Saturday, 23rd January 2010
In a surprising twist it appears Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has agreed to move to Bundesliga side Hamburg. The 33-year-old has been linked with a whole host of clubs when it became clear his days at Real Madrid were numbered, these included Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Stoke City and West Ham United. It is Hamburg who look to have won the race though, and he will move on a free transfer.
Van Nistelrooy is desperate for regular first-team football in order to be heavily involved in the Holland side’s bid to win the World Cup in South Africa this summer. It now seems he thinks Hamburg is the perfect launchpad for him to achieve that.
Hamburg are believed to have reacted the quickest of any of the interested parties, even going so far as to send their own medical staff over to Spain to conduct a preliminary medical. There have previously been concerns expressed about van Nistelrooy’s knee.
The German club are also reported to have agreed to maintain the Dutch striker’s salary, and it is thought van Nistelrooy was earning around €3M per season in Madrid.
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