The Dutch striker says his new club's Qatari owner is rebuilding with 'care and vision' to create a power base in southern Spain
It's difficult to interview Ruud van Nistelrooy and resist the temptation to wedge your tongue firmly into your cheek and open the questioning with the obvious joke. Sitting alongside him, a pair of northern Europeans perched on plastic chairs after retreating to the shadow of an empty stand to escape the relentless sun of the Costa del Sol, the mind inevitably wanders to Mrs Merton interrogating Debbie McGee over her relationship with Paul Daniels. So, Ruud, what was it that attracted you to the multimillionaire Málaga Club de Futbol?
Van Nistelrooy has been top scorer in the Dutch league, top scorer in the English league, top scorer in the Spanish league, and top scorer in the Champions League. Three times. He has won five league titles in three different countries and scored 35 times for his country. Málaga, meanwhile, have …well, they have a record number of promotions to the First Division. Trouble is, that's a roundabout way of saying they have been relegated an awful lot – 12 times. They have been bust and reinvented and in all their guises have not got a single trophy.
What they have got, all of a sudden, is money. Lots of money. Just over a year ago, they were in administration but before the start of last season, the Qatari sheik Abdullah Bin Nasser al-Thani bought the club for €36m. At the start of this season, they announced that the club's budget would be €150m – easily the biggest in their history and the third biggest in La Liga after Real Madrid and Barcelona. A new force has appeared on the Spanish scene, promising a power base in the south to challenge the centre (Madrid) and the north (Barcelona).
This summer Málaga have signed nine players for almost €60m. Diego Buonanotte arrived, as did Nacho Monreal, Jérémy Toulalan, Joris Mathijsen, Sergio Sánchez, Joaquín Sánchez, and Francisco Román, known as Isco. The last to arrive was the Spanish international Santi Cazorla. The €19m Málaga paid Villarreal for him would have covered their entire budget just a couple of seasons ago. In a league where unpaid players are common – Málaga were denied the chance to open their season against Barcelona last Sunday because of the players' strike – they now pay and pay well.
Yet when the question is posed, there is no "erm", no "um" and no squirming, no guilty flash of recognition in van Nistelrooy's eyes. Instead there is an answer that is both convincing and symbolic. Málaga could be seen as Spain's answer to Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain, only they are not. This is not about the money. Not for him and not for them. At least not entirely. "The thing that really struck me was the project," Van Nistelrooy says. "There's a trend of clubs being taken over and spending crazy amounts but this is different. There has been a lot of money spent but Málaga are building in a very serious way. This project comes with care and vision."
It is a care and vision in which the 35-year-old is complicit; his arrival mattered. It is true that Málaga sacked their first coach barely six months into his first season but Jesualdo Ferreira did not convince and his departure would prove a turning point. Málaga signed Antonio Fernández as sporting director and Manuel Pellegrini as coach during the winter. They also signed five new players, among them Julio Baptista, whose goals helped drag them out of trouble. Slowly, a project was being constructed. And for all the brashness of the cash there is a quietness, a rationality about the project.
It was Fernández who discovered Dani Alves and Julio Baptista for Sevilla. Pellegrini took Villarreal to the Champions League semi-final and second place in La Liga. When his embryonic Málaga side looked on the verge of relegation last season, rather than sacking him the club renewed his contract. There is a complicity between coach and club so conspicuously lacking when Pellegrini was at Real Madrid. There has been investment in the youth academy, and for all the cash and the sheer number of signings there is a logic to it all.
"I can't see any mad prices," says the director general, Fernando Hierro. Look at the list of signings again: it makes for an extremely impressive team but there is no Robinho, no marquee signing with no discernible function. There is, in contrast, a plan – one that will evolve over the next few years. That plan won over Van Nistelrooy and he, in turn, won over others. His signing, the first this summer, was strategically vital. "I had to convince him because I knew that he would convince others to come," says Fernández. "Not just because of how good a player he is but because of the seriousness with which he works, his professional approach."
Convincing him was not easy even if the earlier arrivals of Martin Demichelis and Julio Baptista, who the Dutchman is keen to present as the real pioneers, helped. "The first contacts were in February, March, and they were bottom. I didn't know much about Málaga," he says. "So, I started to make some calls and I didn't get any negative [responses]. I wasn't really convinced until around about April, May, but I spoke to the gaffer [Pellegrini] and I spoke to Antonio Fernández. I knew the gaffer from Madrid and I know how he works. As a person and as a professional I really rate him so there was no question. As for Antonio, look at what he did at Sevilla: he brought them up from the Second Division to winning the Uefa Cup and competing with Madrid. They are people who have been there and have the experience.
"I started getting information about the structure of the club and the future plans, too. At the same time my agent, who knows Antonio was saying 'Have a listen, this is really going to be something; it's going to be big.' And I thought 'Well, let's do it.' When I spoke to Malaga, they said 'These are the targets, these are the players we want to go for. You are the first one and you are really important for us. There is a team we want to construct, a squad we want' …and they did sign them."
Was that a surprise?
"Not really, because I trusted them because I found out how serious they were, about the vision behind the money. They explained it to me and I was convinced. There is a structure – the squad is balanced, it fits the system, the way the manager wants to play. Look at the players – they are for specific positions with specific qualities, not just names. They've chosen good people too, serious pros that want to achieve something, who want to work. There are no prima donnas here."
Van Nistelrooy believes that the construction of the squad allows for future progression and it is a message echoed by the sporting directorate. Short-, medium- and long-term plans run side by side. "If you look, there are cycles: experienced players with two- or three-year contracts, long long-term signings like Santi [Cazorla], and shorter-term people like me," Van Nistelrooy says. "There will be the next cycle, the next level. The project will continue to attract players. If I speak to colleagues from the national team, they're all talking about this.
"People want to come here. This is football and it is life too. You live in Málaga, Marbella, with your family, there is year-round sun, they are building a brand new training ground, the facilities are good and the plans for the stadium are unbelievable. Málaga has the infrastructure of a big club already – I've been genuinely surprised by that. It is no different from where I have played before in that professionalism and organisation. You have everything here to attract top players. What's not to like?"
Perhaps the size of the challenge before them, the impossibility of the task ahead. Already the euphoria is out of sync with the reality. Right now, Spain's best players join the big two or leave the country. Although Santi Cazorla bucked that trend by signing for Málaga, can they really compete with Madrid and Barcelona? Can they really aspire to win something for the first time? Or is that too much to ask?
"At the moment, yes, it is too much," Van Nistelrooy says. The 'but' hangs in the air. What about in the future: can Málaga win the league? Can it really happen? "I don't know if I will be there," he says, "but, yes, it can.
"It will."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/26/ruud-van-nistelrooy-malaga
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