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Ryan Giggs
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{{Football player infobox |
playername = Ryan Giggs |
image =
Image:ryangiggs.gif 150px |
fullname = Ryan Joseph Giggs |
nickname = The Welsh Wizard |
dateofbirth =
29 November,
1973 |
cityofbirth =
Cardiff |
countryofbirth =
Wales |
currentclub =
Manchester United |
position =
Winger (sport)#Football .28soccer.29 Left Wing |
youthyears = |
youthclubs =
Manchester City,
Manchester United |
years =
1990-
|
clubs =
Manchester United F.C. |
caps(goals) = 659 (133) |
nationalyears =
1991- |
nationalteam =
Wales national football team Wales |
nationalcaps(goals) = 46 (8) |
ntupdate = February 26 2006 |
pcupdate = February 26 2006 |
}}
'''Ryan Joseph Giggs''' (born
29 November,
1973 as ''Ryan Joseph Wilson'', in
Cardiff) is a
football (soccer) football player, renowned worldwide as being arguably one of the greatest
wingers of all time in the game.
He was born in
Wales to a black father and white mother, but was brought up in
England.
Giggs currently plays for
Manchester United for whom he is their current longest-serving player. Giggs had played for the England Schoolboys (which all schoolboys in England are eligible for, regardless of nationality) team, but plays for the
Wales national football team Welsh national team as an adult, once holding the record for being the youngest player to ever play for Wales.
Giggs is the most decorated footballer in the history of Manchester United, having won eight
FA Premier League championships (a record he shares with
Liverpool F.C.'s
Alan Hansen,
Phil Neal and
Kenny Dalglish), one
UEFA Champions League Champions League and four
FA Cup titles.
He has also won the
PFA Young Player of the Year award twice, making him the first player to win the award in consecutive years - a feat matched only by
Robbie Fowler that remains unsurpassed till today. Giggs holds other records including being the top all time scorer in the
FA Premier League not to play in the position of
striker, and interestingly, holds the record for scoring Manchester United's fastest goal (15 secs), set in
November 1995 against
Southampton F.C. Giggs'
squad number for both
Manchester United and
Wales national football team Wales is
11 (number) 11. He became known as '''The Welsh Wizard''', a nickname last applied to
David Lloyd George.
Beginnings
Image:giggs92.jpg left|thumb|Giggs in his Prime (c.1993/94)
Giggs had his football beginnings with
Manchester City F.C. and was signed as a young 14 year old by the club after being spotted on the streets of Manchester.
Giggs' talent was so mercurial that
Alex Ferguson literally made it a point to go down to the boy's house, knock on his door and urge him to sign for United instead of City, waving YTS Scheme forms with the opportunity to turn professional in three years in front of the boy, who grabbed at the chance of a lifetime. The rest, as they say, is history.
Indeed, so profound was Giggs' talent, that even the
England national football team England Under-21 coaches like
Lawrie McMenemy ensured a check on whether he was eligible to play for the nation. Contrary to some popular belief, Giggs could not have played for the full England national side; he was only eligible to play for the English Schools team because he went to school there.
In order to play for the
England national football team, he would have had to have been born in England or have had English parents or grandparents. However, both his parents and all four grandparents are Welsh. Giggs has often been secretly wished for by England supporters as the dream solution to the lack of left-sided English talent for the national team during the 1990s.
A left-sided
winger (sport) winger who occasionally plays as a supporting
striker for United, Giggs shot to superstardom in
Great Britain in 1992 as one of the most exciting talents in the history of the game when he was barely 18 years old. He earned the tag of ''Boy Wonder'', and in one description by the
tabloids, became ''The boy who converted a million innocent teenage hearts into United fans''.
He was arguably the first teenage football poster boy to have garnered such attention since the likes of
George Best, a player Giggs was ceaselessly compared to, and who, alongside
Bobby Charlton, personally went down to United's training sessions at 'the Cliff' specifically to watch Giggs work his magic. Giggs' form in the years to come was breathaking and scintillating, to say the least, earning him the two aforementioned
PFA Young Player of the Year awards and admirers world-wide. Even players like
Roberto Baggio described Giggs as 'the most exciting British footballer' they'd seen in years.
Superstardom
Image:giggspfa.jpg right|thumb|Giggs with his first PFA Young Player Award
Giggs also scored in the marketing department, his boyish good looks making him a hit with fans and unsurprisingly, a teen icon whom the media tabloids seemed to enjoy pursuing. Modelling agencies sought him relentlessly, with his fame comparable to the likes of pop stars at the time, such as
Take That.
In 1994, the
BBC described Giggs as "one of the most photographed persons" in
Great Britain. Giggs or "Giggsy" as he was known, was also hailed as one of the at the time nascent
FA Premier League's biggest stars and could oft be found as the picturebook merchandising icon of the league's early years in marketing itself globally (along with
Jamie Redknapp and
Lee Sharpe), with English football reforging its image after the
hooliganism affected years of the 1980s.
Giggs turned professional in
November 1990 and made his League debut against
Everton F.C. at
Old Trafford on
2 March,
1991, as a subtitute for
Denis Irwin. In his first full start, Giggs scored his first ever goal in a 1-0 win in the
Manchester derby. He collected his first piece of silverware in
April 1992 as United defeated
Nottingham Forest in the
League Cup Final, after Giggs had set up
Brian McClair to score the only goal of the game.
By the start of the 1992/1993 season - the first season of the newly-formed
FA Premier League, Giggs made the left-wing position at United his own, and came to be known as one of British football's most prodigous young players.
His relatively rare ability to consistently
dribbling dribble past opposition players, using his own exceptional balance as a weapon to un-balance the players he ran at, became a hallmark of his game. His combination of electric pace and sublime skills made him one of the most difficult players of his time to defend against. In what could be seen as a recognition of his quick maturation as both a person and a footballer, he came by many opportunities which were not normally offered to footballers of his young age. For instance, he hosted his own
television show, ''Ryan Giggs' Soccer Skills'', a hit with
ITV and
Granada in 1994.
With an uncanny ability to score wonderful goals and more crucially, play architect to a huge proportion of Manchester United's goals of the 1990s scored by
Eric Cantona,
Mark Hughes, and later
Andy Cole and
Dwight Yorke, and with a flair unseen in the game in a long time, Giggs was often hailed as 'wizard' or 'genius' by critics and pundits alike. According to an article in World Soccer by Stephen Thanabalan he was, alongside
Steve McManaman, regarded as the leader of a new breed of creative new wingers in the English game that was crucial to its new image, dispensing with that of the often seen as 'boring' long-ball styles of previous generations.
Image:giggsuefa.jpg left|thumb|Ryan Giggs in the Champions League in 2000
The Ryan Giggs chant often heard from the fans during the Manchester United games is as follows:
''"Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, Running down the wing, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, Can do anything, Feared by the Blues, Loved by the Reds, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs."'' Another chant goes, "''Giggs, Giggs will tear you apart, again''", adapted from the enduringly popular
Joy Division song, '
Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Giggs is also renowned for scoring some of the best goals yet seen in the game and always had special celebrations with team-mates and good friends, such as
Paul Ince and
Andrei Kanchelskis.
Goals of his were constantly in the shortlists for 'goal of the season' and tended to be memorable, particularly the ones against
Queens Park Rangers F.C. in 1993,
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. in 1994,
Everton F.C. in 1995,
Coventry City F.C. in 1996. He also scored what is perhaps the most spectacular goal the
FA Cup has ever seen, against
Arsenal F.C. in 1999; an
extra time, dizzying solo-run from the halfway line in which he
dribbling dribbled past five opposition players before beating the goalkeeper was to be one of the pivotal moments in United's treble-winning season.
By the late 1990s, with the emergence of Giggs' fellow fledgling young colleagues like
David Beckham,
Paul Scholes,
Gary Neville and
Nicky Butt, Giggs seemed to have been around for ages. Giggs' popularity in the fame and looks' departments gradually dissipated over those years, as he aged significantly, but alas his football skill was still marked genius, and he developed into a more mature senior player by the time United won their record breaking and unprecedented "Treble" in 1999, with Giggs' goals and form in the competitions a major asset too his side. With his contributions United finally defeated
Juventus, along with other continental rivals.
Giggs later knocked the ball into the path of
Teddy Sheringham who scored the equaliser in the
UEFA Champions League Final and set United on their way to the treble. Giggs was also the
man of the match in the United side which beat
Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras Palmeiras to claim the
Intercontinental Cup that year. Few would deny that he is worthy of the rank of a
Manchester United 'Legend'.
The Latter Years
Giggs had seen the team evolve since United's rejuvenation a decade earlier and became the most experienced and was one of the senior players at United when
Denis Irwin left, becoming a pivotal part of it. According to a
BBC Sport article in
2003, "the trajectory of Giggs' United career follows that of the club almost exactly", underlining his importance to side.
Giggs' form in the years after the achievements of 1999 were reflective of Manchester United's dominance of the English game up till 2003 (when the club won its last
FA Premier League title)- with Giggs still relishing his left wing slot. United won the League title four times within those years, and had always made it to
UEFA Champions League Quarter-Finals at the very least. He celebrated his 10-year anniversary at Old Trafford with a testimonial match against
Glasgow Celtic at the start of the 2001/2002 campaign, while a year later he bagged his 100th career goal in a draw with
Chelsea F.C. at
Stamford Bridge (stadium) Stamford Bridge.
One of his more infamous moments came in 2003, when he missed a clear-cut scoring opportunity in an
FA Cup game against United's biggest rivals of the time,
Arsenal F.C., in a match that later gained notoriety for the
David Beckham and
Alex Ferguson break up. He managed to win the
FA Cup once more in 2004, making him the only player in history to have won the trophy four times, having also finished with a runners-up medal twice.
Image:Man-u75.jpg right|thumb|Ryan Giggs in the later years
Playing in a victory over Liverpool in
September 2004 had Giggs become only the third player to play 600 games for United, alongside Sir
Bobby Charlton and
Bill Foulkes. He was inducted into the
English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his contribution to the English game. During the first half of the
FA Premier League 2004-05 2004-05 season, Giggs was linked in transfer speculation with
Newcastle United F.C., a club his best-friend at United,
Nicky Butt, had left for. However, no move was made before the transfer window closed on
31 January,
2005. In that season, Giggs still managed to churn out a 'masterclass performance' (in the words of
Sky Sports commentator
Martin Tyler) when given the chance, and together with the old guard of
Paul Scholes, looked to be the epitome of the football saying 'form is temporary, but class is permanent'.
After that season, Giggs signed a two-year contract extension with Manchester United, after chairman David Gill relented on his normal policy of not signing players over 30 to contracts longer than one year. The extension, which runs through to July 2008, will most probably keep him at
Old Trafford (football) Old Trafford for the remainder of his playing career.
Giggs has reinvented himself as age caught and still catches on but amazingly still is contributing positively to the Manchester United cause even after all his team-mates like
David Beckham and
Roy Keane had left the club over the years, playing role model to even the latest batch of talents at the club like
Ruud van Nistelrooy,
Wayne Rooney and
Cristiano Ronaldo. Giggs is used today as an example, alongside
Gary Neville and
David Beckham as a model professional for young players with hot tempers, such as
Wayne Rooney to follow.
This is largely due to his upbringing by United manager
Alex Ferguson, who sheltered the player since developing him, and now it remains to be seen whether Giggs outstays his career mentor at the club or vice versa. His versatility has supplemented his raw skill and talent in recent years, having been called upon by his manager to not-infrequently play as a
Striker forward and a central midfielder for his team, roles in which he applied himself admirably.
Personal life
Image:Giggswinner.jpg left|thumb|Giggs: Most Decorated Manchester United Player of all time
Other than his notorious spate of womanizing as detailed in tabloids such as the ''
Daily Mirror'' over the years, Giggs has otherwise managed to avoid the limelight of celebrity trappings that tagged his earlier years. In his
autobiography titled: ''Giggs: The Autobiography'', he revealed possible reasons for his aversion to attention, and accounting for his quiet and bashful demeanour.
The biography described how Giggs had a difficult upbringing - as the product of a
mixed marriage, he endured racial taunts as a child. And, although he admired his
Rugby football rugby-playing father's sporting gifts (Giggs' attributes his speed and balance to his father's genes), he hated the impact his "bullying aggressive nature" had on his family.
In Giggs' words in an infamous interview with the
Daily Telegraph, Giggs spoke of his father as a "real rogue". So much so that originally named 'Ryan Joseph Wilson', he subsequently adopted his mother's surname so that, in his words, "the world would know I was my mother's son" after his parents' separation.
Giggs is harped by many as a player, who unlike
Lee Sharpe and
George Best, achieved considerable fame despite a relatively low profile overall as a celebrity, although he has done ads for
Reebok,
Citizen Watch Co., Ltd,
Givenchy,
Fujifilm Fuji and
Patek Phillipe, as well as being used for video-mapping in computer game simulations like
EA Sports'
FIFA 2003 series for which he also did a commercial.
An interesting article mentions how Giggs' deliberate shying away from the spotlight was crucial to his low profile. According to an article by
BBC Sport: "In the early 1990s, Giggs was
David Beckham before Beckham was even holding down a place in the United first team. If you put his face on the cover of a football magazine, it guaranteed you the biggest sales of the year. Why? Men would buy it to read about 'the new Best' and girls bought it because they wanted his face all over their bedroom walls." Giggs had the million-pound boot deal (
Reebok), the lucrative sponsorship deals in the Far East (
Fujifilm Fuji) and the celebrity girlfriends (
Dani Behr, Davinia Murphy) at a time when Becks was being sent on loan to Preston."
Campaigner
In recent years, Giggs has also become a
UNICEF representative, launching a campaign to prevent
landmines from killing children in 2002.
Giggs, who had visited Unicef projects in
Thailand, told the
BBC: "As a footballer I can't imagine life without the use of one of my legs...Sadly this is exactly what happens to thousands of children every year when they accidentally step on a landmine." Giggs is also an active campaigner in the fight against
racism in football. Alongside fellow mixed raced players like
Rio Ferdinand and
Thierry Henry, Giggs is adamant about stamping racism out of the game.
He told the Football Anti-Racism site 'Stop the BNP' the following in 2004: "A lot of people don't know that my father is black. He was a professional rugby player in the area that I played as a youngster. So a lot of people who I went to school with knew who he was and knew that he was black. So I would get racist taunts in school."
He also added in the
France French L'Equipe Sports Newspaper: "Looking at me from the outside, it is not very obvious, I know but half my family is black and I feel close to their culture and their colour. I am proud of my black roots and of the black blood that runs in my veins. I do not wish to hide my origins, nor do I seek to make it a subject of conversation. I am what I am."
Career Stats
Manchester United Career
{| class="wikitable"
!Competition || Start || End || Matches || Goals || Assists
|-
|
FA Premier League
| 1990
| 2006
| 510
| 92
| 191
|-
|
UEFA Champions League
| 1994
| 2005
| 125
| 23
| 28
|-
|
FA Cup
| 1991
| 2006
| 57
| 10
| 26
|-
|
League Cup
| 1991
| 2005
| 29
| 7
| 8
|}
With
Manchester United (1990 - 2005):
*
FA Premier League - Champions: 1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2000/01, 2002/03
*
UEFA Champions League Winner: 1998/99
*
FA Cup Winner: 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004
*English
League Cup Winner: 1992, 2006
*English
FA Youth Cup Winner: 1992
*
FA Cup Runners Up: 1995, 2005
*
FA Premier League - Runners Up: 1991/92, 1994/95, 1997/98, 2001/02
*
European/South American Cup Intercontinental Cup: 1999
*English
League Cup Runners Up: 1993
*
UEFA Super Cup Winner: 1991, 1999
With the
Welsh national football team Wales national team:
Total Caps/Goals: 48/11
Individual Honours:
*Inducted into the
English Football Hall of Fame,
2005
{{start box}}
{{succession box|title=
PFA Young Player of the Year.html">Lee Sharpe
after=Andy Cole|years=1992 and 1993}}
{{end box}}
U-21 European Footballer of the Year (
1993)
Intercontinental Cup man of the match (
1999)
External links
-
FootballDatabase provides Ryan Giggs's profile and stats
-
Manchester United Official Website Biography
-
English Football Hall of Fame
-
Video of Ryan Giggs
-
ITV Digital TV Commercial featuring Ryan Giggs
Category:1973 births Giggs, Ryan
Category:English Premiership players Giggs, Ryan
Category:Football (soccer) wingers Giggs, Ryan
Category:Living people Giggs, Ryan
Category:Manchester United F.C. players Giggs, Ryan
Category:Natives of Cardiff Giggs, Ryan
Category:Welsh footballers Giggs, Ryan
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nl:Ryan Giggs
ja:ライアン・ギグス
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