Player Highlight of the Month: Ryan Giggs

Ryan Giggs in 1994 (left) and 2013 (right)

So I figure this is a good time to start introducing some "legends" of the English league to blog. With my obvious bias as a Manchester United fan, surprise surprise, I chose a United player. Ryan Giggs was my favorite player growing up. He embodied what United stood for. More importantly, especially as a 6 year old soccer fan, he wore my favorite number. Yet as I began to understand the game, and really started following the game on a daily basis, Giggs stood out on so many levels. So here goes nothing. This is Ryan Giggs.

Giggs made his debut for United in 1990, at the age of 17. He became the most decorated player in history. During his time with the club, he won 13 league titles, 4 FA Cups, 3 League cups, and 2 Champion's League cups. He has the record for most assists in the English League. Yet what is more impressive is that he had scored a goal in 23 consecutive seasons, a record that will never be broken. He played 23 full seasons, and spent his entire career at United. A rare feat in such a dynamic soccer world where players move every couple of years. With that, Giggs set the record for most appearances at the club, cementing himself as a club legend. More importantly, the man who became the symbol for the club, had become an interim player-manager at the end of the '14 season, when the team's manager was fired in the middle of the season. Now Giggs serves as the second man in command at the club behind current manager Louis van Gaal (Yes the crazy guy mentioned in a prior blog). But with all this, there is one goal that stands out from all that Giggs scored during his illustrious career.  1999, FA Cup semi-finals replay. United is playing Arsenal (yes the team they beat last week) and they are playing a man down. When this happened:

The Goal sent United into the FA Cup Final, where they beat Newcastle United at Wembley (where all FA Cup Finals are played), and was the beginning of a crazy few weeks for the club, who ended up winning the treble that year. The treble, is when a European team wins the league, its domestic cup, and the Champions league. This has only happened 9 times in history, and this goal was the key to the start of that run.

Giggs was and is one of the biggest names at Manchester United and it is 100% deserved. The man was loyal from day 1 and produced at the highest level for so many years. When numbers are put on paper it makes it easy to overlook them. Playing for 23 seasons at the highest level, for the biggest club in England is something that should not be overlooked. It is something that will never happened again, especially at that level. So now that I have ranted about my all time favorite player, let me leave you with a cliche highlight video of his career. I wanted to put the video of all his goals, but that video is 35 minutes long, so I figured to just do a highlight video. Enjoy!