Kluivert and Van Nistelrooy Turn 41

CAIRO – 2 July 2017: Dutch legends Ruud van Nistelrooy and Patrick Kluivert celebrate their 41st birthday on July 1.

Kluivert and van Nistelrooy are considered the best strikers that Dutch football has ever encountered. Having featured in the national teams and many European giants, Kluivert and van Nistelrooy have shown the qualities of world class strikers.

Kluivert started his career at Ajax where he managed to win the Eredivise (Dutch League title), and the UEFA Champions League. Kluivert would leave his home club to join European giants AC Milan for one year before going to FC Barcelona and winning the Spanish League title. After four years with Barcelona he left to spend one year each at the following clubs: Newcastle United (England), Valencia (Spain), PSV (Netherlands), Lile OSC (France).

While playing with the Dutch national team Kluivert came in fourth place at the 1998 World Cup. However, Netherlands would take third place in the 2014 World Cup while he was the assistant coach. According to Transfer Market, Kluivert netted the goal 194 goals in 449 matches of his career.

Van Nistelrooy started his professional career with FC Den Bosch and then went to SC Heerenveen. His career saw a great shift after joining PSV Eindhoven, considered one of the top teams in Netherlands, giving him the attention needed to attract English Premier League teams. He would join European giants Manchester United where he managed to win the English Premier League and FA Cup.

After five years of great successes there, Van Nistelrooy moved to Real Madrid and won the La Liga (Spanish League) with the club that has the most Champions League titles. The Dutch striker would continue to stay at his peak for four years before going the German club Hamburger SV. After one year of playing at Hamburger, Van Nistelrooy enjoyed his last season of football playing for the Spanish club Malaga.

Playing a total of 524 games, van Nistelrooy managed to score 311 goals. He is considered to be the striker with the least minutes per goal (128 minutes) in the history of Manchester United per goal, scoring 95 goals in 128 matches according to Transfer Market.

Ruud van Nistelrooy and Patrick Kluivert played together while with the Dutch national team.