Edwin van der Sar does not regard Ben Foster as a bigger rival to his Manchester United place than established reserve goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak.

Sir Alex Ferguson feels Foster is currently England's best goalkeeper.

Unfortunately, the former Stoke man spent last season recovering from a cruciate knee ligament injury and was unable to manage more than a single Premier League appearance for United against Derby after two impressive seasons at Watford.

Now, many expect Foster to push Van der Sar hard.

But while the veteran Dutchman needs no convincing of Foster's ability, he feels Kuszczak is just as capable.

"Ben is a good goalkeeper, there is no question about that," said Van der Sar.

"But the same can be said of myself and Tomasz Kuszczak.

"We are all working hard to reach the highest level we can but people tend to be focused on Ben because they relate it to the England situation.

"I don't really care who is behind me, I just want to keep the jersey. That means I have to perform and make sure I am fit and playing at the level everyone wants me to be at."

After returning from his extended break on Friday, Van der Sar is now in full training again and should make a 45-minute appearance against Espanyol in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's testimonial on Saturday before facing former club Juventus on August 6.

United's players will conduct a lap of honour before the Juve clash, giving fans a chance to see the Premier League and Champions League trophies.

But Van der Sar still feels sad there was no civic event the day United returned from Moscow.

"It is good the fans have an opportunity to see the trophies against Juventus but it won't be the same as if we had done it straight after Moscow.

"We had achieved something as a club and we wanted want to share it with the fans. We wanted to let people see the trophies up close.

"The celebrations in Amsterdam after we won it with Ajax will stay with me forever.

"Yes, we were tired on the Thursday because we were out on the Wednesday night and had a few glasses of champagne," he said.

"But we would have got an adrenalin kick once we had seen 500,000 people lining the streets and we would still have had the winning feeling. Now it is a little bit different."

One man not available, to face either Espanyol or Juventus, is Cristiano Ronaldo.

Van der Sar would have had to spend his holiday a long way from Manchester to escape the ongoing saga of Ronaldo's potential move to Real Madrid, which now seems increasingly likely not to take place.

"There have been a lot of things said and it is a very personal situation but we have a great team here, we play in a great stadium, with great fans and we have an opportunity to win more," said the 37-year-old.

"It is not that the team is going backwards.

"We have other trophies to play for, like the Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup. You don't get the chance to play in those competitions very often because you need to win the Champions League in order to qualify.

"In my opinion, being at Manchester United is a great way to play at the highest level and win trophies with a team that is very closely knitted together.

"Cristiano also has a contract here. Sometimes things change but we have a good squad here without any question."

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