Van Nistelrooy spoke about the biggest mistake of his career. I wanted to go to the 2010 World Cup, explains his move

Ruud van Nistelrooy is now the coach of PSV Eindhoven and is enjoying his first year of coaching in adult football. However, during the national break he also spoke about his playing career and specifically about his biggest mistake.

The former Dutch striker has had a spectacular playing career. He shone especially at Manchester United, where he scored goal after goal and overall reached the figure of 150 goals scored in 219 competitive matches.

After five years at Old Trafford, Ruud van Nistelrooy moved to Spain in 2006 when Real Madrid bought him for €15 million. He lived up to expectations in his first season and certainly didn’t disappoint in his second. But then came the summer of 2009.

Real Madrid decided to make a big reinforcement and players like Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu. In the first half of the season, he didn’t make many appearances, mainly due to health problems. But a line-up full of stars didn’t help him much either.

“Manuel Pellegrini was our coach at the time and he signed big and interesting players. There was no room for me in the team anymore. I accepted it, after all I was already 33 years old and I still wanted to see the World Cup in 2010,” van Nistelrooy recalls the fateful year in an interview with The Overlap.

So in January 2010 he left Real Madrid for Hamburg, a move he regrets in retrospect. “I made a decision too hastily. Looking back, I should never have left Real Madrid in the first place. It was the biggest mistake of my career,” says Nizomec.

Van Nistelrooy, however, left his mark at Real Madrid. Despite his injuries, he played 96 competitive games for the club, scoring a remarkable 64 goals.

However, the legendary striker did not attend the World Cup in South Africa, for which he left the Santiago Bernabeu. He retired in 2012 and now, at the age of 46, he is leading PSV Eindhoven’s first team in their quest to win the title.

Source: Football-Espana, Transfermarkt