Van Nistelrooy more productive than ever

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Ruud van Nistelrooy's decision to not play for the Dutch national football team so far seems to bring grist to his mill.

The 32-year-old record breaking striker has had a more productive start to the new season than ever.

After six official games for the Royals the counter is at six for one of Holland's most prolific goal scorers.

Never before in his professional career did Van Nistelrooy score so many goals in his first six games.

Van Gol, as he's called in Spain, scored three in the double Supercup encounter with Valencia, one in the league games against Deportivo La Coruña and Racing Santander (last weekend ) and he scored a goal in last week's Champions League game against Bate Borisov.

Only in the league game against Numancia of September 14 Van the Man was unsuccessful.

Since his debut for Real, two years ago, Van Nistelrooy has scored 59 goals in 86 official matches, an average of almost 0.7 goals per match.

The stats for his career are as impressive: 230 goals in 383 professional league games, 58 Champions League goals in 72 appearances and 33 goals in 64 games for Holland.

His total goal record on club level now stands at 309 goals in 486 appearances - an incredible average of 0.64 goals per game.

Van Nistelrooy's starts:

Video: Van Gol's magnificent goal against Santander (21/9/08)