Giggs heads straight for football immortality
Roar Guru By David Wiseman, 29 Apr 2009 David Wiseman is a Roar Guru
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Manchester United's Ryan Giggs celebrates after scoring a late equaliser against Celtic during their Champions League Group E soccer match at Celtic Park Stadium, Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday Nov. 5, 2008. AP Photo/Jon Super
He is a freak. He made his debut in March 1991 and is still going strong. While his team-mates have come and gone through the revolving door which is professional sports, he is the one constant.
And while guys his age are being pensioned off, not only has he maintained his form, but somehow he has managed to get better over time.
Ryan Giggs will make his 800th appearance for Manchester United in the Champions League tie against Arsenal this week.
That is a staggering amount.
But not as staggering as the amount of silverware he has amassed – ten Premier League titles, two Champions League trophies, four FA Cups and two League Cups.
He reminds me of Robert Harvey, but if Harvey had played in a much more successful team. That is no disrespect to Harvey, who is one of the greatest Australian athletes of all-time.
But Harvey was continually striving for the premiership which never came, whereas Giggs has won more times than he could remember.
In this day and age, you would have said that it would be impossible for someone like Giggs to exist. For someone to play at one club, and a club like Manchester United at that, for all this time.
But that is testament to his talent.
He isn’t being picked for sentimental reason, and as we have seen with David Beckham, Roy Keane and Paul Ince. Sir Alex Ferguson clearly does not allow sentimentality to interfere with his decision-making process.
For all of his glittering career, his international resume isn’t as shiny.
Like other illustrious Manchester United greats, such as Mark Hughes, Eric Cantona and George Best, Giggs never played at a World Cup. I don’t think Giggs cares too much about this.
It’s our loss, though, because it would have been fantastic to see him strut his stuff on the world’s highest stage.
Will there be anyone capable of repeating Giggs’ efforts?
Maybe.
Perhaps someone like Theo Walcott, who although he didn’t start his career at Arsenal, joined them at a sufficiently young age. He would then have to stay there until about 2024.
That puts Giggs’ achievements into some perspective.
When he finally does hang up the boots, it will be the end of an era. If Manchester United don’t retire his number 11, then it will be hard to see someone else running around with it.
Not as hard, though, on the guy wearing it.
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April 29th 2009 @ 1:11pm
Simmo said | April 29th 2009 @ 1:11pm | Report comment
as long as no-one mentions his goal in the 1999 FA Cup Semi replay I’ll be happy.
Wait! What have I done?!?!
April 29th 2009 @ 3:24pm
Greg Russell said | April 29th 2009 @ 3:24pm | Report comment
David, obviously Giggs is a real iron-man for lasting so long at the top, however his achievement is not as unusual in football as one might think. Football is a sport more amenable to very long careers than are the more brutal Australian codes of other types of football. So one should not imagine that Giggs has done the equivalent of 800 matches in the NRL or AFL! (this is perhaps how you see it).
In most European leagues there will be several legendary field players who are still running around in their mid-30s, sometimes even older. Most of these will have started at a young age, just like Giggs did.
An obvious current example is Alessandro Del Piero, who started in 1991 (like Giggs), and who is still going strong with Juve, with whom he has been since 1993. Other readers will no doubt be able to provide further examples.
So here I go again with my everlasting battle to make people realize that there is more than just one great football league in Europe! It is not obvious to me that Del Piero is any less a footballer than Giggs. For example, Del Piero made the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers. Giggs did not.
The fact that Del Piero has not played nearly as many games as Giggs is related both to injury and the fact that Italians have a more sensible number of matches per season than do the English.
Anyway, to return to the point with which I started, I think what really distinguishes players like Giggs and Del Piero is not so much how long they have played, but how long they have played for the same club.
April 29th 2009 @ 4:11pm
True Tah said | April 29th 2009 @ 4:11pm | Report comment
I understand Giggs old man played rugby for Wales, and then “went north” as the saying was back then to play rugby league in northern England. I think Ryan played league as a youngster as well, but it was clear futbol would be the sport he was better at. If he had stayed in Wales, he may well have played rugby??
I thought he actually represented England at schoolboy level in futbol, maybe the rules are differant for schoolboy than for open age?
In some ways he’s a lot like George Best, a fantastic player who unfortunately never got to test himself at the pinnacle of world futbol (although EPL is close to the top), because he didn’t play for a powerful futbolling nation.
Greg – 800 games is a great achievement even if futbol is a bit easier on the body than some other sports, and its clear that Ryan is dedicated to looking after himself.
April 29th 2009 @ 10:05pm
Midfielder said | April 29th 2009 @ 10:05pm | Report comment
Great player … very good to watch..
May 18th 2009 @ 10:19pm
Greg Russell said | May 18th 2009 @ 10:19pm | Report comment
A couple of weeks later … I just want to point out that the 40-year-old Paolo Maldini has just played his 900th match for AC Milan. That’s 100 more than Giggs, and I’d wager that a greater fraction of Maldini’s appearances have been as a starter, as opposed to a lot of Giggs’s appearances being off the bench of late, which is much easier on the body. Also, it’s not as if Maldini gets a soft ride as a defender.
Let’s not forget that AC Milan is no ordinary club either, nor Serie A an average competition. Yes, the EPL and Man U are top dogs right now, but only recently has it become thus: for a lot of Maldini’s career, Italy was considered Europe’s best league, and AC Milan a better team than Man U.
And nor was Maldini any ordinary player: 5 Champion League titles (cf. 2 for Giggs, 3 if Man U win this year), 2nd and 3rd at World Cup (cf. Giggs), 2nd and 3rd at Euro Championships (cf. Giggs), selected in the FIFA 100 (cf. Giggs), etc.
None of this is to belittle Giggs, not at all. Obviously he’s a true legend. But I just like to fight against this prevailing attitude that because it happens in British soccer, it must be the greatest. Yes, some things that happen in English soccer are the greatest, but not nearly everything is. I find that by virtually all objective measures, Maldini exceeds Giggs.