Van Nistelrooij rejoining Man Utd; Red Devils could spend €91 mil. on Zirkzee & De Ligt
English Premier League club Manchester United has reportedly agreed to a two-year contract with their former striker, Ruud van Nistelrooij. The former Dutch international is one of several signings that will add more orange to the Red Devils. The club is moving in on forward Joshua Zirkzee and defender Matthijs de Ligt, both of whom are on Oranje's roster during the current Euro 2024 tournament in Germany, and Dutch trainer René Hake could also join his countrymen under Dutch Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag.
Just after midnight, rumors surfaced that Joshua Zirkzee's current club, Bologna, has agreed to send the forward to Ten Hag's club for about 40 million euros. The 23-year-old from Schiedam, Zuid-Holland, has 14 goals and 9 assists in 58 appearances for the Serie A club over the past two seasons. Bologna has qualified for next season's Champions League, the Italian club's first appearance at the highest level of European club football in 60 years.
He bounced around during his youth career, eventually spending three years at ADO Den Haag and a season at Feyenoord. He then jumped to Bayern Munich's youth club before moving to their Bundesliga team. He was on Bayern's Champions League winning 2019-2020 team, though he spent most of his time on the bench during the season. Before he moved to Bologna, he scored 18 times for Anderlecht while on loan from Bayern Munich.
Manchester United is believed to be headed towards an even bigger Dutch signing, with the club negotiating to spend between 40 and 51 million euros to acquire De Ligt from Bayern Munich. The defender made a name for himself with Ajax, moving to their senior team during the 2016 season. He then played under Ten Hag in Amsterdam before moving to Italy, when Juventus paid an 85.5 million euros transfer fee in 2019. He stayed there for three seasons, until Bayern paid Juventus about 67 million euros to get the defender in 2022.
Across the top leagues in the three countries, he has played in 217 matches. He started all but 22 of those, and was only substituted 17 times. He has also played in dozens of Champions League and Europa League matches.
De Ligt has been on Oranje's substitute bench with Zirkzee this year, and the defender has yet to see any playing time during the tournament. He played at center-back in the European Qualifiers against Greece and Ireland, both victories for the Netherlands, before he was sidelined with a knee ligament tear.
De Ligt was just 17 when he debuted as a starter with Oranje during a World Cup qualifier loss (2-0) to Bulgaria in 2017. The defender was pulled at halftime after Bulgaria scored twice. Zirkzee made his international debut in the 87th minute of Oranje's quarterfinal victory over Turkey on Saturday.
Van Nistelrooij and Hake were photographed arriving at the club's training ground on Monday after two weeks of rumors that they were set to assist Ten Hag. Van Nistelrooij managed PSV Eindhoven to a 2023 KNVB Beker, the Dutch cup, but parted ways with the club with one match left in the Eredivisie. He said at the time that he felt the club had abandoned him.
After stepping aside from football for a season, he was rumored to be in talks to manage Burnley F.C., which plays in England's second professional football tier. That club also just lost Jelle ten Rouwelaar, their Dutch goalkeeping coach, who also started at Manchester United on Monday. Go Ahead Eagles manager René Hake is also expected to join Manchester United as a coach. He spent two seasons with the Deventer club, and has spent time on the sidelines of several other Eredivisie clubs.
Ten Hag signed a one-year extension with Manchester United just last week, which puts him under contract with the Premier League club until June 2026. Ten Hag worked with Hake at Jong FC Twente 15 years ago.
"Looking back at the past two years, we can reflect with pride on two trophies and many examples of progression from where we were when I joined," Ten Hag said in a press release after signing his contract extension. "However, we must also be clear that there is still lots of hard work ahead to reach the levels expected of Manchester United, which means challenging for English and European titles. In my discussions with the club, we have found complete unity in our vision for reaching those goals, and we are all strongly committed to making that journey together."
