Ryan Giggs, a phenomenon

Football today is one of the most frantic and professional sports in the world, and much more than a leisure or passion, it has become a business – a business for billionaire oligarchs and/or businessmen to buy football clubs, splash the cash, reap the rewards and then leave. Footballers have also evolved a lot since the game began or what it was even in the early 1990s – this is the time of teenagers who sign contracts worth over millions of dollars, play average football for the next ten years of their career and then fizzle out.

But some things are not meant to change and these are the things that keep drawing millions of people to football grounds all over the world – the passion, the devotion, emotion and love of certain players for the game – and Ryan Giggs embodies all that is right with the game of football amongst a lot more wrongs. The 39 year old Manchester United midfielder joined an illustrious field of players to rack up 1,000 professional appearances when he was named in the starting lineup against Real Madrid in United’s 2-1 defeat in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match.

Having made his debut as a skinny left winger from Wales back on the 2^nd of March, 1991, Giggs complete an amazing 22 year old cycle of professional football at Old Trafford, a period that has seen him lift the Premier League title twelve times, the FA Cup five times, the League Cup four times, the UEFA Champions League twice, the FIFA Club World Cup once and various other trophies with The Red Devils.

A look at the breakdown of his appearances will demonstrate what a beast the man actually is:
Division 1: 40
Premier League: 612
FA Cup: 73
League Cup: 39
Community Shield: 13
UEFA Champions League: 144
UEFA Cup: 3
UEFA Europa League: 2
UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1
UEFA Super Cup: 1
Intercontinental Cup: 1
FIFA Club World Cup: 3
Wales: 64
Team GB: 4

Giggs is also the only player to have played and scored in every season of the Premier League since its inception in 1992, and having signed a new contract with United last week, fans can expect another year of brilliance from the Welsh Wizard.

Giggs trained with Manchester City as a youth, but was snapped up by Sir Alex and United when he was 14 years old, a dream come true for the youngster and since then, he hasn’t had to look back. Sir Alex Ferguson once said about Giggs: "I remember the first time I saw him. He was 13 and just floated over the ground like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind."

Starting out as a winger, he adapted his game with age to a more central midfield role and even then, he was a success like no other. Having taken to yoga, Giggs is still as fit as anyone on the field and the way he chased back Cristiano Ronaldo during the match last night, it seemed almost incredible that he was pushing 40 years of age.

Ryan Giggs is one of those players that come once in a lifetime, his loyalty, his dedication and his work ethic are embodiments of why football is still considered as the Beautiful Game.


DISCLAIMER: This article has been written by a member of the FootballWorld fraternity and represents the personal views of the writer and not of footballworld.co.in.
Posted by Subham Mitra on behalf of FootballWorld.