failed, I did catch up with him outside the United dressing room in Trondheim, Norway for a pre-season friendly against Rosenborg. He apologised that the chat had not happened and I told him I’d still made the trip. He looked alarmed.
“I just sat there all day looking at the departures board in Schiphol Airport,” I lied. “Ask me any city and I’ll tell you if you can fly there from Schiphol.” Van Nistelrooy apologised before I told him I was joking. Truth was, I went to see Jaap Stam.
We had a good chat in Norway. He looked better than I’d ever seen him, he was buzzing to be back at United and his WhatsApp profile is a picture of the Stretford End. I knew he was going to do no media since he did not want to take the spotlight from the man who had asked him to come and work with him, Erik ten Hag.
I was finishing a book about United in the noughties and many of the players I spoke to mentioned Van Nistelrooy in detail.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told me how he and Van Nistelrooy had been good mates, Diego Forlan about a famous tennis match between the pair — and how some Nantes players were so furious they spat at Van Nistelrooy after he’d scored a penalty there.
“The partnership between Ruud and I is underrated,” Solskjaer said. “We were good friends on and off the pitch. Our girlfriends, too.”
Stam spoke about how Ferguson had asked him to look after Van Nistelrooy when he arrived in Manchester. There were two problems: Stam was sold within weeks and he also ran over Van Nistelrooy’s foot by accident in his car.
A few weeks later, I got a call from a Red I trust, who suggested I ask Van Nistelrooy to write the foreword to my book, United: Ferguson’s Golden Generation in their Own Words.
The Dutchman happily agreed and I spoke to him while he was at the same airport in Amsterdam, returning to Manchester after the September international break.
A few days later, I got a message from Van Nistelrooy asking: “Could I order some books to give to my family and friends? Would you be able to sign them and I would too.” How nice is that? Not a message from an agent, not a request for free copies.
Below is a section of what he had to say about his relationship with United.
Last Monday, he was saddened to see Ten Hag sacked, but agreed to become interim manager and immediately took training. On the Wednesday, he gave his side clear and specific instructions as to what he wanted from them. They won 5-2 against Leicester City.
Van Nistelrooy’s future is uncertain — he only wants to help Manchester United — but he has also got to do what is right for himself.
My time at Manchester United as a player was so special, so happy. I was relatively unknown because I was coming from the Dutch league, but it was a big transfer with big expectations. People wanted to see what I was about and it was important for me to show what I could do as quickly as possible.
I’d moved with my girlfriend, now wife, and we liked living in Manchester – which was a very different city then. It has changed a lot, but it was always a football city. We’d invite friends from Holland and they’d experience the Old Trafford atmosphere, the noise, the roar when we scored, the banter and the songs. They travelled over often, they loved it. As a player, you felt pushed forward by the fans. It’s hard to explain, but that’s how I felt.
We didn’t win the league in my first year when we reached the Champions League semi-final but went out to Leverkusen. That – and not reaching a Champions League final while I was at United – was my biggest disappointment. I had a poor game in Leverkusen and it all hurt because we were so close.
But there were plenty of highs. The culture came from Sir Alex. He was the club and embodied everything about it. He’d give me freedom to play which as a forward you wanted. He wouldn’t stuff you with too much information.
It could be brutal as you had to reach the highest standards every day, but there were strong characters in the dressing room. The core was United, with the Class of ’92, Roy Keane, Denis Irwin and Wes Brown coming through. I was up front with Cole, Dwight Yorke and Solskjaer. It was amazing, they were so easy to play with. I felt a connection with them in training, without even looking.
We won the league in 2003 and I won the Golden Boot too with 44 goals, the best season of my career. But the most important thing was we were a team who played, won and celebrated together. Then we had the youngest players coming through, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. They needed time to reach the level to win things, but they learned so quickly.
It was difficult for me at the end as a player, but that’s part of professional life. I held no grudges and everyone moved on.
My United memories are ones of happiness, of the away fans singing towards the end of games that we were about to win when the rest of the stadium was empty. Happy, happy times.
Bring on United: Ferguson’s Golden Generation in their Own Words, by Andy Mitten, is released this week.
(Top photo: MARTYN HARRISON BLADES/AFP via Getty Images)
