Ryan Giggs: The man for all seasons

With pace to burn, a bramble patch of dark black hair bouncing around his puppy popstar face and a dazzling, gluey relationship between an impossibly fleet left foot and the football’. No it’s not Lionel Messi. It’s Mr. United – Ryan Giggs.

Recently against Everton, Ryan Giggs became the only player to score in every Premier League season. But then that was accepted to be an eventuality for this most decorated player in English Football. It was not meant to be though, as Giggs played two years in the blue of Manchester City, but was won over when Sir Alex recognized his talent and, on his 14^th birthday, visited him and offered him a contract to join United. And the rest they say is history.

Fate has always been an ally to Giggs, creating stories for him that have already made 2 generations of United fans proud, and would continue to do so. But what is it that makes Giggs the player he is? Many would point to his intelligence, some would call it hardwork and the City fans would call it continued treachery, like when he scored his 1^st Premier League goal against them in a 1-0 win. But mostly I feel it is evolution, and not only in hairstyles.

When he burst onto the scene, he ousted Lee Sharpe within a season to become the touchline hugging winger which was a rage in the late 50’s, Garrincha its best example. He had pace, guile and spirit in equal measures. He was the first player to win consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year awards. Giggs has perhaps been a part of all the great United teams under Sir Alex. Be it the 1993 double winning team of Hughes, Bruce, Ince; a graduate of the class of 1996 after the departure of Kanchelskis and Ince, along with Beckham, Butt, Keane and Cantona; a senior in the 1999 dream team of Scholes, Beckham, Schmeichel, Yorke, Neville, Butt, Keane, Cole and a professor along with the young Ronaldo, Rooney, Ferdinand and Vidic. He might as well sit in the stands now but typical of the Welsh Wizard, he has not given up.

Giggs has had prolific partnerships with almost all strikers to have entertained the Stretford End, but his understanding with Cantona was telepathic. Whatever the position of the game, he would pick Cantona’s runs and deliver inch perfect diagonals and crosses, not unlike the one delivered to Van Persie against West Ham in the third round of the FA cup. In the Premier League’s drive of modernization, Giggs became the first footballing superstar. He became the David Beckham of football when Beckham was taking knocks at Preston on loan.

Giggs has the highest assists in the Premier League at 271, but it has always been his penchant to score big goals at important times for his club and he seems to have a taste for getting crucial goals in cup semifinals and quarterfinals. Everyone remembers the 2 goals United scored in additional time to clinch the 1999 Champions League final. Few, though, remember that it was Giggs who took them to the Nou Camp by scoring a last gasp equalizer against Juventus in the semifinal, prompting Del Piero to say, “It’s embarrassing but I’ve cried very few times in my life and twice has been while watching my favourite players score; the first was Baggio, the second is Giggs.”

Again versus Chelsea in the quarterfinals, he gave a delightful one touch assist to Rooney after a 45 yard Carrick ball, before going on to score himself later. A more memorable goal was the winner he scored against Arsenal in 1999 at Villa Park, widely acknowledged as his best goal. He took the ball from a Patrick Vieira mispass at the hallway line, started running and went past 5 Arsenal defenders before unleashing a completely unstoppable shot at Seaman’s near post; after which he took of his jersey and showed that his hair quality was as good as his game.

In this weekend’s match against QPR, Giggs showed why he still remains a force to be reckoned with at the European level. His run and then finish was one Cristiano Ronaldo would be proud of, but the moment of the match came when he just dinked the ball over Cesar which unfortunately crashed with the crossbar. Other than that, he found his wingers with regularity by long diagonals. The touchline hugging winger has now become a playmaker.

I think somewhere between icons like Cantona, Beckham, Rooney, Hughes, Ronaldo and others, people tend to forget him, but then that is the way he likes it. United legend George Best once aptlysaid, “One day people will say, I was just another Ryan Giggs, and I would be proud in my grave.”