Ruud van Nistelrooy has only recently left Manchester United but he is already attracting major interest as a manager.
Ruben Amorim has started his reign as Manchester United boss and knows he has a lot of work on his hands.
United almost immediately took the lead at Ipswich Town as Marcus Rashford scored the first goal of the Amorim era.
United just couldn’t build on that lead and turned in a fairly drab performance, eventually settling for a 1-1 draw against the Tractor Boys.
Amorim wants United to improve controlling games when going ahead and he certainly knows the scale of the job facing him now.
Ruud van Nistelrooy wanted by former club
As Amorim looks to forge his own path at United, Ruud van Nistelrooy seems to be attracting enormous interest.
Van Nistelrooy left United alongside Rene Hake upon Amorim’s appointment as the Dutch contingent of the United staff moved on.
Hake’s situation has been questioned in the Netherlands but Van Nistelrooy is now a man in demand.
Van Nistelrooy was linked with Coventry City last week as they move on from another former United striker in Mark Robins.
Leicester City are now keen on Van Nistelrooy after sacking Steve Cooper with his work in interim charge of United attracting interest.
Another suitor has now emerged with Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg reporting that German side Hamburg are interested in appointing Van Nistelrooy.
Plettenberg claims that Hamburg are considering Van Nistelrooy as a replacement for Steffen Baumgart following his sacking on Sunday.
Plettenberg adds that Van Nistelrooy is aware of Hamburg’s interest and he is the top choice for many key decision makers inside the club.
However, the deal is considered ‘difficult’ with Hamburg stuck in Germany’s second tier and ultimately competing against Premier League interest in Van Nistelrooy.
Hamburg are a true sleeping giant; six-time German champions and even former European champions, they now find themselves out of the Bundesliga and want Van Nistelrooy to lead them back.
What Ruud van Nistelrooy has said about Hamburg
Van Nistelrooy has history with Hamburg.
The Dutchman joined Hamburg as a player in 2009 and scored 17 goals in 44 games for the club before finishing his career with Malaga.
However, Van Nistelrooy has actually admitted that he wishes he hadn’t made that move.
Speaking on The Overlap, Van Nistelrooy admitted that the move didn’t really work for his family and from a personal level, he wishes he hadn’t joined.
Van Nistelrooy made it clear that it wasn’t because of Hamburg as a club, but just that the experience wasn’t right for his family.
“My worst decision in my career was to leave Madrid for Hamburg,” said Van Nistelrooy.
“I shouldn’t have left Madrid at the time. I was with Pellegrini and they signed Benzema, Ronaldo and Kaka, so there was no place for me and I understood, I accepted, I was 33, but I wanted to give it a go to go to the World Cup in 2010 and I went to Hamburg. It was too quick of a decision for me and also for my family, it wasn’t the right thing to do at the time. I wouldn’t have done that if I could have done it again.
“It was actually a great start, I scored two goals in my first appearance but no, leaving Madrid with the family and all the moves… it wasn’t the club, but it was more on a personal level, taking family and young kids out of Madrid, it wasn’t a good thing,” he added.
Hamburg will be hoping that Van Nistelrooy isn’t scarred by his last move to the club and will hope there is some emotional pull back to the Volksparkstadion with Hamburg stuck in the second division for more than five years now.
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