Ryan Giggs

Ryan Giggs

Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh football coach and former player. He is the manager of the Wales national team and a co-owner of Salford City. Giggs played his entire professional career for Manchester United. He retired from playing the same day holding the club record for competitive appearances – 963.

About Ryan Giggs in brief

Summary Ryan GiggsRyan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh football coach and former player. He is the manager of the Wales national team and a co-owner of Salford City. Giggs played his entire professional career for Manchester United. He briefly served as the club’s interim manager after the sacking of David Moyes in April 2014. The son of rugby union and Wales international rugby league footballer Danny Wilson, Giggs was born in Cardiff but moved to Manchester at the age of six when his father joined Swinton RLFC. Predominantly a left winger, he began his career with Manchester City, but joined Manchester United on his 14th birthday in 1987. He made his professional debut for the club in 1991 and spent the next 23 years in the Manchester United first team. He retired from playing the same day holding the club record for competitive appearances – 963. During his time at United, he won 13 Premier League winner’s medals, four FA Cup winner’s. medals, three League Cup winner’s medals, two UEFA Champions League winner”s medals and a FIFA Club World Cup winners medal. At international level, he played for the Wales international team 64 times between 1991 and 2007 and was named as the captain of the Great Britain team that competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was the first player in history to win two consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year awards, though he did not win the PFA Player of. Year award until 2009. He also holds the record for the most assists in Premier League history, with 162.

In addition to the many honours Giggs has received within football, he was appointed an OBE in the Queen’s 2007 Birthday Honours List for his services to football. His younger brother, Rhodri, is a former manager of EFL League Two club Salfords City. He spent much time with his mother’s parents and playing football and rugby league on the roads outside their house in Pentrebane. As a child, he grew up in Ely, a suburb of western Cardiff, and is mixed race – his paternal grandfather is from Sierra Leone – and has spoken of the racism he faced as a child. While playing for Deans FC he was observed by local newsagent and Old Trafford steward Harold Wood Wood. He went on to reach the final of the Granada Schools Cup at Anfield in 1987, where he captained the team. In 1986 he was offered a trial over Christmas by Liverpool chief scout Ron Yeats, who sent him to Old Trafford to meet Sir Alex Ferguson. While at Deans he was coached by Manchester City scout Dennis Schofield, who was recommended to Giggs to sign him up to their School of Excellence team. Meanwhile, he also played schoolboy rugby league at Salfordan FC. In 1987 he was presented with the trophy and was man of the match, and was presented to Liverpool counterparts, Blackburn Blackburn. The move was a traumatic one, as he was very close to his grandparents in Cardiff, but he would often return there with his family at weekends.