Ruud van Nistelrooy described the completion of his move to Real Madrid from Manchester United as "a dream come true".

The Dutch striker was unveiled by the Spanish giants at the Bernabeu stadium this evening and could not hide his excitement.

Van Nistelrooy, speaking at a press conference said: "It's a great honour to stand here in the Bernabeu and it is a dream come true.

Real Madrid is a great club; it's got history, the greatest players ever have played here, so it's a great honour on my side.

"I have to speak in English - I am sorry, I will try to learn Spanish as quickly as I can because this move means everything for me.

"I want to thank everybody for the confidence and the belief they have shown in me I will do everything in my ability to play well."

He then added in Spanish; "I am very very happy, thank you all."

Real president Ramon Calderon felt the signing was another step to fulfilling his election pledges to strengthen their side and halt their three-season trophy drought.

He said: "During the electoral campaign the fans asked insistently that if we won the elections that we made a big effort to try to compliment the great squad we had with new players that could come and end this bad spell that we have had for the last three years.

"As you know, the elections were held on July 3 and the (signings) at this time of year are very hard because we have to go really fast and that always causes problems down the line.

"But we saw it as a mandatory obligation not only as representatives of the members of Real Madrid, but as employees of the club, to work for what all of us were expecting.

"Today I can say with pride that this board of directors is more satisfied than a week ago. Although I have also underlined that not all the work has been done and we are expecting other signings in the coming weeks.

"We are very happy at this moment after the great signings of Emerson and Cannavaro we've finally made another one of our dreams come true and (met) another one of the demands of head coach Fabio Capello. Ruud van Nistelrooy has just signed his contract as a new player for Real Madrid.

"His honour list, his trajectory and his statistics are impressive, the same as the ones of the players we presented in the last few days. His are spectacular.

"We have a perfect striker who combines efficiency and power with great footballing technique."

Manchester United released a statement simultaneously which read: "Ruud van Nistelrooy has completed his transfer to Real Madrid. Manchester United would like to wish him all the best at his new club and thank him for the great service he provided."  Agencies