Ruud van Nistelrooy - The Flying Dutchman wins the title for Madrid

Golden Boot to Totti, medal for heroism to Ruud

Ozren Podnar reports...

Francesco Totti has become only the second Italian in history to have won the Golden Boot, succeeding the first Italian, Luca Toni. Such unprecedented success of the Italian strikers is not a surprise. It just shows that the Azzurri are the world champions.

Totti's 26 goals have sufficed for Roma to take second spot in Serie A and a place in the Champions' League, but the end of the season was clearly marked by another penalty area predator: Ruud van Nistelrooy!

The phenomenal Dutchman lifted Real above Barcelona with ten goals in seven consecutive matches, enough for Madrid's 30th title by a "half-point" margin thanks to strange Spanish mathematics (teams level on points are separated by head to head scores rather than the overall goal difference).

Thanks mostly to his goals against Valencia (1), Athletic (2), Sevilla (2), Espanyol (1), Recreativo (1), Deportivo (1) and Zaragoza (2) Real collected 19 out of 21 points to come out on top of the Primera División.

Whenever Van Nistelrooy tops the scoring charts, his team wins the League: this happened on all four occasions when he finished the season as the top scorer. This season, curiously, he scored 70% of his 25 goals away from home.

Injury meant just Bronze

Van Nistelrooy hoped to overtake Totti on the last day of the competition but he was pulled out through injury in the 32th minute of the Mallorca game, which limited him to 25 league goals and the Bronze Boot, behind Totti and Brazilian Afonso Alves from Heerenveen.

Actually, Alves scored as many as 34 goals, but the Dutch quotient of 1.5 points per goals gave him a 51 points total, behind Totti's 52 points and above Ruud's 50.

In any case, the Dutchman can relish the Spanish scoring title, his fourth such title in three countries - Holland, England and Spain. Alongside the Primera title and the forthcoming return to the Dutch national team, this must be a supreme motive for Van Nistelrooy's joy.

No other player had won scoring titles in more than two of the European big leagues, and even this has been achieved by just a couple of players: the Welsh "Gentle Giant" John Charles (England and Italy), Marco van Basten (Holland and Italy), Christian Vieri (Italy and Spain), Marcio Amoroso (Italy and Germany), Romário (Holland and Spain) and Ronaldo (Holland and Spain).

Ruud van Nistelrooy Fact file

Full name: Rutgerus Marinus "Ruud" van Nistelrooy
Nickname: Van the Man
Date of birth: July 1st, 1976
Place of birth: Oss (Netherlands)
Height and weight: 188 cm, 80 kg
Position: centre forward
Club: Real Madrid
Shirt number: 17
Club career:
1993/94 Den Bosch 2 0
1994/95 Den Bosch 15 3
1995/96 Den Bosch 21 2
1996/97 Den Bosch 31 12
1997/98 Heerenveen 31 13
1998/99 PSV Eindhoven 34 31
1999/00 PSV Eindhoven 23 29
2000/01 PSV Eindhoven 10 2
2001/02 Manchester United 32 23
2002/03 Manchester United 34 25
2003/04 Manchester United 32 20
2004/05 Manchester United 17 6
2005/06 Manchester United 35 21
2006/07 Real Madrid 37 25
National team:
1998-06 Netherlands 54 28
Trophies and honours:
2 Dutch championships (1999 and 2000)
1 English championships (2003)
1 English FA Cup (2004)
1 English League Cup (2006)
1 Spanish championship (2007)
Best player in the Netherlands (1999 and 2000)
Top scorer in the Netherlands (1999 and 2000)
Top scorer in England (2003)
Top scorer in Spain (2007)

Ozren Podnar

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