---
title: "My Childhood Hero – #1"
canonical: "https://readmanutd.com/2015/07/14/my-childhood-hero-1/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
section: "Features"
published: "2015-07-14T13:11:59Z"
modified: "2015-07-14T13:11:59Z"
---

# My Childhood Hero – #1

Manchester United have had a team full of world stars and often featured a selection of the greatest talent in world football during the past 20 years. No matter how talented they are different players will also stand out to different people. These are the people who are in your memory forever and the people you tell stories to your grandchildren about.

For me it was no different, growing up watching United in the late 90’s and throughout the 00’s there was only two people I could really choose between: the Welsh wizard Ryan Giggs and the English midfield maestro Paul Scholes. For me I couldn’t look beyond Giggs. I grew up watching Ryan Giggs as a child, and while players such as Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy and Roy Keane came and went, Giggs was there throughout.

He may not have had the flair and or any over exuberant footwork skills, but he had skill and absolute passion for the club. His love for the club showed through in his performances. As a fan you got the rare feeling that the passion and dedication to the club you feel every week in the stands was also the feelings going through Giggs’ head every time he stepped onto the Old Trafford turf.

But Giggs was not only a star player in Manchester, he was a record breaker in football altogether. He is the only player to have ever played in 22 consecutive top-flight seasons, while also holding the record for scoring in consecutive seasons with 21, being his record. He holds the record for most appearances for Manchester United, 672, and the most appearances in the UEFA Champions League. Giggs also has the extremely high honour of being one of the very few footballers to hold an OBE.

Although earlier in his United career it could have been entirely different. In a Worthington Cup tie in 2003 he left the field to a chorus of boos and abuse, as injuries suffered earlier in his career seemingly began to show as he began to perform worse and worse as the season went on. Newspapers picked up on the unrest and a move away from Old Trafford seemed certain. Giggs didn’t though give in; his passion for the badge and desire to play in the famous red shirt ensured he didn’t give in. His persistence paid off and later that season he turned in a man of the match performance against Juventus as he scored two superb solo goals and led his team to a 3-0 win.

Troubles off field later in his career, rumoured to be about an affair with a family member’s partner did not however affect his performances even towards the end of his career.

He may have credited the longevity of his career to his strict, yoga influenced, fitness regime. However I believe and I think deep down he knows this too, that the real reason for his incredibly long and successful career was his dedication to the club and his reluctance to ever hand over his beloved number 11 and what almost seemed to be his own personal strip of turf on the left wing to anybody else.

Now, after what seemed to me to be a match made in heaven, when he was at first given the player/manager role for the end of the disastrous Moyes season. As a side note, those few games where Giggs was in charge, for me it wasn’t merely a publicity stunt from the club, but instead was a glimpse into the future and possibly the sight of Ryan Giggs prowling the technical area as manager of Man Utd will become a regular occurrence in years to come.

24 years and 13 club honours. Ryan Giggs, we salute you.