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One of the Greatest: Ryan Giggs!
Comments(59)
He’s not Dutch. He doesn’t play for a Dutch club. But he deserves a post here. ( He could be Dutch 
)
Because boy, can this lad play. And he’s doing it for 20 years in Man United now. Born in Wales. Never will he shine at a World Cup of Euro Cup but he made good for his club in spades.
Spotlights on Ryan Giggs, instrumental in reaching the semis in the CL with Manchester United.
Ryan Giggs made his debut in 1991 in March. Twenty years later, the Welshman is still a crucial player for the club. Tuesday, he had two decisive final passes resulting in the goal that brushed Chelsea aside, resulting in another semi finals in the Champions League.
The 37 year old leftie was involved in 33 main trophies for the Old Trafford based club and Giggs played the astonishing number of 870 official games in the ManU jersey. The top fit and still quick Giggs also won a number of individual awards. He’s highly respected by team mates, ex colleagues and opponents while Sir Alex speaks about Giggs as if it’s his son. He must be the most valuable club player ever.
The 36-year-old Manchester United playmaker is the most decorated player in English football history and in May last year, he won a record 11th Premier League winners’ medal.
He is one of the most respected players in the game and in April 2010 he won the prestigious PFA Player Of The Year award for the first time.
In 2009, he also scored his 150th goal for United – another milestone in the incredible life of Giggs.
The Welsh Wizard has helped Man United to 11 league titles, four FA Cups, three league cups and two European Cups.
Danny Wilson – a rugby player – and Lynne Giggs received Ryan Joseph in Cardiff in November 1973. When Ryan is six, the family moves to England where the little lad starts playing football. He starts at Deans FC but is scouted by Dennis Schofiel of Manchester City (!), who registers Giggs in the School of Excellence of the club. He trains at the mighty rival of his current club but plays his games for Salford Boys.
In 1986, the 13 year old Giggs plays against Man United with Salford for the under 15s. Ferguson received a tip and decides to check the lad out. He sees Ryan score three goals. Ferguson visits the Wilsons when Ryan is celebrating his 14th birthday and Ferguson predicts a bright future for Ryan as a pro in football. When 16 years old, Ryan Wilson picks Giggs as his surname and signs his first pro contract. It’s 1990. Only four months later, he makes his debut against Everton ( 0-2) when he replaces Dennis Irwin. In the 1991/1992 season, Giggs pushes Lee Sharpe out of the starting line up and will never look back.
His sublime technique paired with his tremendous speed and vision turn Giggs into a phenomenon in England. In 1993, the Red Devils win the title for the first time in 26 years and Giggs becomes an icon. Like with George Best, Giggs is adored by male football fans and female groupies. Club icons like Bobby Charlton and the afore mentioned Best recognise the best talent ever in the youngster. Some experts compare Giggs with the popstar like Bestie and the latter said – not long before his death – that one day people will actually say that “George Best looked a bit like Ryan Giggs”.
Giggs gives his name to the Ryan Giggs’ Soccer Skills tv program and books and his popularity will grow even more. The books fly out of the shops and the player enjoys the attention. The youngster lives the high life and is spotted at several a party.
When he approaches his 30est birthday, he gets injured more and more and it’s his muscles in particular that appear to weaken. When he has to rest while Man United plays a huge game against Bayern Munich in 2001, Giggs decides to change his lifestyle. “I knew I had to change. No more alcohol and better food.” The real solution was yoga. His team Mikael Silvestre was an avid participant and he introduced Giggs to these techniques. Roy Keane and the Neville bros would follow.
It turned out to be the solution for Giggs. His hamstrings are more flexible and he has a lot less muscle injuries and he can sprint with gusto again. “I didn’t dare to sprint 100% anymore since I was 21 years old. That’s when I had my first muscle injury and since then I was always guarded when sprinting. That was history once I was doing yoga.” Giggs decided to share his revelation and produced the DVD “Feeling Good with Yoga, the Secret of Giggs’ Success”.
He’d have his fair share of injuries still, but his fitness improved big time. In 2008, another impulse gave him his third wind. Coach Ferguson took him off the wing and positioned him behind the strikers, centrally in midfield. He tore defenses apart with his runs first and now he was tearing them apart with smart through passes. Strikers like Berbatov and Rooney know what to do with those.
Chelsea experienced that too this year in the Champions League. Giggs was the architect of all three goals his team scored.
In a world where club loyalty is a myth and money ( and player managers) rules, Ryan Giggs is the jewel in the crown in Manchester with an insatiable hunger for trophies.
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The best thing that can happen for Oranje is for Sneijder and vPersie to play at the same team. It would be very nice if Sneijder had the same blind connection he had with Milito last year (with vPersie this time).
I think the likelihood for VDV to join Arsenal is bigger though than Sneijder to Arsenal or vPersie to Inter. Too bad. We can still dream though.
Posted from 
Netherlands
Great article on Van der Wiel … and so true as well.
I dont see it that far-fetched anymore, Sneijder at Arsenal. I think it’s even as likely as him moving to Man utd.
Either way Sneijder is going to cost a lot.
Thats a selling incentive for Inter. His wages are huge, and any interested club will have to pay more than 30 mil. to sign him thats for sure.
If Arsenal resign to selling Fabregas, only Sneijder will be good enough to come in and fill the Spaniard’s shoes, and will then probably have the money to do it.
At the moment hardly anyone sees Sneijder remaining more years at Milano, unless a really amazing manager takes Leonardo’s place next season, then he might be encouraged to stay there longer.
Thats the thing about Sneijder. you really need a good manager for him to give that extra 25 %, because most of his genius emanates from on-field vision and you need good team tactics built around this vision for him to succeed.
Leonardo is hardly that.
I think VDW is not a good DR,his defend skill is very poor;all of the dutch defenders are not very good
I worry about the future of oranje,after EURO 2012,we don’t expect Robben and SND can be good form in a long term
We need a lot of High-quality talents for oranje.
After Robben,VDV,SND leave oranje,How to do ,the oranje ?
Our young talents are Recurrent very tragic
Robben is 27,SND is 27,VDV is 28,RVP is 28, how long can the oranje depend on them?
We should have a lot of good talents,so oranje can be in good form for mang years
I’M VERY disappointed with Hunterllar at club
It’s official. Carlos was spot on. Dirk Kuyt signs extension to 2013 with Liverpool. Great news.
Congrats Dirkie! You’re a role model for many youngsters. Always positive, always the consumate pro, hard working, never say die… If the prima donnas only had 20% of your grit we would have won world cups and euro cups galore!
Ruudking:
I think we have plenty of young talents coming up through the youth ranks of the eridivisie clubs.I’m sure a handful of them will develop into world class players and carry the baton of the present generation once they hang up their boots.
We have got plenty of good wingers coming up through the youth academies.Ebecilio,Narsingh,Elia and Cabral are the usual suspects.I hope they develop very fast and replace the likes of Robben and Kuyt in the NT.
Sneijder is 26,so in my opinion he’s still got 6-7 years of international football left in his tank.In the next 5 years,Afellay,Fer,Wijnaldum,De Guzman,Strootman,Ozyakup,Qasim buoy,Kyle Ebecilio,Locadia,Maher,Falkenburg will compete for a spot in the national team.All of them are very good talents.
Coming to the attackers now,Castillon,Castaignos,Luuk De jong are the usual suspects. and Van Persie’s goona be there for another 4-5 years I think.
Let’s see whats in store and I’ve heard that the Ajax A1 is pretty good.With Cruyff at the helm of things,youth development is gonna be pretty good.Lets hope for the best!! HUP HOLLAND!!!
Posted from 
United States
I’d agree with Abhirup 
and im glad to see how well informed he is xD
Id agree, young wingers plenty coming through youth now, from 16-17 years to 20-23
Elia, Narsingh, Ebecilio, Cabral, Feyenoord’s Elvis Manu, Ajax’ Lesley de Sa, FC Twente’s Ola John, PSV’s Memphis Depay and possible Elvio van Overbeek, Id rank Wijnaldum a winger.. albeit not a classical one.. And one I rank very very highly… Ricardo Kishna from Ajax
Central (&) midfield, AZ’s Adam Maher, Ozyakup, Kyle Ebecilio, Anass Achahbar, Chris David, Ouasim Bouy, Davy Klaassen, Strootman, Toornstra etc. etc.. lol
Well.. these are good talents.. and in the generation after these there seem to be some brilliant ones.
Who knows how theyll turn out.. dont forget, 17 million people country… cant expect us to have a world top 3 team all the time… xD there will be generations or years where we wont do as well.. and have less quality.. and we could even be shit for years… lol im just grateful for the time we have a great team..
Posted from Netherlands
Thanks a lot Alex.. 
By the way,I’m not in the US right now.lol..
Anyway,I forgot five/six important names:
Tom overtoom,Florian Jozefzoon,Rony Bonevacia,
Rajiv Van la Parra and Nathan Ake.
Lets see how these kids develop.
Posted from 
India
De Jong starting for City in the semi-final against Man U
Ricardo Kishna Diego Biseswar, Luciano Narsingh, Rajiv van la Parra the absolute future of HOLLANDIA…and all are indian can u believe??!!
Posted from 
Bosnia And Herzegovina
De Jong shut Man U down
I just heard a commentator say during El Clasico that there is a rule pretty much saying; “You are not allowed to ask the ref to give out a yellow card to an opposing player by means of hand gestures or otherwise.”
Why does no ref act on this!? I see it all the time and it’s effing annoying. Can anyone confirm if it’s true?
Posted from 
Canada
(I mean like, giving a yellow to the player asking the ref to give a yellow to the other team)
Posted from Canada
Seedorf again the man of the match.
Afellay did well against Real Madrid, I believe that he in his best form is best than Pedro. Next year I expect a lot from him.
Last words for Narsingh, another outstanding performence against Utrecht, is really a hot prospect.
Afellay was really good and almost scored a great goal when he nutmegged marcelo
one more time clarence seedorf was the man of the match. he’s definitely the best dutch attacking midfielder at the moment. he’s in fantastic form and singlehandedly will win the scudetto for milan.
affelay was good,i’m happy with the result,but honestly am more interested in the other 3 clasicos. i don’t know who’s better,affelay or pedro,maybe pedro,but both of them are great players and have great potential. he should play instead of villa for a couple of games,because villa is out of form.
I didn’t think Afellay had a very good game, besides his slick move getting past Marcelo (and tbh, he should have at least tested Casillas, but instead he ballooned his shot way, way off). Looked like Afellay was isolated on the sideline, and a few times he was somewhat ‘ignored’ by his teammates. Hopefully Afellay stays positive despite getting limited action. Imho, he is technically better than Pedro, but Pedro gets a huge advantage playing with the team for a longer time, so he knows the ‘Barca’ system better. This will change though once Afellay gets a season or two under his belt.
Posted from United States
Abhirup, Alex, Eric, Jason, Finn, ferenc, Jan and everyone else – thanx so much for all the humor, info on prospects, and all the current news all the time!
Totally grateful..
Hopefully Dirk and Robin both score tomorrow!
Why didn’t Sneijder start for Inter?? What is Leonardo thinking?
Robben is suspended for Bayern tomorrow?
Posted from Canada
@Abhirup.. Van la Parra seems to be more or less stuck in development/playing time.. Id say Narsingh/Kishna and possibly Wijnaldum are the best bets.. Biseswar i think wont develop much further..
Posted from Netherlands
Ok,what about Overtoom,Bonevacia and Jozefzoon??
Posted from India
the talents from AJAX,will be hard to have chances in AJAX;They should look for a suitful club for themselves in about 2-3 years.
FND can give the young dutch talents a lot of first team chances because of their Poor economic conditions.
AJAX had been a long time to Produce good dutch talents.
We have some talents on paper,In fact, they hardly get chances
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nice article:
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2011/04/16/2443114/seedorfs-renaissance-leading-milan-to-stylish-scudetto