Cowbridge Road in west Cardiff plays a significant role in Manchester United’s history, although you would hardly know it today.. Walk along the street and you will eventually come to a Grade II Listed building that now houses a number of residents. The original site of St David’s Hospital has been turned into accommodation but just over 50 years ago it was the birthplace of a United pioneer.. Ryan Wilson, the grandson of a Sierra Leone national and the son of a Welsh rugby professional, was a typical sporty child of his era. He was often seen playing both football and rugby outside of his Pentrebane home.. READ MORE: Former Manchester United player Ryan Giggs lands new job. READ MORE: A milkman scouted me for Man City but now I’m a Man United legend. He moved to Manchester aged six when his father changed codes, transitioning from rugby union to join rugby league outfit Swinton FC. The youngster found the changes tough and often visited his grandparents back in Cardiff but Manchester was where he would forge his own name.. At the age of 16, the teenager’s surname changed to Giggs after his mother remarried following the split of his parents. By then, he had left any rugby league ambitions behind and was more than catching the eye on the football pitch.. A few years earlier, he had been scouted into the Manchester City academy by milkman Dennis Schofield but United has caught wind of the Welsh talent and snapped him up on his 14th birthday on 29 November 1987 after impressing in a trial the year prior.. “I enjoyed [Man City] but I was a United fan!” Giggs later admitted. “I remember turning up in a red top and was made to take it off! I’d wanted to play for United from an early age.”. During his early schooldays, Giggs had played for Salford Boys and scored a hat-trick as Sir Alex Ferguson watched on from his office at The Cliffe. Before signing on for United, he had won man of the match while captaining his side to the Granada Schools Cup trophy at Anfield, being handed the cup by Liverpool FC chief scout Ron Yeats.. He went on to skipper England schoolboys and played against Germany at Wembley in 1989. Rules at the time would not allow him to play for the England senior side but school-level criteria was purely based on where a child was having his education.. International eligibility rules would change some 30 years later but Giggs was always adamant that “I’d rather go through my career without qualifying for a major championship than play for a country where I wasn’t born or which my parents didn’t have anything to do with”.. Greater Manchester schoolboy soccer stars in 1989 – (left to right) John Foster, David Hall and Ryan Giggs (Image: Mirrorpix). In his 12 months with England schoolboys, he captained the side to seven wins in nine games, one of which came in a 4-0 triumph over Wales, against players whom he would play with the following year.. After continuing to impress at United, Giggs penned his first professional contract on 1 December 1990, two days after his 17th birthday. His league debut came 15 months down the line when he came on for an injured Denis Irwin against Everton at Old Trafford.. Giggs officially recorded his first goal in the May 1991 Manchester derby, despite ambiguity after a big deflection. That October, he became the youngest ever player to feature for the Wales national team at 17 years and 321 days when he played the final six minutes away in Germany, a record that would stand for eight years.. He had become a regular for United at that stage, although remained part of the famous youth squad that went on to lift the 1992 FA Youth Cup.. Giggs clasped hands on his maiden piece of senior silverware in April of that year when he set up Brian McClair for the 1-0 League Cup final win over Nottingham Forest, having scored the winner against Middlesbrough in the semi-final.. Stardom and celebrity. In 1993, Giggs became a fixture in the starting XI and helped United win their first top-league title for 26 years in the inaugural Premier League campaign. A few months earlier, he had bagged his first goal for Wales by scoring in a 3-0 World Cup qualifying fixture against Belgium, a match in which Ian Rush netted for a record 24th time.. Squad inclusions became a hot point of discussion for Wales fans amid frequent squad withdrawals in the years afterwards. Giggs later explained: “At that time, whenever I played two games in one week I always seemed to pick up an injury, so [Alex Ferguson] and I sat down and looked at it game by game. If the international was a friendly, the feeling was that I didn’t have to play.”. Sir Alex was fairly protective of Giggs in his early days, and only allowed him to do his first interview aged 20 when he spoke to the great Des Lynam for Match of the Day in the double-winning 1993/94 season.. Perhaps he saw what was coming down the track. The Premier League had started to take a life of its own where footballers were now becoming celebrities and being offered lucrative commercial opportunities.. Giggs was offered the chance to host his own TV show – Ryan Giggs’ Soccer School – in 1994 and shortly afterwards released a book on the series. Magazine covers, more TV interviews and wall posters all added to the new-found razzmatazz he and the game acquired.. Later on, Giggs would be on the cover of the console game FIFA 2003 alongside Edgar Davids and Roberto Carlos, and his profile was a great asset for UNICEF, for whom he became an ambassador in 2006.. On the pitch, the superlatives continued to flow for a young Giggs. He was likened to Sir Bobby Charlton and George Best, both of whom described Giggs their favourite player and how it was a joy to watch him in training.. “One day they might even say that I was another Ryan Giggs,” Best was once quoted as saying. Giggs would soon etch his name into not just United history but football folklore.. His most famous goal was THAT solo effort against Arsenal in the 1999 FA Cup semi-final replay – a crucial moment in the Treble-winning season and the last ever goal in a semi-final replay, which were scrapped after that campaign.. Giggs, of course, played his part in the unforgettable Champions League final comeback too, setting up Teddy Sheringham’s equaliser. Three years on, he bagged his 100th goal for United against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the first many personal milestones.. It wasn’t all dandelions and flowers, though. He was one to be booed off the pitch in the 2003 League Cup semi-final first leg draw with Blackburn, and soon heard sneering chants of “give it to Giggsy” from Arsenal fans after missing an open goal in the 2-0 FA Cup defeat.. Not a week later, then-United CEO Peter Kenyon refused to rule out an exit for Giggs amid outside views that the winger’s best days were behind him. Reports at the time speculated that a rift had formed in the dressing room.. However, Giggs responded by netting twice in a 3-0 Champions League win over Juventus in a match that would be one of his best personal games. Giggs insisted he wanted to stay at United the following summer and a year later lifted his fourth FA Cup.. It was no secret that injuries had worried staff in yesteryear but his hamstrings problems had seemed to reside in recent seasons – something Giggs credited as down to his yoga sessions.. Ahead of the new season, he would sign a two-year extension, causing United chief David Gill to go back on his stance of not giving contracts longer than a year to players north of 30. The following February, he produced perhaps one of the most bizarre moments of his career.. Giggs scores a quick free-kick vs Lille with the defence not set (Image: Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images). In a Champions League knock-out game against Lille, Giggs took a quick free-kick with the home players not yet set. The goal stood and Lille players walked off in protest, seething at the referee and leaving Giggs and his teammates baffled. UEFA backed United and said the goal was legitimate.. Giggs would then set a new record of nine English league titles when he lifted the Premier League trophy in 2007. That same May, he announced his retirement from international football as he put his full focus on United.. His Wales playing career came to a close on 2 June 2007, captaining his team in a goalless draw with the Czech Republic. He earned 64 caps for his country, scoring 12 times.. By 2009, after the 2008 Champions League triumph in Moscow, Sir Alex had started playing Giggs more centrally behind the striker as he ticked past his 35th birthday. “At 25, Ryan would shatter defenders with his run down the flank, but at 35, he will play deeper,” Sir Alex explained.. By then, Giggs had started thinking about a career in coaching. But it was a poignant playing year for the veteran. He was named PFA Player of the Year and won Sports Personality of the Year within a few short breaths.. Within the preceding months to those accolades, he netted his only hat-trick for United in a pre-season friendly against Chinese outfit Hangzhou Greentown before notching his 100th Premier League goal in November’s 4-1 win over Portsmouth.. All that and it was only in November 2010 at age 36 did he score his first penalty for United – scoring two of them in the same match against Tottenham. That season, he would play in his last Champions League final, as United lost 3-1 to Barcelona at Wembley in May 2011.. Personal life, affairs and family bust-up. While Giggs’ exploits on the pitch were public knowledge, he fought to keep his private life out of the public eye, in sharp contrast to his old team-mate David Beckham. Celebrity was not for him. He wedded long term partner Stacey Cooke, in a low key ceremony at the Lowry Hotel in 2007. the ceremony attended by close friends and family only.. Rumours of Giggs’ infidelity became a feature of tabloid speculation, however. It was one such tabloid story which was the catalyst for Giggs fighting an extraordinary legal battle to try and keep an alleged affair secret. In 2011 Giggs took out an injunction at the High Court in a bid to stop a national newspaper revealing details of an alleged fling with the ex-Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas.. After the paper ran a story without naming the Premier League footballer alleged to have conducted the affair, rumours spread like wildfire on Twitter. Eventually Giggs was named in Parliament by an MP as the footballer, using parliamentary privilege which protects MPs from libel claims.. Even more shocking, however, was the revelation that he had been involved in a secret affair with brother Rhodri’s wife Natasha for eight years. Rhodri said in 2019 that his relationship with his sibling and family had shattered as a result. Giggs later divorced his wife of 10 years Stacey Cooke in 2017.. It was another twist in a complicated family life. Originally born in Cardiff to his father Danny Wilson, a rugby player, and his mother Lynne, a nurse, the family were uprooted to the North West after his dad signed for the Swinton rugby league team.. “Ryan wasn’t planned but I was happy when he came along,” recalled Danny last year. “But I was 18, still going out with my mates. I wasn’t ready for fatherhood.”. Danny eventually moved out, after a number of affairs, in 1985 when Ryan was just 12. His parents reconciled briefly, before separating again in 1988. Ryan eventually changed his surname from Wilson to Giggs, his mother’s maiden name, and has only seen his father once in 34 years.. Despite the tumultuous personal life, his career continued to go from strength to strength. The 2012 London Olympics offered Giggs a unique opportunity. He captained Team GB’s first men’s side at the Games since 1960 as one of three over-aged players, and became the event’s oldest ever goalscorer aged 38 and 243 days when he headed home against the UAE.. Ryan Giggs speaks to the media ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games. A year later, he made more fresh steps, this time away from the pitch. He partnered up with United colleague Gary Neville to form a vision of building a series of football-themed hotels and cafes around the UK with Hotel Football in Stretford opening in March 2015.. Beforehand, he had reached a huge and historic football milestone in 2013, earning his 1,000th competitive career appearance in a 2-1 Champions League defeat to Real Madrid in what is an astonishing achievement. But that summer, Sir Alex would retire and Giggs was not too far behind either.. Management and coaching. His dreams about coaching became reality sooner than expected when successor David Moyes made him player-coach. Giggs would step in as interim when Moyes was sacked the following April and managed two wins, a draw and a loss in his four games.. He later admitted that he heavily felt the pressure of being a United manager and at one stage broke down in tears after many sleepless nights. But that did not stop him from becoming a part of Louis van Gaal’s backroom staff in 2014 after announcing his playing career was over.. Thirteen titles make him the most successful Premier League player of all-time to this day. He remains United’s all-time top appearance-maker on 963 games and has a cabinet of four FA Cups, three League Cups, two Champions Leagues, a Club World Cup, a UEFA Super Cup and nine Community Sheilds. Giggs would leave United’s backroom staff in 2016 upon the appointment of Jose Mourinho.. In the same year of his retirement, he became part-owner of Salford City – scoring a subsequent panenka penalty in a Class of ’92 & Friends XI friendly at a sold-out AJ Bell Stadium. The club eventually accomplished their goal of reaching the Football League for the first time in 2019.. In September 2017, Giggs, Neville and other Class of ’92 stars proposed the idea of a university in Greater Manchester which would offer “broader courses than traditional degrees”. The University Academy 92 first opened in September 2019.. Ryan Giggs while Wales boss (Image: PA). Giggs got his full-time coaching break in 2018 when he was appointed Wales head coach in the January. His first match that March saw Wales romp to a 6-0 win over China, in which Gareth Bale surpassed Ian Rush’s previous national goal record in a real full-circle moment.. His final game in charge was the 2-0 win over Hungary in November 2019 that saw Wales qualify for Euro 2020, which ultimately became delayed due to the Covid pandemic.. Assault charge, court case and return to football. Giggs would never manage the side at the competition after being arrested in November 2020 on suspicion of two counts of assault against ex-girlfriend, PR executive Kate Greville, and her younger sister Emma. He always denied the charges against him, which were officially levelled in April 2021.. Rob Page took over Wales on a temporary basis before being made a permanent appointment when Giggs – who has won 12 of his 25 games – stepped down in June 2022.. His trial began on 8 August 2022 and on 31 August, the 11-person jury were discharged after being unable to reach a verdict. In July 2023, two weeks before Giggs was due to face a retrial, The Crown Prosecution Service said that charges had been withdrawn, with the complainant unwilling to give evidence in the said retrial.. The trial, however, had been a PR disaster for Giggs. In court, he confessed that he had never been faithful either to his ex wife Stacey, with whom he has two children, Libby, 20, and Zach, 16, or to any of his other girlfriends. His reputation was in tatters, a liar and a cheat by his own admission.. He was last seen out dating model Zara Charles, who he began a relationship with in 2021, but has mainly kept a low profile since the court case. He has been carrying out some speaking arrangements in private functions.. Giggs is now back in football, having been appointed as a football director at Salford City. His son, Zach, is currently playing in Sheffield United’s youth system having made the switch from United’s academy last summer.. The next academy debutant will be the 250th youth graduate to have made the transition to the first-team. Giggs stands out as one, if not the, most memorable. Not always for his performances on the pitch now, unfortunately.
