Ryan Giggs, from pin-up to old master Ryan Giggs, who announced the end of his playing career on Monday, will be remembered as an all-time British great and one of Manchester Uniteds finest ever players. He made a record 963 appearances for United and the 34 trophies he won at Old Trafford, including 13 Premier League titles, four FA Cups, and two Champions Leagues, made him English footballs most decorated player. From floppy-haired teenage pin-up to greying elder statesman, his 23-year playing career neatly coincided with the most successful period in Uniteds history and made him a household name around the world. I have cried twice in my life watching a football player, admitted former Juventus great Alessandro Del Piero. The first one was Maradona, and the second was Ryan Giggs. Born Ryan Joseph Wilson in Cardiff on November 29, 1973, the young Giggs spent his early years in Wales before relocating to Salford, Greater Manchester at the age of six due to his fathers rugby league career. While playing for local team Deans, Giggs was spotted by a United scout and although he had signed up with Manchester Citys School of Excellence, United manager Alex Ferguson was quick to pounce. I remember the first time I saw Giggs, said Ferguson, who turned up at Giggss house on his 14th birthday with schoolboy forms for him to sign. He was 13 and he floated across the ground like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind. - Twisted blood - Following his parents divorce, Giggs adopted his mothers surname and it was with that name on the back of his shirt that he was to become an international sporting icon. Giggs was the first member of Uniteds feted Class of 92 youth team to infiltrate the senior squad, setting an example that David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers would go on to emulate. A wiry, jet-heeled left-winger, Giggss weaving runs made him one of the stars of Fergusons first great United team and moved team-mate Gary Pallister to comment that he gave his opponents twisted blood. Meanwhile Giggss brooding good looks made him a hit with teenage girls. The combination prompted comparisons with George Best, the fast-living United superstar of the 1960s and early 1970s, who wryly opined: Maybe one day people will say I was another Ryan Giggs. Giggs scored his most famous goal against Arsenal in 1999, a show-stopping solo strike in an FA Cup semi-final replay, and it provided the inspiration for an unprecedented treble of league, cup and Champions League honours. - 1,000 professional games - He had to wait nine years to get his hands on the Champions League trophy again, scoring what proved to be the decisive penalty in a shootout against Chelsea in Moscow in 2008, and by then he was a very different player. No longer the full-backs nightmare of his youth, Giggs had reinvented himself as a deep-lying midfield organiser, whose effortless technique enabled him to outwit players almost half his age. He played in two more Champions League finals in 2009 and 2011, losing on both occasions to Barcelona, but the trophies and milestones continued to stack up. In 2009 he was elected the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) Player of the Year, in 2011 he was voted Uniteds greatest player by the clubs fans, and in March 2013 he played his 1,000th professional game. You think maybe a defender or goalkeeper could play on, but a winger, who has played from the age of 16, 17 to the age of 40 and has adapted his game and is still looking like he can beat a player, it is brilliant, said former team-mate Gary Neville. Although he captained Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics, Giggs never graced a major international tournament with Wales, but despite being coveted by a succession of England managers, he had no regrets. Id rather go through my career without qualifying for a major championship than play for a country where I wasnt born or which my parents didnt have anything to do with, he once said. Giggs, who retired from international football in 2007, would ultimately outlast even Ferguson at United, before taking on a new role as player- coach under David Moyes last year. Moyess premature sacking saw Giggs promoted to interim manager and it is in the dug-out, as assistant to newly-appointed United boss Louis van Gaal, that the future of his extraordinary career now lies.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 23:11:00 +0000
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