van nistelrooy netherlands Van Nistelrooy’s journey from striker to Premier League manager

Dutch football expert Arthur Renard details the background of Leicester City’s new manager Ruud van Nistelrooy, chronicling the former Manchester United striker’s journey in coaching as he prepares to take charge of the Foxes for the first time against West Ham United on Tuesday.

After spending several years at Everton, Dutch defender Nathangelo Markelo was excited when he heard about the opportunity to join Ruud van Nistelrooy at PSV Eindhoven. When looking back, the current Roda JC player is full of praise for the new Leicester City manager. 

“I played one year under Ruud and I really enjoyed that,” says Markelo, who played under Van Nistelrooy in PSV’s second team in the 2021/2022 season. “He is a real winner and if there’s one thing he absolutely can’t stand, it’s losing! Tactically, I found him one of the better coaches I’ve had so far. He focused a lot on positioning during matches.

“Besides that, he is a very nice man to work with. As fierce as he can be on the pitch, he is the opposite off the field – always approachable and ready to help his players whenever they need support.

“At Everton I worked with Carlo Ancelotti and they share one notable similarity: both have a fatherly presence within the team. This is great for a team and makes you want to give that extra effort for them.”

Van Nistlerooy’s first steps as a coach

It was during the time spent with another title-winning Premier League coach that Van Nistelrooy got inspired to go into management.

When the former Manchester United striker was nearing the end of his playing days he opted to sign for Malaga in the summer of 2011.

There he was reunited with Manuel Pellegrini, the Chilean manager who he had previously worked with at Real Madrid.

Pellegrini told Van Nistelrooy he wouldn’t be a regular starter and in the end it made the Dutch striker transform his ideas and help young players in the team like Salomon Rondon, Isco and Juanmi.

“First on the mental side, and then later on the tactical and technical sides, I could help these guys,” Van Nistelrooy explained in an interview with the Coaches’ Voice.

“I started to build up a relationship with them. Through talking and training, I realised that, hey, I can have an influence. That really got me into coaching, and I went straight into doing my badges.”

Van Nistelrooy then went to work with the PSV academy and also joined the Dutch national team as an assistant under Guus Hiddink in 2014.

The former Man Utd striker took inspiration from the Netherlands manager about things such as team dynamics, handling the media, planning training sessions and analysing opponents.

“For me, this was fantastic,” he said. “I learned so much, and it was the best thing that could happen in that phase of my career as a coach.”

He gradually built his way up, working as a forward coach in the PSV academy before taking charge of several youth teams, where he worked with players such as Cody Gakpo (pictured below), Noni Madueke and Leeds United striker Joel Piroe, who have all made huge strides in England since.

Madueke reminisced about that time in an interview with FourFourTwo three years ago.

“That was really nice,” he said. “He was a great player and he is a good coach as well; he taught me several things.

“He taught me about simplifying the game, like with crossing, shooting and dribbling. Just making the game easy, by giving me clear options to what I have to do when I get to the final third on the pitch.

“Two seasons ago [in 2019] I was able to go on a training camp with the first team. He told me that he didn’t want to see me again in the Under-19s, like in a positive way to stimulate me to stay in the first team. He said that he was letting me go because he believed I would be able to stay there. And he was right.”

Madueke developed into a first-team player in Holland before making the move to Chelsea in early 2023.

Glimpse of Van Nistelrooy’s coaching style

Van Nistelrooy explained to the Coaches’ Voice how he would stimulate players including Madueke and Gakpo to go from the Under-19s into the first team.

“’Listen, two months from now you could be playing in front of 30,000 people,’ I would say to them. ‘This is what is expected, with and without the ball, and in transition moments. This is what your lifestyle outside of football should look like.’”

Markelo remembers that Leicester’s new manager was really good in working on details with his players.

“We would often analyse footage of our game and a recurring focus was how to surprise your direct opponent with your first touch,” says Markelo.

“The passing exercises were also very much based on that. And during finishing drills I noticed how he would hand golden tips to our forwards like Johan Bakayoko and Ismael Saibari, who are now shining in PSV’s first team.”

As a player, Van Nistelrooy patiently built his career up and as a coach he has been trying to do the same.

At PSV he spent several years with various youth teams before he was installed at the second team in 2021, which competes in the Dutch second tier.

Prior to that, he was assistant at the Netherlands once more – this time assisting Frank de Boer during the Euro 2020 campaign.

De Boer is another example of someone whose foundation was laid in the youth set-up, before he started his own career at Ajax, with whom he won four consecutive Dutch titles at the start of his managerial career.

Big break

Van Nistelrooy also made that switch, eventually, as he took charge of PSV’s first team in 2022.

Straight away he won the Dutch Super Cup and, later that season, he added the Dutch Cup, while his team finished second in the league behind Arne Slot’s Feyenoord.

Van Nistelrooy himself would step down one match before the end of the season, though, citing a lack of support from the hierarchy above.

“A head coach needs to be aligned with the board and the directors, and to know about plans for the future. When you’re not, it’s impossible to continue,” Van Nistelrooy reflected in the Coaches’ Voice.

Lessons from old friends

After that, Van Nistelrooy took time to invest in himself by going around the world and soaking up inspiration from other coaches.

He went to Real Madrid to spend some days with Ancelotti, who he has mentioned as a source of inspiration before and who shares similar traits as a manager, as Markelo referenced earlier in this article. 

Van Nistelrooy told Spanish outlet Marca about the time he spent with Ancelotti at Real Madrid.

“He told me that there are no secrets in football and he welcomed me to be in all the meetings and training sessions,” Van Nistelrooy recalls.

“He and his coaching staff were open and I appreciate that. I was there a week before the match against Rayo [Vallecano] and I lived through the whole process of returning from Barcelona from the Clasico until the league match [with Rayo] and it was amazing to talk to him. His experiences are unbelievable. It was very helpful to me.

“I spoke to him about what happened to me at PSV, about the lack of trust between the directors and me, and he helped me figure out how to continue, how to cope… Being with Carlo helped me a lot.”

During last season he also managed to fulfil a long-cherished wish as he went over to Argentina to visit a Boca Juniors v River Plate match.

There he spoke with River coach and former Malaga team-mate Martin Demichelis, and Marcelo Gallardo as well. And in Europe he met up with Pellegrini once again.

After spending a year out of action, Van Nistelrooy returned to the dug-out to become an assistant at Old Trafford, as his love for his old club meant he was prepared to put his own managerial ambitions on hold.

His time at Man Utd didn’t last long though, as Erik ten Hag was dismissed at the end of October. Van Nistelrooy was put in temporary charge, something which was clear from the start. “That was communicated very clear and I was happy with that. I felt that I was called upon to help the club forward in this situation,” Van Nistelrooy said at a press conference. Soon it became apparent that Ruben Amorim would be the new manager and the Dutch coach was open to return to his assistant role under the Portuguese manager, but this wasn’t to be.

Van Nistelrooy didn’t have to wait long for a new opportunity, however, as he was installed as Leicester’s new head coach barely three weeks later. And there another Malaga-link popped up, as his former team-mate Enzo Maresca had just left Leicester last summer and the two spoke before the Dutchman signed his contract in the East Midlands.

Phone call to Maresca

Speaking to Leicester’s club website after his appointment, Van Nistelrooy said: “I have to say, when the interest came, the first one I called was Enzo.

“He was so positive about it. He absolutely loved his time. When you hear these things, it’s a club you want to be a part of.

“Obviously, with the interest coming, I phoned him and I asked him more detailed questions about the club, the structures, the people that work there, the squad, the stadium, the fans, the town, the surroundings… it was a fantastic conversation. It’s always a pleasure to talk to him.”