He wears the number 10 for Manchester United and usually the number 9 or 10 for the Netherlands. He married his girlfriend of eight years, Leontine Slaats, in July 2004.

A prolific striker with an outstanding finishing ability and excellent reflexes, often regarded as one of the best strikers playing today, he is also a regular penalty taker and has agility and balance for his height (1.88 m, 6 ft 2 in), which is often credited to his previous training in gymnastics. For the Netherlands, van Nistelrooy has a return of a goal every other game, scoring 26 times in 50 appearances. For Manchester United he has scored 150 goals in 219 games, as of April 1, 2006. Spanning his time at PSV Eindhoven and Manchester United, van Nistelrooy has scored 46 goals in 55 UEFA Champions League matches (43 in 54 excluding qualifying matches which are not officially counted by UEFA), an enviable return for any striker.

However, despite being the Barclays Premiership's second highest scorer with 21 goals this season, van Nistelrooy had to settle for a place on the substitutes' bench after being dropped for the Carling Cup final against Wigan Athletic. He scored against West Ham on his return to the first team on March 29 but was dropped to the bench again for the next match against Bolton. He did come on as a second half substitute, though, and scored the winner in a 2�1 victory. It was his 150th goal for Manchester United. Whether van Nistelrooy will remain as a United player after the World Cup is in considerable doubt. There are strong rumours that he may go to Spain [citation needed]. Nevertheless, he has maintained his desire to stay at United and contribute to their future success.

On February 26, van Nistelrooy was an unused substitute at Manchester United's League Cup final against Wigan Athletic. His place in the line-up was given to Louis Saha, who scored the second goal in a 4�0 win. This caused lots of controversy but the player declined claims that he has had a rift with manager Sir Alex Ferguson. He was also left on the bench for six consecutive matches and suffered a goal drought, as he was not getting in the starting line up. However, in the following game against West Ham, van Nistelrooy returned to the Manchester United starting line-up as captain, and scored the winning goal, his 150th for the club. In the game the following Saturday, against Bolton Wanderers, van Nistelrooy found himself back on the bench � however, he came on as a substitute, and for the second successive game, scored the winning goal. Having not started for seven of the last eight games, van Nistelrooy lost his place as the joint-highest goalscorer in the Premiership this season with 21 goals, with Thierry Henry having scored 24. Nowadays, Saha seems to be in the starting XI more often.

Fresh doubt has been spread over van Nistelrooy's future when he was left out of the team to play Charlton Athletic in the final game of the season on 7 May 2006. Ferguson claimed that van Nistelrooy, angry at the decision, left the ground and went home 3 hours before kickoff. Although, other reports suggest that he was forced to leave the ground by his manager Sir Alex Ferguson [1]. Ferguson further said that he was left out of the team because of a "number of issues": "There have been a couple of issues during the week that concerned me in terms of the spirit at the club," he said. "On such an important day, I just felt that Ruud should be left out." He added, "We'll be discussing it with the club's directors." United won the game 4�0, with youngster Giuseppe Rossi playing the match.

On May 9, 2006, Setanta Sports claimed to exclusively reveal the real reason behind van Nistelrooy's non-inclusion in the squad for the game against Charlton. According to Setanta, van Nistelrooy and team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo had come to blows during a training session. Ruud allegedly criticised Ronaldo's tendency to keep the ball, instead of passing, and then the two fought. van Nistelrooy then, allegedly, said "go running to your daddy". Ronaldo's father had died earlier in the season, though the article claims that van Nistelrooy was not referring to Ronaldo's father, but to his fellow Portuguese Carlos Queiroz.[2]

On 9 May 2006, Ruud was told by Sir Alex Ferguson that he would not be allowed to play in the testimonial game for former team mate and ex-Manchester United captain, Roy Keane. Despite an excellent season for Manchester United, van Nistelrooy is said to have become frustrated by a lack of playing time and is most likely to move on after the World Cup. The decision by the United management to continue to deny van Nistelrooy opportunities has been seen as controversial due to the striker's immense popularity amongst the Old Trafford faithful, compared to the less popular Saha.

On 13 June 2006, Bayern Munich admitted to being interested in obtaining Ruud Van Nistelrooy's services. However, with the arrival of Andriy Shevchenko at Chelsea FC, Andriy's previous club AC Milan are said to also be chasing Ruud.