Former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy refused to let injury prevent him from celebrating Real Madrid's title success with the rest of his team-mates last night.
Van Nistelrooy, La Liga's leading scorer this season with 25 strikes, only lasted 33 minutes of Madrid's title decider with Real Mallorca after limping off with a hamstring injury.
That looked to be a huge blow for Madrid, who were trailing 1-0 at the time while title rivals Barcelona were well on their way to an eventual 5-1 thrashing of Gimnastic Tarragona.
But Madrid managed to recover from the loss of the prolific Dutchman, and two second-half strikes from Jose Antonio Reyes and an own goal from Angelos Basinas earned Fabio Capello's men a 3-1 win and their 30th league title.
Van Nistelrooy, who joined the club from United last summer, may not have finished the game, or won the European golden boot - he needed to score twice to pip Roma's Francesco Totti - but the Dutchman was not about to miss out on the post-match celebrations at the famous Cibeles fountain in the centre of Madrid.
'It has been my first year at Real Madrid, and we have won the league,' he said. 'Now we are at Cibeles.
'It is a dream come true. It is incredible. It is hard to explain the joy that I feel. I don't have the words.
'I don't even feel any pain. We're champions and the tear doesn't even hurt. All we have left to do is go to the party.'
Source: soccernet
