playername	Sir Alex Ferguson
fullname	Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson
dateofbirth	December 31, 1941
cityofbirth	Glasgow
countryofbirth	Scotland
position	Forward
currentclub	Manchester United (manager)
years1	1957–1960 |clubs1 Queen's Park |caps1 31 |goals1 15
years2	1960–1964 |clubs2 St. Johnstone |caps2 37 |goals2 19
years3	1964–1967 |clubs3 Dunfermline Athletic |caps3 89 |goals3 66
years4	1967–1969 |clubs4 Rangers |caps4 41 |goals4 25
years5	1969–1973 |clubs5 Falkirk |caps5 95 |goals5 36
years6	1973–1974 |clubs6 Ayr United |caps6 24 |goals6 9
totalcaps	317 |totalgoals 170
nationalyears1	1967 |nationalteam1 Scottish Football League XI |nationalcaps1 2 |nationalgoals1 1
nationalyears2	1967 |nationalteam2 Scotland XI |nationalcaps2 7 |nationalgoals2 9
manageryears1	1974 |managerclubs1 East Stirlingshire
manageryears2	1974–1978 |managerclubs2 St. Mirren
manageryears3	1978–1986 |managerclubs3 Aberdeen
manageryears4	1985–1986 |managerclubs4 Scotland
manageryears5	1986– |managerclubs5 Manchester United }}

Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE, popularly known as Sir Alex or Fergie (born 31 December 1941 in Govan, Glasgow), is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986. His tenure has seen the club go through an era of success and dominance both in England and in Europe, giving Ferguson a reputation as one of the most admired and respected managers in the history of the game.

Ferguson previously managed East Stirlingshire and St. Mirren, before a highly successful period as manager of Aberdeen. Briefly manager of the Scotland national team — in a temporary capacity owing to the death of Jock Stein — he was appointed manager of Manchester United in November 1986.

With 24 years as manager of Manchester United, he is the longest serving manager in their history after overtaking Sir Matt Busby's record on 19 December 2010. His tenure is also the longest of all the current League managers. During this time, Ferguson has won many awards and holds many records including winning Manager of the Year most times in British football history. In 2008, he became the third British manager to win the European Cup on more than one occasion.

He was knighted in 1999 for his services to the game and also holds the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen.

Early life

Born to Alexander Beaton Ferguson, a plater's helper in the shipbuilding industry, and his wife, the former Elizabeth Hardie, Alex Ferguson was born at his grandmother's home on Shieldhall Road, Govan, on 31 December 1941, but grew up in a tenement at 667 Govan Road (which has since been demolished) where he lived with his parents as well as his younger brother Martin.

He attended Broomloan Road Primary School and later Govan High School, and supported Rangers.

Playing career

Ferguson's playing career began as an amateur with Queen's Park, where he made his debut as a striker aged 16. He described his first match as a "nightmare", but scored Queen's Park's goal in a 2–1 defeat against Stranraer. As Queen's Park were an amateur team he also worked in the Clyde shipyards as an apprentice tool-worker, where he became an active trade union shop steward. Perhaps his most notable game for Queen's Park was the 7–1 defeat away to Queen of the South on Boxing Day 1959 when ex-England international Ivor Broadis scored four of the Queen of the South goals. Ferguson was the solitary Queen's Park goalscorer.

Despite scoring 20 goals in his 31 games for Queen's Park, he could not command a regular place in the side and moved to St. Johnstone in 1960. Although he continued to score regularly at St. Johnstone, he was still unable to command a regular place and regularly requested transfers. Ferguson was out of favour at the club and he even considered emigrating to Canada, however St. Johnstone's failure to sign a forward led the manager to select Ferguson for a match against Rangers, in which he scored a hat trick in a surprise victory. Dunfermline signed him the following summer (1964), and Ferguson became a full-time professional footballer.

The following season (1964–65), Dunfermline were strong challengers for the Scottish League and reached the Scottish Cup Final, but Ferguson was dropped for the final after a poor performance in a league game against St. Johnstone. Dunfermline lost the final 3–2 to Celtic, then failed to win the League by one point. The 1965–66 season saw Ferguson notch up 45 goals in 51 games for Dunfermline. Along with Joe McBride of Celtic, he was the top goalscorer in the Scottish League with 31 goals.

He then joined Rangers for £65,000, then a record fee for a transfer between two Scottish clubs. He was blamed for a goal that they conceded in the 1969 Scottish Cup Final, in a match in which he was designated to mark Celtic captain, Billy McNeill, and was subsequently forced to play for the club's junior side instead of for the first team. According to his brother, Ferguson was so upset by the experience that he threw his losers' medal away. There have been claims that he suffered discrimination at Rangers after his marriage to his wife Cathie, who was a Catholic but Ferguson himself makes it clear in his autobiography that Rangers knew of his wife's religion when he joined the club and that he left the club very reluctantly, due to the fall-out from his alleged cup final mistake.

The following October, Nottingham Forest wanted to sign Ferguson, but his wife was not keen on moving to England at that time so he went to Falkirk instead. He was promoted to player-coach there, but when John Prentice became manager he removed Ferguson's coaching responsibilities. Ferguson responded by requesting a transfer and moved to Ayr United, where he finished his playing career in 1974.

Early managerial career

East Stirlingshire

In June 1974, Ferguson was appointed manager of East Stirlingshire, at the comparatively young age of 32. It was a part-time job that paid £40 per week, and the club did not have a single goalkeeper at the time. He immediately gained a reputation as a disciplinarian, with club forward Bobby McCulley later saying he had "never been afraid of anyone before but Ferguson was a frightening bastard from the start." His players admired his tactical decisions, however, and the club's results improved considerably.

The following October, Ferguson was invited to manage St. Mirren. While they were below East Stirlingshire in the league, they were a bigger club and although Ferguson felt a degree of loyalty towards East Stirlingshire, he decided to join St. Mirren after taking advice from Jock Stein.

St. Mirren

Ferguson was manager of St. Mirren from 1974 until 1978, producing a remarkable transformation of a team in the lower half of the old Second Division watched by crowds of just over 1,000, to First Division champions in 1977, discovering talent like Billy Stark, Tony Fitzpatrick, Lex Richardson, Frank McGarvey, Bobby Reid and Peter Weir while playing superb attacking football. The average age of the league winning team was 19 and the captain, Fitzpatrick, was 20.

St. Mirren have been the only club ever to sack Ferguson. He claimed wrongful dismissal against the club at an industrial tribunal but lost and was given no leave to appeal. According to a Billy Adams ''Sunday Herald'' article on 30 May 1999, the official version is that Ferguson was sacked for various breaches of contract including unauthorised payments to players. He was counter-accused of intimidating behaviour towards his office secretary because he wanted players to get some expenses tax free. He didn't speak to her for six weeks, confiscated her keys and communicated only through a 17-year-old assistant. The tribunal concluded that Ferguson was "particularly petty" and "immature" . It was claimed during the tribunal by St. Mirren chairman, Willie Todd, that Ferguson had "no managerial ability".

On 31 May 2008, ''The Guardian'' published an interview with Todd (by now aged 87), who had sacked Ferguson all those years earlier. He explained that the fundamental reason for the dismissal was a breach of contract relating to Ferguson having agreed to join Aberdeen. Ferguson told journalist Jim Rodger of the ''Daily Mirror'' that he had asked at least one member of the squad to go to Aberdeen with him. He also told the St. Mirren staff he was leaving. Todd expressed regret over what happened but blamed Aberdeen for not approaching his club to discuss compensation.

Managing Aberdeen

Early disappointment

Ferguson joined Aberdeen as manager in June 1978, replacing Billy McNeill who had only managed the club for one season before he was offered the chance to manage Celtic. Although Aberdeen were one of Scotland's major clubs they had won the league only once, in 1955 under Dave Halliday. The team had been playing well, however, and had not lost a league match since the previous December, having finished second in the league the previous season. Ferguson had now been a manager for four years, but was still not much older than some of the players and had trouble winning the respect of some of the older ones such as Joe Harper. The season did not go especially well, with Aberdeen reaching the semi-final of the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup Final, but losing both matches and finishing fourth in the league.

Aberdeen also lost the 1979–80 Scottish League Cup Final, this time to Dundee United after a replay. Ferguson took the blame for the defeat, saying he should have made changes to the team for the replay.

Silverware at last

Aberdeen had started the season poorly but their form improved dramatically in the new year and they won the Scottish league that season with a 5–0 win on the final day. It was the first time in fifteen years that the league had not been won by either Rangers or Celtic. Ferguson now felt that he had the respect of his players, later saying "That was the achievement which united us. I finally had the players believing in me".

He was still a strict disciplinarian, though, and his players nicknamed him ''Furious Fergie''. He fined one of his players, John Hewitt, for overtaking him on a public road, and kicked a tea urn at the players at half time after a poor first half. He was dissatisfied with the atmosphere at Aberdeen matches, and deliberately created a 'siege mentality' by accusing the Scottish media of being biased towards the Glasgow clubs, in order to motivate the team. The team continued their success with a Scottish Cup win in 1982. Ferguson was offered the managers' job at Wolves but turned it down as he felt that Wolves were in trouble and "[his] ambitions at Aberdeen were not even half fulfilled".

European success

Ferguson led Aberdeen to even greater success the following season (1982–83). They had qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup as a result of winning the Scottish Cup the previous season, and impressively knocked out Bayern Munich, who had beaten Tottenham Hotspur 4–1 in the previous round. According to Willie Miller, this gave them the confidence to believe that they could go on to win the competition, which they did, with a 2–1 victory over Real Madrid in the final on 11 May 1983. Aberdeen became only the third Scottish team (and, to date, last) to win a European trophy and Ferguson now felt that "he'd done something worthwhile with his life". Aberdeen had also performed well in the league that season, and retained the Scottish Cup with a 1–0 victory over Rangers, but Ferguson was not happy with his team's play in that match and upset the players by describing theirs as a "disgraceful performance" in a televised interview after the match—a statement that he later retracted.

After a sub-standard start to the 1983–84 season, Aberdeen's form improved and the team won the Scottish league and retained the Scottish Cup. Ferguson was awarded the OBE in the 1984 honours list, and was offered the managers' jobs at Rangers, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur during the season. Aberdeen retained their league title in the 1984–85 season, but had a disappointing season in 1985–86, finishing fourth in the league, although they did win both domestic cups. Ferguson had been appointed to the club's board of directors early in 1986, but that April he told Dick Donald, their chairman, that he intended to leave that summer.

Ferguson had been part of coaching staff for the Scottish national side during qualifying for the 1986 World Cup, but manager Jock Stein had collapsed and died on 10 September 1985 – at the end of the game in which Scotland qualified from their group for a play-off against Australia. Ferguson promptly agreed to take charge of the Scottish national side against the Australians and subsequently at the World Cup. To allow him to fulfil his international duties he appointed Archie Knox as his co-manager at Aberdeen. However, after Scotland failed to progress past the group stages of the World Cup, Ferguson stepped down as national team manager on 15 June 1986.

Around this time, Tottenham Hotspur offered Ferguson the chance to take over from Peter Shreeves as manager, but he rejected this offer and the job went to Luton Town's David Pleat instead. There was also an offer for Ferguson to replace Don Howe as Arsenal manager, but he rejected this offer as well, and fellow Scot George Graham took the post instead.

That summer, there had been speculation that he would take over from Ron Atkinson at Manchester United, who had slumped to fourth in the English top flight after a 10-match winning start had made title glory seem inevitable.

It was not the first time that Ferguson had been linked with a move to England. In February 1982, Wolverhampton Wanderers had approached him about succeeding John Barnwell as manager as they were heading for relegation from the First Division. He rejected this offer, perhaps concerned about the club's financial stability, as they were more than £2million in debt at the time and narrowly avoided going out of business. At the end of the 1985–86 season, both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur had approached him about becoming their new manager, but he rejected the offers from both North London clubs.

Although Ferguson remained at Aberdeen over the summer, he did eventually join Manchester United when Atkinson was sacked in November 1986.

Managing Manchester United

Appointment and first years

Ferguson was appointed manager at Old Trafford on 6 November 1986. He was initially worried that many of the players, such as Norman Whiteside, Paul McGrath and Bryan Robson were drinking too much and was "depressed" by their level of fitness, but he managed to increase the players' discipline and United climbed up the table to finish the season in 11th place, having been 21st (second from bottom) when he took over.

His first game in charge was a 2–0 defeat at underdogs Oxford United on 8 November, followed seven days later by a goalless draw at newly promoted Norwich City, and then his first win (1–0 at home to QPR) on 22 November. Results steadily improved as the season went on, and by the time they recorded what would be their only away win of the league campaign at title challengers and deadly rivals Liverpool on Boxing Day, it was clear that United were on the road to recovery. 1987 began on a high note with a 4–1 victory over Newcastle United and United gradually pulled together in the second half of the season, with relatively occasional defeats on the way, and finished 11th in the final table.

Ferguson endured a personal tragedy three weeks after his appointment, when his mother Elizabeth died of lung cancer aged 64.

Ferguson appointed Archie Knox, his assistant at Aberdeen, as his assistant at Manchester United.

In the 1987–88 season, Ferguson made several major signings, including Steve Bruce, Viv Anderson, Brian McClair and Jim Leighton.

The new players made a great contribution to a United team who finished in second place, nine points behind Liverpool. However, Liverpool's points lead had been in double digits for most of the season and while United had lost only five league games all season, they drew 12 games and there was clearly still some way to go before United could be a match for their north western rivals.

United were expected to do well when Mark Hughes returned to the club two years after leaving for Barcelona, but the 1988–89 season was a disappointment for them, finishing eleventh in the league and losing 1–0 at home to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Sixth Round. They had begun the season slowly, going on a nine-match winless run throughout October and November (with one defeat and eight draws) before a run of generally good results took them to third place and the fringes of the title challenge by mid February. However, another run of disappointing results in the final quarter of the season saw them fall down to mid table.

During the season, United played in friendly matches against the Bermudan national team and Somerset County Cricket Club as part of the Bermudan team's tour of England. In the match against Somerset, both Ferguson himself and his assistant, Archie Knox, took to the field, with Knox even getting on the scoresheet. The match remains Ferguson's only appearance for the Manchester United first team.

For the 1989–90 season, Ferguson further boosted his squad by paying large sums of money for midfielders Neil Webb, Mike Phelan and Paul Ince, as well as defender Gary Pallister and winger Danny Wallace. The season began well with a 4–1 win over defending champions Arsenal on the opening day, but United's league form quickly turned sour. In September, United suffered a humiliating 5–1 away defeat against fierce rivals Manchester City. Following this and an early season run of six defeats and two draws in eight games, a banner declaring "Three years of excuses and it's still crap...ta-ra Fergie." was displayed at Old Trafford, and many journalists and supporters called for Ferguson to be sacked. Ferguson later described December 1989 as "the darkest period [he had] ever suffered in the game", as United ended the decade just outside the relegation zone.

However, Ferguson later revealed that the board of directors had assured him that they were not considering dismissing him. Although naturally disappointed with the lack of success in the league, they understood the reasons for the sub-standard results (namely the absence of several key players due to injury) and were pleased with the way that Ferguson had reorganised the club's coaching and scouting system.

Following a run of seven games without a win, Manchester United were drawn away to Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup. Forest were performing well that season and were in the process of winning the League Cup for the second season running, and it was expected that United would lose the match and Ferguson would consequently be sacked, but United won the game 1–0 thanks to a Mark Robins goal and eventually reached the final. This cup win is often cited as the match that saved Ferguson's Old Trafford career, even though it has since been stated that his job was never at risk. United went on to win the FA Cup, beating Crystal Palace 1–0 in the final replay after a 3–3 draw in the first match, giving Ferguson his first major trophy as Manchester United manager. United's defensive frailties in the first match were unilaterally blamed on goalkeeper Jim Leighton, forcing Ferguson to drop his former Aberdeen player and bring in Les Sealey.

The first league title

Although United's league form improved greatly in 1990–91, they were still inconsistent and finished sixth. There were some excellent performances that season, including a 6–2 demolition of Arsenal at Highbury, but results like an early 2–1 loss at newly promoted Sunderland, a 4–0 September hammering by Liverpool at Anfield, and a 2–0 home defeat by Everton in early March (the game where 17-year-old hot prospect Ryan Giggs made his senior debut) showed that United still had some way to go.

Even after the FA Cup Final victory in the previous season, some still had doubts about Ferguson's ability to succeed where all the other managers since Busby had failed — to win the league title. They were runners-up in the League Cup, losing 1–0 to Sheffield Wednesday. They also reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, beating that season's Spanish champions Barcelona 2–1. After the match, Ferguson vowed that United would win the league the following season, and at long last he seemed to have won over the last of his sceptics after nearly five years in the job.

During the 1991 close season, Ferguson's assistant Archie Knox departed to Glasgow Rangers to become assistant to Walter Smith, and Ferguson promoted youth team coach Brian Kidd to the role of assistant manager in Knox's place. He also made two major signings – goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and defender Paul Parker – to bolster his side. There was much anticipation about the breakthrough of the young Ryan Giggs, who had played twice and scored once in the 1990–91 campaign, and the earlier emergence of another impressive young winger in the shape of Lee Sharpe, who despite their youth had made Ferguson feel able to resist plunging into the transfer market and buying a new player to take over from the disappointing Danny Wallace on the left wing. He had also added the Ukrainian Andrei Kanchelskis to the right wing, giving him a more attacking alternative to older right footed midfielders Mike Phelan and Bryan Robson.

The 1991–92 season did not live up to Ferguson's expectations and, in Ferguson's words, "many in the media felt that [his] mistakes had contributed to the misery". United won the League Cup and Super Cup for the first time, but lost out on the league title to rivals Leeds United after leading the table for much of the season. A shortage of goals and being held to draws by teams they had been expected to beat in the second half of the campaign had proved to be the undoing of a United side who had performed so well in the first half of the season.

Ferguson felt that his failure to secure the signing of Mick Harford from Luton Town had cost United the league, and that he needed "an extra dimension" to the team if they were to win the league the following season.

During the 1992 close season, Ferguson went on the hunt for a new striker. He first attempted to sign Alan Shearer from Southampton, but lost out to Blackburn Rovers. He also made at least one approach for the Sheffield Wednesday striker David Hirst, but manager Trevor Francis rejected all offers and the player stayed put. In the end, he paid £1 million for 23-year-old Cambridge United striker Dion Dublin – his only major signing of the summer.

After a slow start to the 1992–93 season (they were 10th of 22 at the beginning of November) it looked as though United would miss out on the league title (now the Premier League) yet again. However, after the purchase of French striker Eric Cantona from Leeds United for £1.2 million, the future of Manchester United, and Ferguson's position as manager, began to look bright. Cantona formed a strong partnership with Mark Hughes and fired the club to the top of the table, ending United's 26-year wait for a League Championship, and also making them the first ever Premier League Champions. United had finished champions with a 10-point margin over runners-up Aston Villa, whose 1–0 defeat at Oldham on 2 May 1993 had given United the title. Ferguson was voted Manager of the Year by the League Managers' Association.

Two doubles

The 1993–94 season brought more success. Ferguson added Nottingham Forest's 22-year-old midfielder Roy Keane to the ranks for a British record fee of £3.75million as a long term replacement for Bryan Robson, who was nearing the end of his career.

United led the 1993–94 Premier League table virtually from start to finish.

Ferguson was the very first winner of the Premier League Manager of the Month award, introduced for the start of the 1993–94 season, when he collected the accolade for August 1993.

Cantona was top scorer with 25 goals in all competitions despite being sent off twice in the space of five days in March 1994. United also reached the League Cup final but lost 3–1 to Aston Villa, managed by Ferguson's predecessor, Ron Atkinson. In the FA Cup final, Manchester United achieved an impressive 4–0 scoreline against Chelsea, winning Ferguson his second League and Cup Double, following his Scottish Premier Division and Scottish Cup titles with Aberdeen in 1984–85, though the League Cup final defeat meant that he had not yet achieved a repeat of the treble that he had achieved with Aberdeen in 1983.

Ferguson made only one close-season signing, paying Blackburn Rovers £1.2million for David May. There were newspaper reports that Ferguson was also going to sign highly rated 21-year-old striker Chris Sutton from Norwich City, but the player headed for Blackburn Rovers instead.

1994–95 was a harder season for Ferguson. Cantona assaulted a Crystal Palace supporter in a game at Selhurst Park, and it seemed likely he would leave English football. An eight month ban saw Cantona miss the final four months of the season. He also received a 14-day prison sentence for the offence but the sentence was quashed on appeal and replaced by a 120-hour community service order. On the brighter side, United paid a British record fee of £7million for Newcastle's prolific striker Andy Cole, with young winger Keith Gillespie heading to the north-east in exchange. The season also saw the breakthrough of young players Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, who provided excellent cover for the long periods that United were left without some of their more experienced stars.

However, the championship slipped out of Manchester United's grasp as they drew 1–1 with West Ham United on the final day of the season, when a win would have given them the a third successive league title. United also lost the FA Cup final in a 1–0 defeat to Everton.

Ferguson was heavily criticised in the summer of 1995 when three of United's star players were allowed to leave and replacements were not bought. First Paul Ince moved to Internazionale of Italy for £7.5 million, long serving striker Mark Hughes was suddenly sold to Chelsea in a £1.5 million deal, and Andrei Kanchelskis was sold to Everton.

Ferguson made an approach for Tottenham Hotspur winger Darren Anderton, but the player signed a new contract with the North London club. He then made a bid to sign Dutchman Marc Overmars from Ajax Amsterdam (the European Cup winners), but the player suffered a serious knee injury and was ruled out for months. Media reports suggested that United were going to make an approach for Juventus and Italy forward Roberto Baggio, who was generally regarded as the best player in the world at this time, but the player remained in his homeland and signed for AC Milan instead.

It was widely known that Ferguson felt that United had a number of young players who were ready to play in the first team. The youngsters, who would be known as "Fergie's Fledglings", included Gary Neville, Phil Neville, David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, who would all go on to be important members of the team. And so the 1995–96 season began without a major signing, at a time when the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle United were making the headlines with big money signings.

When United lost the first league match of the 1995–96 season 3–1 to Aston Villa, the media swooped upon Ferguson with undisguised glee. They wrote United off because Ferguson's squad contained so many young and inexperienced players. Match of the Day pundit, Alan Hansen proclaimed that "you can't win anything with kids".

However, the young players performed well and United won their next five matches, exacting their revenge over Everton for the FA Cup defeat with a 3–2 win at Goodison Park and achieving a 2–1 away win over defending champions Blackburn Rovers who were now looking rather like relegation battlers than title contenders.

Cantona's return from suspension was a boost, but they found themselves 10 points behind Newcastle United by Christmas 1995. A 2–0 home win over the Tynesiders on 27 December narrowed the gap to seven points and a subsequent win over struggling QPR narrowed it to four points, but a 4–1 defeat for United at Tottenham on New Year's Day 1996 and a 0–0 home draw with Aston Villa saw the Magpies re-establish their wide lead and it looked certain that the league title was Newcastle's.

However a series of good results starting in mid January 1996 saw the gap close, and when United travelled to Newcastle and won 1–0 on 4 March, the gap was down to a single point.

United went top of the league soon after the win at Newcastle, who continued to drop points in crucial games.

Early April saw Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan's famous outburst on live television ("I'd love it if we beat them! Love it!"), and is generally regarded as the moment that Ferguson gained the upper hand against his opponent. United's Premier League title success was confirmed on the final day of the season, when they defeated a Middlesbrough side managed by former United captain Bryan Robson in a game which ended in a 3–0 win despite strong displays by Boro confounding pre-match reports that Robson would give his old team an easy ride.

They played Liverpool in that year's FA Cup final, winning 1–0 with a late goal by Cantona. This made them the first team in English football to repeat the double of the league title and FA Cup, and more impressive was the fact that it had been achieved with a similar set of players to the ones who achieved the first double.

1996–97 saw Ferguson guide Manchester United to their fourth Premier League title in five seasons. In late autumn, they suffered three league defeats in a row and conceded 13 goals in the process. They also lost their 40 year unbeaten home record in Europe to unfancied Turkish side Fenerbahçe. But they still reached the Champions League semi final, where they lost to Borussia Dortmund of Germany. At the end of the season, Cantona surprisingly retired from football.

Other success stories of the 1996–97 season were two Norwegian signings, striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (the club's top scorer that season) and defender Ronny Johnsen, who were bargain buys as they were little known outside the Premier League on their arrival the previous summer but went on to be key factors in United's fourth Premier League title.

The treble

Ferguson made two new signings to bolster United's challenge for the 1997–98 season, 31-year-old England striker Teddy Sheringham and defender Henning Berg. However the season ended trophyless as Arsenal won the Premier League under French manager Arsène Wenger, who started a long-lasting rivalry with Ferguson. For much of the season United had looked to be on the road to success. They led the table for much of the season before a series of disappointing results in the final quarter – combined with Arsenal taking advantage of games in hand – saw the league title head to North London. There was much promise in the European Cup as United recorded an impressive 3–2 win over Juventus in the group stages before being eliminated by AS Monaco in the quarter finals. Their FA Cup challenge began with an excellent 5–3 away win over holders Chelsea before a shock fifth round replay exit at a Barnsley side who ended the season relegated from the Premier League.

The summer of 1998 saw striker Dwight Yorke, Dutch defender Jaap Stam and the Swedish winger Jesper Blomqvist join Manchester United for a combined total of nearly £30million.

In December 1998, Ferguson's assistant Brian Kidd accepted an offer to manage Blackburn Rovers and he recruited Steve McClaren from Derby County as his successor. Ironically, Kidd's side were relegated in the penultimate game on the league season when United held them to a 0–0 draw.

1998–99 saw the club winning an unprecedented treble of the Premier League title, FA Cup and Champions League. The season was characterised by highly dramatic matches. In the Champions League semi-final second leg, United conceded two early goals away to Juventus; however, inspired by Roy Keane, who would later miss the final through suspension, United came back to beat Juventus 3–2 and reach their first European Cup final since 1968. In the FA Cup semi-final, United faced close rivals Arsenal and appeared to be heading for defeat when Keane was sent off and Arsenal were awarded a last-minute penalty. Peter Schmeichel saved the penalty, and in extra time Ryan Giggs ran the length of the pitch to score perhaps the most memorable goal of his career to win the match. They then defeated Newcastle United 2–0 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley thanks to goals from Teddy Sheringham and Paul Scholes. The European triumph was the most incredible of all. With 90 minutes on the clock they were 1–0 down to Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp in Barcelona following a Mario Basler free kick, but in 3 minutes of injury time allowed by referee Pierluigi Collina, Teddy Sheringham, a substitute, equalised and extra time looked certain. But with just seconds left on the clock, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, also a late substitution, scored the winning goal and history was made.

On 12 June 1999, Ferguson received a knighthood in recognition of his services to the game.

Title hat-trick

Manchester United ended the 1999–2000 season as champions with just three Premier League defeats, and a cushion of 18 points. The massive gap between United and the rest of the Premier League, although they had faced stiff competition from the likes of Arsenal and Leeds United until the final weeks of the season, caused some to wonder if the club's financial dominance was developing into a problem for the English game.

In April 2000, it was announced that Manchester United had agreed to sign Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy from PSV Eindhoven for a British record fee of £18million. But the move was put on hold when van Nistelrooy failed a medical, and he then returned to his homeland in a bid to regain fitness, only to suffer a serious knee injury which ruled him out for almost a year.

28-year-old French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was signed from Monaco for £7.8million—making him the most expensive goalkeeper to be signed by a British club, and United won the title again, becoming only the fourth side in history to win the English league title three seasons in succession. They also matched Liverpool's record (set in 1991) of 10 successive top two finishes.

However, the press largely saw the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 campaigns as failures as United had failed to win the European Cup, falling at the quarter final stages to Real Madrid in 2000 and Bayern Munich in 2001.

During the 2001 close season Ruud van Nistelrooy joined, and soon after Manchester United again broke the British transfer record—this time paying Lazio £28.1million for Argentine attacking midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón, although he failed to live up to the high expectations his transfer fee suggested and he was sold to Chelsea for £15million only two years later.

Rebuilding and transition

Two games into the 2001–02 season, Dutch central defender Jaap Stam was sold to Lazio in a £16million deal. The reason for Stam's departure was believed to have been claims in his autobiography ''Head to Head'' that he had been illegally spoken to about a move to Manchester United by Ferguson, before his previous club PSV Eindhoven had been informed. Ferguson replaced Stam with Internazionale's 36-year-old central defender Laurent Blanc.

Before the season began, Ferguson also lost his assistant Steve McClaren, who took over as manager of Middlesbrough, and gave the role to long-serving coach Jim Ryan until a more permanent successor could be found.

By 8 December 2001, after a terrible run of form which saw one win and six defeats on a period of seven league games, Manchester United were ninth in the Premier League — 11 points behind leaders Liverpool who had a game in hand. There were widespread fears that they might not even qualify for Europe, let alone win the league title.

Then came a dramatic turn around in form: between mid-December and late January, as eight successive wins saw Manchester United climb to the top of the Premier League and put their title challenge back on track. Despite this, United finished third in the League as rival Arsène Wenger clinched the title for Arsenal at Old Trafford with a 1–0 win in the penultimate game of the season after United dropped points in a couple of other crucial games during the run-in.

United were also unsuccessful in Europe, losing the Champions League semi-final on away goals to Bayer Leverkusen. Early exits from the League Cup and FA Cup meant that the season ended trophyless. As they were third in the league and had not reached a cup final, it was the first time since 1989 that they had finished a season without being winners or runners-up of a major competition.

The 2001–02 season was to have been Ferguson's last as Manchester United manager, and the looming date of his retirement was cited as a reason for the team's loss of form. Ferguson himself admitted that the decision to pre-announce his retirement had resulted in a negative effect on the players and on his ability to impose discipline. But in February 2002 he agreed to stay in charge for at least another three years.

The close season saw Manchester United break the British transfer record yet again when they paid Leeds United £30million for 24-year-old central defender Rio Ferdinand.

That summer, Ferguson brought in Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz as his assistant.

Manchester United won their eighth Premier League title yet just over two months before the end of the season they were eight points behind leaders Arsenal. But an improvement in form for United, and a decline for Arsenal, saw the Premier League trophy gradually slip out of the Londoners' grasp and push it back in the direction of Old Trafford. Ferguson described the 2002–03 title triumph as his most satisfying ever, due to the nature of a remarkable comeback. The excellent run-in had produced 10 wins and a draw (including 4–0 home win over Liverpool and a 6–2 away demolition of Newcastle United) from the final 11 games, and no defeats since Boxing Day.

Not for the first time, Ferguson had proven to be a master of managerial mind-games, successfully rattling the composure of Arsenal and their otherwise unflappable manager Arsène Wenger.

Ferguson guided Manchester United to their eleventh FA Cup at the end of the 2003–04 season, but it was a disappointing season which had seen them finish third in the Premier League (which was won by an undefeated Arsenal side) and suffer Champions League elimination at the hands of eventual winners FC Porto. Rio Ferdinand missed the final four months of the season, as he served the beginning of an eight-month ban for missing a drugs test. New signings like Eric Djemba-Djemba and José Kléberson were disappointing, United tried to sign Ronaldinho and Fergie believed the deal was as good as done before Peter Kenyon caused it to fall apart, but there was at least one productive signing in teenage Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo. Striker Louis Saha, added in January, also proved to be reasonably successful covering for the injured Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in attack.

At the beginning of the 2004–05 season, teenage striker Wayne Rooney (the world's most expensive teenager at more than £20million) and Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze joined United while Cristiano Ronaldo continued where he had left off the previous season by putting in more match-winning performances. But the lack of a striker after van Nistelrooy spent most of the season injured saw the club finish third for the third time in four seasons. In the FA Cup they lost on penalties to Arsenal. A second round exit from the European Cup at the hands of AC Milan and a semi-final exit from the League Cup at the hands of eventual winners Chelsea (who also clinched the Premier League title) meant that 2004–05 was a rare instance of a trophyless season for United.

Ferguson's preparations for the season were disrupted by a high-profile dispute with major shareholder John Magnier, over the ownership of the racehorse Rock of Gibraltar. When Magnier and business partner J. P. McManus agreed to sell their shares to American business tycoon Malcolm Glazer, it cleared the way for Glazer to acquire full control of the club. This sparked violent protests from United fans, and disrupted Ferguson's plans to strengthen the team in the transfer market. In spite of this, United looked to solve their goalkeeping and midfield problems. For this, they signed the Dutch keeper Edwin van der Sar from Fulham and Korean star Park Ji-Sung from PSV.

The season was one of transition. On 18 November, Roy Keane officially left the club, his contract ended by mutual consent. United failed to qualify for the knock-out phase of the UEFA Champions' League. In the January transfer window Serbian defender Nemanja Vidić and French full-back Patrice Evra were signed, and the side finished in second place in the league, behind runaway leaders Chelsea. Winning the League Cup was a consolation prize for lack of success elsewhere. Ruud van Nistelrooy's future at Old Trafford seemed to be in doubt after not starting in the Carling Cup final, and he departed at the end of the season.

Second European trophy

In 2006, Michael Carrick was signed as a replacement for Roy Keane for £14 million, although the figure may eventually rise in the future to £18.6 million depending on appearances and results. United started the season well, and for the first time ever won their first four Premier League games. They set the early pace in the Premier League and never relinquished top spot from the tenth match of the 38–game season. The January 2006 signings had a huge impact on United's performances; Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidić came in to form a solid back line along with already existing players Rio Ferdinand and skipper Gary Neville. The signing of Michael Carrick, which was questioned and criticised by a large portion of the media, brought stability and further creativity in the United midfield, forming an effective partnership with Paul Scholes. Park Ji-Sung and Ryan Giggs both underlined their value to the first team squad by adding significant pace and incisiveness in attack with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ferguson celebrated the 20th anniversary of his appointment as manager of Manchester United on 6 November 2006. Tributes also came from Ferguson's players, both past and present, as well as his old foe, Arsène Wenger, his old captain, Roy Keane, and current players. The party was spoiled the following day when United endured a single-goal defeat at the hands of Southend in the fourth round of the Carling Cup. However, on 1 December it was announced that Manchester United had signed 35 year old Henrik Larsson on loan, a player that Ferguson had admired for many years, and attempted to capture previously. On 23 December 2006, Cristiano Ronaldo scored the club's 2000th goal under the helm of Ferguson in a match against Aston Villa.

Manchester United subsequently won their ninth Premier League title but were denied a unique fourth double by Chelsea's Didier Drogba scoring a late goal in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.

In the Champions League, the club reached the semi-finals, recording a 7–1 home win over Roma in the quarter-final second leg, but lost at the San Siro to Milan 3–0 in the second leg of the semi-final after being 3–2 up from the first leg. Still, it was a strong sign that United were on their way back to dominance after a couple of years of being overshadowed by Arsenal and more particularly Chelsea.

For the 2007–08 season, Ferguson made notable signings to reinforce United's first team. Long-term target Owen Hargreaves joined from Bayern Munich, bringing an end to a year of negotiations. Ferguson further bolstered the midfield with the additions of young Portuguese winger Nani and Brazilian playmaker Anderson. The last summer signing was of West Ham United and Argentina striker Carlos Tévez after a complex and protracted transfer saga.

United had their worst start to a season under Ferguson, drawing their first two league games before suffering a 1–0 defeat to local rivals Manchester City. However, United recovered and began a tight race with Arsenal for the title. After a good run of form, Ferguson claimed that throughout his time at Manchester United, this was the best squad he had managed to assemble thus far.

On 16 February 2008, United beat Arsenal 4–0 in an FA Cup Fifth Round match at Old Trafford, but were knocked out by eventual winners Portsmouth (a mid table side in the league) in the quarter final on 8 March, losing 1–0 at home. United having had a penalty claim turned down, Ferguson alleged after the game that Keith Hackett, general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, was "not doing his job properly". Ferguson was subsequently charged by the FA with improper conduct, which he decided to contest. This was the second charge Ferguson faced in the season, following his complaints against the referee after United lost 1–0 at Bolton Wanderers – a charge he decided not to contest.

On 11 May 2008, Ferguson led Manchester United to a tenth Premier League title, exactly 25 years to the day after he led Aberdeen to European glory against Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners' Cup. Nearest rivals Chelsea – level on points going into the final round of matches, but with an inferior goal difference – could only draw 1–1 at home to Bolton, finishing two points adrift of the champions. United's title win was sealed with a 2–0 win over Wigan Athletic, managed by former United captain Steve Bruce, who before the game blew the whistle on suggestions that he would give his old club an easy ride – just as Bryan Robson had done 12 years earlier.

On 21 May 2008, Ferguson won his second European Cup with Manchester United as they beat Chelsea 6–5 on penalties in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, following a 1–1 draw after extra time in the first ever all-English UEFA Champions League Final. A penalty miss from Cristiano Ronaldo meant that John Terry's spot-kick would have given the trophy to Chelsea if successfully converted, but Terry blew his chance of glory and in the end it was Edwin van der Sar's blocking of a Nicolas Anelka penalty which gave the trophy to Manchester United for the second time under Ferguson and for the third time overall.

After winning the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League Ferguson had stated that his intention to leave Manchester United within the next three years, meaning that he would be gone by the summer of 2011. Manchester United Chief Executive David Gill moved quickly to calm the speculation about Ferguson's pending retirement.

Another two league titles and League Cups

Although the team had a slow start to the 2008–09 season, United won the Premier League with a game to spare, making Ferguson the first manager in the history of English football to win the Premier League three times consecutively, on two separate occasions. Ferguson had now won 11 league titles at Manchester United, and the 2008–09 season title success put them level with Liverpool as league champions on a record 18 occasions in total. They also won the Football League Cup on penalties after a goalless Wembley draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

They contested the 2009 Champions League final against FC Barcelona on 27 May 2009 but lost 2–0.

After the presentation ceremony, Ferguson conceded that he would stay on at United for as long as his health permitted him and that he would be glad to win the league title once more. This would make United's total league wins one more than rivals Liverpool, becoming the outright leader in total wins.

In 2009–10, Ferguson added another Football League Cup to his honours list as United defeated Aston Villa 2–1 in the Wembley final on 28 February 2010. However, his dreams of a third European Cup were ended a few weeks later when United were edged out of the competition in the quarter-finals by Bayern Munich on away goals. And their hopes of a record 19th league title were ended on the last day of the season when Chelsea beat them to the Premier League title, crushing Wigan Athletic 8–0 and rendering United's 4–0 win over Stoke City meaningless. Around this time, several newspapers carried reports that Ferguson was due to retire at the end of the 2010–11 season, but he denied these rumours and insisted that he wants to go out on a high and will not retire during a time of struggle.

On 8 August 2010, Ferguson added another FA Community Shield to his honours list as United defeated Chelsea 3–1 in the final in Wembley. On 19 December 2010, Ferguson became Manchester United's longest serving manager in history, overtaking Sir Matt Busby's record of 24 years, 1 month and 13 days in charge of the club. He ended the season by winning his 12th and Manchester United's 19th league title and thus overtaking Liverpool's record of 18. Manchester United faced Barcelona again on 28 May 2011 in the 2011 Champions League Final, their third in four years, but United lost 3–1. Analyst Alan Hansen stated that he believed Ferguson was "the key component" in United's success that season, so key in fact that "[he] would have claimed the crown with any of the other top sides had he been in charge of them". With Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes all retiring in 2011, Ferguson spent big by signing defender Phil Jones from Blackburn Rovers and winger Ashley Young from Aston Villa for around £17 million each, and goalkeeper David de Gea from Atlético Madrid for around £19 million.

1999 testimonial

On 11 October 1999, a special testimonial match was played in honour of Ferguson's contribution to the team. Manchester United played against a team dubbed "Rest of the World XI", managed by Ottmar Hitzfeld, with his team consisting of names such as Henrik Larsson, Gianluca Vialli, Cafu, Paul Gascoigne, George Weah, Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona, but with 20 minutes to go there was a mass substitution of their players, who were replaced by a former Manchester United XI; Peter Schmeichel, Paul Parker, Clayton Blackmore, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Darren Ferguson, Mark Hughes, Lee Sharpe, and three number sevens: Bryan Robson, David Beckham and Eric Cantona. The World XI won the game 4–2.

Controversies

Ferguson has been involved in numerous controversial incidents during his United career.

Gordon Strachan

In his 1999 autobiography Ferguson stated of Strachan "I decided this man could not be trusted an inch – I would not want to expose my back to him in a hurry". Strachan's reaction to the attack, in is own autobiography, ''My Life in Football'', was one of being "surprised and disappointed", but did not sue for libel, and more recently they have "declared something of a truce".

David Beckham and draw fixing

In 2003, Ferguson was involved in a dressing room argument with United player David Beckham, resulting in an injury to Beckham, alleged to have been caused by Ferguson kicking a football boot in frustration which hit the player in the face. On 5 April 2003, Ferguson claimed that the Champions League draw was fixed in favour of Spanish and Italian teams, resulting in a fine on 1 May of 10,000 Swiss francs (£4,600).

Rock of Gibraltar

In 2003, Ferguson launched legal action against the then major United shareholder John Magnier over stud rights for race horse Rock of Gibraltar. Magnier counter-sued Ferguson filing a "motion to comply" requiring Ferguson to substantiate his claim for half of Rock of Gibraltar's stud fees. The legal issues were further compounded by the request for "99 Questions" to be answered over Ferguson's transfer dealings, including those of Jaap Stam, Juan Verón, Tim Howard, David Bellion, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kléberson. The case was eventually settled out of Court.

The BBC

Ferguson refused to give interviews to the BBC after a documentary called ''Father and Son'' was shown on UK television in 2004. According to an article in ''The Independent'' newspaper, the documentary had "portrayed his agent son, Jason, as somebody who exploited his father's influence and position to his own ends in the transfer market." The same newspaper article made it clear that "Ferguson Jnr" was never found guilty of any wrong-doing, and it quoted Ferguson Senior as follows: "They [the BBC] did a story about my son that was whole lot of nonsense. It all made-up stuff and 'brown paper bags' and all that kind of carry-on. It was a horrible attack on my son's honour and he should never have been accused of that.". Subsequent interviews on BBC programmes such as ''Match of the Day'' were done by his assistant Carlos Queiroz, and later Mike Phelan.

Under new Premiership rules intended for the 2010–11 season, Ferguson was required to end his BBC boycott. However he refused to end his boycott and Manchester United confirmed the club would pay the resulting fines. On 25 August 2011, Ferguson met with BBC director general Mark Thompson and BBC North director Peter Salmon; the result of which was that Ferguson agreed to end his seven year boycott.

Mind games and relationships with other managers

Ferguson is well known for using what the press have called "mind games" with fellow Premiership managers. This approach normally involves making a derogatory comment at a pre-match press conference about the opposition Manager or their team. This has led to several spats in the past with managers such as Kevin Keegan, Arsène Wenger, Rafael Benítez and Mark Hughes.

Recalling of loan players

Following the sacking of his son, Darren by Preston North End, Ferguson immediately recalled loaned players Ritchie De Laet, Joshua King and Matthew James from Preston under its new managerial system. He later explained that it was the players' own request not to return to Preston after the change of manager. Stoke City Boss, Tony Pulis followed soon after in recalling 2 former Manchester United players from Preston as well, stating the need for the players to supplement his team's intensive schedule.

Referees

Ferguson has received numerous punishments for abusing and publicly criticising match officials when he has perceived them to be at fault:

20 October 2003 – Two match touchline ban and fined £10,000 after using abusive and/or insulting words towards fourth official Jeff Winter.

14 December 2007 – Two match touchline ban and fined £5,000 after using abusive and/or insulting words towards Mark Clattenburg.

18 November 2008 – Two match touchline ban and fined £10,000 after confronting Mike Dean after a game.

12 November 2009 – Four match touchline ban (two suspended) and fined £20,000 for comments made about the fitness of Alan Wiley.

16 March 2011 – Five match touchline ban (three plus the two suspended for the above offence) and fined £30,000 for comments made questioning the performance and fairness of Martin Atkinson.

It has also been suggested that Ferguson's intimidation of referees results in ''Fergie Time'', that is, unusually generous injury time being added in matches where Manchester United are behind. The phrase is at least as old as 2004, and a statistical analysis by ''The Times'' suggests that this comment might be valid, though the article points out other footballing criteria may explain the correlation between extra added time and United being behind.

Legacy

One recurring theme of Ferguson's management of Manchester United has been his view that no player is bigger than the club. He has consistently taken a "my way or the highway" approach in his dealings with players and the pressure of this management tactic has often been the cause of many notable players' departures. Over the years players such as Gordon Strachan, Paul McGrath, Paul Ince, Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke, David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Gabriel Heinze have left the club after varying degrees of conflict with Ferguson. It is also suggested that one of the most inspirational players in the club's history, Roy Keane, was a victim of Ferguson's wrath following damning criticism of his teammates on the club's in-house television channel, MUTV. This disciplinary line that he takes with such highly paid, high-profile players has been cited as a reason for the ongoing success of Manchester United.

Personal life

Ferguson lives in Wilmslow, Cheshire, with his wife, Cathy Ferguson, Lady Ferguson (née Holding). They married in 1966 and have three sons: Mark (born 1968) and twins (born 1972) Darren, current manager of Peterborough United and former manager of Preston North End, and Jason, who runs an events management company.

In 1998, Ferguson was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party. He is also a lifelong Labour voter.

Honours

Player

; St. Johnstone

Scottish Football League Division 2 (2nd tier) (1): 1962–63

; Falkirk

Scottish Football League Division 2 (2nd tier) (1): 1969–70

Managerial

Ferguson was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as a manager. In 2003, Ferguson became an inaugural recipient of the FA Coaching Diploma, awarded to all coaches who had at least 10 years' experience of being a manager or head coach.

He is the Vice-President of the National Football Museum, based in Preston, and a member of the Executive Committee of the League Managers Association.

In addition to being the only manager to win the top league honours, and the 'Double', North and South of the England–Scotland border (winning the Premier League with Manchester United, and the Scottish Premier Division with Aberdeen), he is also the last manager to win the Scottish championship with a non Old Firm team, achieving this in the 1984–85 season with Aberdeen. He is also the only mananger in English football to have managed to finish in the top three league places in 20 consecutive seasons, since the 1991–92 season.

He has won 48 trophies as a manager, making him the most successful British football manager in history.

; St. Mirren

Scottish First Division (1): 1976–77

; Aberdeen

Scottish Premier Division (3): 1979–80, 1983–84, 1984–85

Scottish Cup (4): 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86

Scottish League Cup (1): 1985–86

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1982–83

UEFA Super Cup (1): 1983

; Manchester United

Premier League (12): 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11

FA Cup (5): 1989–90, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1998–99, 2003–04

League Cup (4): 1991–92, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10

FA Charity/Community Shield (10): 1990 (shared), 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011

UEFA Champions League (2): 1998–99, 2007–08

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1990–91

UEFA Super Cup (1): 1991

Intercontinental Cup (1): 1999

FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2008

Individual

Football Writers' Association Tribute Award: 1996

Mussabini Medal: 1999

UEFA Champions League Manager of the Year: 1998–99

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award: 1999

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award: 1999

IFFHS Club Coach of the Year: 1999

LMA Manager of the Decade: 1990s

LMA Special Merit Award: 2011

Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year: 2000

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award: 2001

English Football Hall of Fame: 2002

Onze d'Or Coach of the Year (2): 1999, 2007

Professional Footballers' Association Merit Award: 2007

UEFA Team of the Year (2): 2007, 2008

Premier League 10 Seasons Awards (1992/3 – 2001/2)

* Manager of the Decade

* Most Coaching Appearances (392 games)

Premier League Manager of the Year (10): 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11

Premier League Manager of the Month (25): August 1993, October 1994, February 1996, March 1996, February 1997, October 1997, January 1999, April 1999, August 1999, March 2000, April 2000, February 2001, April 2003, December 2003, February 2005, March 2006, August 2006, October 2006, February 2007, January 2008, March 2008, January 2009, April 2009, September 2009, January 2011

LMA Manager of the Year (3): 1998–99, 2007–08, 2010–11

World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year (4): 1993, 1999, 2007, 2008

Orders and special awards

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE): 1983

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE): 1995

Knight Bachelor: 1999

Statistics

As a player

|- |1957–58||rowspan="4"|Queen's Park||rowspan="3"|Second Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1958–59|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1959–60|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1957–60 !! Total !31 !! 15 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |- |1960–61||rowspan="5"|St. Johnstone||rowspan=2|First Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1961–62|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1962–63||Second Division|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1963–64||First Division|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1960–64 !! Total !37 !! 19 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |- |1964–65||rowspan="4"|Dunfermline Athletic||rowspan="3"|First Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1965–66|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1966–67|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1964–67 !! Total !89 !! 66 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |- |1967–68||rowspan="3"|Rangers||rowspan=2|First Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1968–69|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1967–69 !! Total !41 !! 25 !! 6 !! 10 !! 4 !! 9 !! 6 !! 0 !! 57 !! 44 |- |1969–70||rowspan="5"|Falkirk||rowspan="4"|First Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1970–71|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1971–72|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1972–73|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1969–73 !! Total !95 !! 36 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |- |1973–74||rowspan=2|Ayr United||First Division |24||9|| || || || || || || || |- !1973–74 !! Total !24 !! 9 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! 317||170|| || || || || || || || 317||170|| || || || || || || ||

As a manager

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win %
align=left
align=left
align=left
align=left
align=left
Total

Notes

References

External links

Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United Managerial Record at mufcinfo.com

A look back at 20 years in charge at Man United, includes video interview with Bryan Robson and Ian Rush

Alex Ferguson celebrates 1,000th game with Manchester Utd

English Football Hall of Fame

Sir Alex Ferguson: A career profile with pictures

Sir Alex Ferguson's managerial stats according to the official Manchester United statistics website

Vujadin Boškov |after= Otto Rehhagel|years=1990–91}} Jupp Heynckes |after= Vicente del Bosque|years=1998–99}} Carlo Ancelotti |after= Josep Guardiola|years=2007–08}} }}

Category:Scottish football managers Category:Aberdeen F.C. managers Category:East Stirlingshire F.C. managers Category:Manchester United F.C. managers Category:Expatriate football managers in England Category:Scotland national football team managers Category:St. Mirren F.C. managers Category:Premier League managers Category:The Football League managers Category:1986 FIFA World Cup managers Category:Scottish footballers Category:Ayr United F.C. players Category:Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Category:Falkirk F.C. players Category:Queen's Park F.C. players Category:Rangers F.C. players Category:St. Johnstone F.C. players Category:British racehorse owners and breeders Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Football players and officials awarded knighthoods Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:English Football Hall of Fame inductees Category:People educated at Govan High School Category:People from Govan Category:Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees

ar:أليكس فيرغسون az:Aleks Ferqyuson bn:অ্যালেক্স ফার্গুসন bs:Alex Ferguson bg:Алекс Фъргюсън ca:Alexander Chapman Ferguson cs:Alex Ferguson cy:Alex Ferguson da:Alex Ferguson de:Alex Ferguson et:Alex Ferguson el:Άλεξ Φέργκιουσον es:Alex Ferguson eu:Alex Ferguson fa:الکس فرگوسن fr:Alex Ferguson ga:Alex Ferguson gd:Alex MacFhearghais gl:Alex Ferguson gu:એલેક્સ ફર્ગ્યુસન ko:앨릭스 퍼거슨 hi:एलेक्स फर्ग्यूसन hr:Alex Ferguson id:Alex Ferguson is:Alex Ferguson it:Alex Ferguson he:אלכס פרגוסון jv:Sir Alex Ferguson kn:ಅಲೆಕ್ಸ್ ಫರ್ಗುಸನ್ ka:სერ ალექს ფერგიუსონი sw:Alex Ferguson lv:Alekss Fergusons hu:Alex Ferguson ml:അലക്സ് ഫെർഗൂസൺ mt:Alex Ferguson mr:अॅलेक्स फर्ग्युसन ms:Alex Ferguson my:အဲလက်စ်ဖာဂူဆန် nl:Alex Ferguson ja:アレックス・ファーガソン no:Alex Ferguson nn:Alex Ferguson pl:Alex Ferguson pt:Alex Ferguson ro:Alex Ferguson ru:Фергюсон, Алекс sq:Alex Ferguson simple:Alex Ferguson sk:Alex Ferguson sr:Алекс Фергусон fi:Alex Ferguson sv:Alex Ferguson ta:அலெக்ஸ் ஃபெர்குஸன் te:అలెక్స్ ఫెర్గూసన్ th:อเล็กซ์ เฟอร์กูสัน tr:Alex Ferguson uk:Алекс Фергюсон vi:Alex Ferguson wo:Alex Ferguson zh:亚历克斯·弗格森

playername	Ravel Morrison
fullname	Ravel Ryan Morrison
dateofbirth	February 02, 1993
cityofbirth	Wythenshawe, Manchester
countryofbirth	England
currentclub	Manchester United
clubnumber	49
position	Midfielder
youthyears1	2009–2010 |youthclubs1 Manchester United
years1	2010– |clubs1 Manchester United |caps1 0 |goals1 0
nationalyears1	2008 |nationalteam1 England U16 |nationalcaps1 1 |nationalgoals1 1
nationalyears2	2009 |nationalteam2 England U17 |nationalcaps2 3 |nationalgoals2 0
nationalyears3	2010– |nationalteam3 England U18 |nationalcaps3 1 |nationalgoals3 0
pcupdate	15:41, 17 January 2011 (UTC)
ntupdate	19:39, 5 November 2010 (UTC) }}

Ravel Ryan Morrison (born 2 February 1993) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Manchester United.

Career

Born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, Morrison was first scouted for the Manchester United Academy by former United coach Phil Brogan. Morrison signed on as a first-year scholar in 2009 and turned professional on 2 February 2010, his 17th birthday.

He made his first team debut in a 3–2 League Cup win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on 26 October 2010, coming on as a substitute for Park Ji-Sung. On 20 April 2011 he scored the opening goal against Chelsea in the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup at Old Trafford, which Manchester United went on to win 4–0. Morrison added two more goals in the second leg of the Youth Cup final against Sheffield United, a match that United went on to win 4–1, securing the title 6–3 on aggregate.

Career statistics

0 0

Club	Season	League	Cup	League Cup	!colspan="2"	Other	Total
!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
rowspan="3"	Manchester United		0	|	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
2011–12 Manchester United F.C. season	2011–12	0	|	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
!Total	!0!!0!!0!!0!!1!!0!!0!!0!!0!!0!!1!!0
Career total	!0!!0!!0!!0!!1!!0!!0!!0!!0!!0!!1!!0

''Statistics accurate as of match played 26 October 2010''

Personal life

Morrison lives in Denton, Greater Manchester. In early 2011, he received a 12-month referral order and was ordered to pay £1,445 in costs and compensation after admitting two counts of witness intimidation.

Notes

References

External links

Ravel Morrison at ManUtd.com

Category:1993 births Category:Living people Category:People from Wythenshawe Category:English footballers Category:England youth international footballers Category:Association football midfielders Category:Manchester United F.C. players Category:Black British sportspeople

fa:راول موریسون hu:Ravel Morrison no:Ravel Morrison ro:Ravel Morrison fi:Ravel Morrison sv:Ravel Morrison

In sport, Golden Generation is a term used to describe an exceptionally gifted group of players of similar age, whose achievements reach or are expected to reach a level of success beyond that which their team had previously achieved. Below is a list of teams who have been referred to by the media as a "golden generation".

Origins

It was first coined by the Portuguese sports media to refer to a group of exceptionally gifted teenage Portuguese footballers. This group of players, spearheaded by "Golden Boy" Luís Figo, won several Football World Youth Championships in 1989 and 1991. This group were close to retirement in the early part of the 21st century, leading the European sports media to spotlight the Golden Generation's chances of winning a senior trophy at tournaments like Euro 2000, World Cup 2002 and Euro 2004, which Portugal hosted.

Since then, it has been used by media in many different countries, with usage spreading to other areas, for example, in rugby.

Football

Brazil, 1958-1962

Brazil's coach, Vicente Feola, imposed strict rules on the squad for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, held in Sweden. The players were given a list of forty things that they were not allowed to do, including wearing hats or umbrellas, smoking while wearing official uniforms and talking to the press outside allocated times. They were the only team to bring a psychologist to the training camp (because the memories of 1950 still affected some players) or a dentist (for, because of their humble origins, many players had dental problems, which caused them infections and also had negative impact on performance), and had sent a representative to Europe to watch the qualifying matches a year before the tournament had begun.

Brazil were drawn in the toughest group, with England, the USSR and Austria. They beat Austria 3–0 in their first match, then drew 0–0 with England. The Brazilians had been worried about their match with the USSR, who had exceptional fitness and were one of the favourites to win the tournament; their strategy was to take risks at the beginning of the match to try and score an early goal. Before the match, the leaders of the team, Bellini, Nílton Santos, and Didi , spoke to coach Vicente Feola and persuaded him to make three substitutions which were crucial for Brazil to defeat the Soviets and win the Cup: Zito, Garrincha, and Pelé would start playing against the USSR. From the kick off, they passed the ball to Garrincha who beat three players before hitting the post with a shot. They kept up the pressure relentlessly, and after three minutes, which were later described as "the greatest three minutes in the history of football", Vavá gave Brazil the lead. They won the match by 2–0. Pelé scored the only goal of their quarter-final match against Wales, and they beat France 5–2 in the semi-final. Brazil beat the host Sweden, in the final by 5–2, winning their first World Cup and becoming the first nation to win a World Cup title outside its own continent. A celebrated fact was that Feola would sometimes take naps during training sessions and would sometimes close his eyes during matches, giving the impression that he was asleep. Because of this, Didi was sometimes said to be the real coach of the team, as he commanded the midfield.

In the 1962 FIFA World Cup, Brazil earned a second title with Garrincha as the star player, after Pelé, was injured during the first group match against Mexico and unable to play for the rest of the tournament.

Amarildo

Castilho

Coutinho

Dino

Dida

Djalma Santos

Garrincha

Gilmar

Bellini

Mário Zagallo

Mazzola

Mauro

Nílton Santos

Pelé

Jair da Costa

Pepe

Didi

Vavá

Zito

Zózimo

Portugal

Many of these players made up the youth national teams of Portugal that won consecutive FIFA Youth Championships in 1989 and 1991, these teams were the step-up to the senior team. As a result Portugal reached the semi-finals of 2000 UEFA European Football Championship and were runners-up four years later. They were also 2006 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists after a dominating run, though only Luís Figo and Nuno Gomes were picked in the squad for the final tournament. Some critics contend that many of the players underachieved at international level.

Luís Figo

Nuno Gomes

Rui Costa

Sérgio Conceição

Fernando Couto

Vítor Baía

Jorge Costa

João Vieira Pinto

Paulo Alves

Ricardo Sá Pinto

Paulo Sousa

Nuno Capucho

Carlos Secretário

Emílio Peixe

Abel Xavier

Pedro Barbosa

English national football team

Early in the reign of Sven-Göran Eriksson, Adam Crozier, the chief executive of the Football Association and some members of the British media touted players such as David Beckham, Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard as the nucleus of a potential Golden Generation team. This group of players as many England teams failed to live up to expectations during Eriksson's tenure, resulting in the term falling out of common use. Although many of them have achieved success with their respective clubs, the team failed to qualify for Euro 2008 - only the second time they failed to qualify for a major tournament in over twenty years (of the last twelve major tournaments).

Michael Owen

Steven Gerrard

Frank Lampard

David Beckham

Rio Ferdinand

Paul Scholes

Wayne Rooney

John Terry

Ashley Cole

Sol Campbell

Joe Cole

Owen Hargreaves

French national football team

In late 1998 the French national football team began a period of international dominance defeating Brazil 3–0 to win the 1998 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first French team to win the World Cup. Two years later, David Trezeguet's golden goal in extra time gave France a 2–1 win over Italy to give France the 2000 European Championship, becaming the only team in history to win the FIFA World Cup followed by the UEFA European Championship. France were subsequently ranked No. 1 in the FIFA World Rankings and ranked No. 1 in the World Football Elo Ratings for two years. The team also secured the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup. Despite this impressive recent record the French team flopped at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, crashing out in the group stages without scoring a goal and taking only one point from their three games. Two years later they were successful at the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup. They also reached the World Cup final in Berlin at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where they lost to Italy.

Zinedine Zidane

Thierry Henry

Lilian Thuram

Marcel Desailly

Patrick Vieira

Fabien Barthez

Bixente Lizarazu

Laurent Blanc

Didier Deschamps

Emmanuel Petit

Christophe Dugarry

Youri Djorkaeff

Frank Leboeuf

David Trezeguet

Robert Pirès

Claude Makélélé

Sylvain Wiltord

AFC Ajax

In 1995 and 1996 a team of players consisting mostly of Ajax youth players as well as Jari Litmanen and Finidi George and led by Louis van Gaal reached consecutive UEFA Champions League finals of which they won one. These players departed to teams around Europe and many of them enjoyed even bigger successes elsewhere. This is often referred to as the Golden Generation of Ajax because of their relative youth and because they were products of the AFC Ajax youth academy.

Clarence Seedorf

Edwin van der Sar

Patrick Kluivert

Edgar Davids

Dennis Bergkamp

Ronald de Boer

Frank de Boer

Michael Reiziger

Sweden

In the early 1990s under coach Tommy Svensson this team finished 3rd both at the Euro 92 in their home country as well as two years later at the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Football fans in Sweden still refer to this as "the magical summer of 94".

Thomas Ravelli

Patrik Andersson

Pontus Kåmark

Jonas Thern

Joakim Björklund

Håkan Mild

Anders Limpar

Klas Ingesson

Stefan Schwarz

Tomas Brolin

Kenneth Andersson

Martin Dahlin

Henrik Larsson

Spain

In 2008, the Spanish national football team achieved international success, winning the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship and the 2010 FIFA World Cup for the first time with a 1-0 final victory over Netherlands in Johannesburg. This squad became the first ever team to win the FIFA World Cup after losing its opening game. During the World Cup campaign, they did not concede a single goal in the knockout stages, against superpowers such as Portugal, Germany and The Netherlands.

Iker Casillas

Raúl Albiol

Gerard Piqué

Fernando Llorente

Carles Puyol

Andrés Iniesta

David Villa

Carlos Marchena

Xavi

Sergio Busquets

Álvaro Arbeloa

Fernando Torres

Cesc Fàbregas

Pedro

Joan Capdevila

Xabi Alonso

Sergio Ramos

David Silva

Santi Cazorla

Rugby union

Ireland national rugby union team

From 2001, Ireland's team has been chosen from a solid base of players, led by Brian O'Driscoll whose debut in 1999 has been linked to a transformation in the team's fortunes. Under-21 Triple Crown victories in 1996 and 1998 and an under-19 World Cup win in 1998 occurred with many members of those teams going on to become the golden generation of the noughties. The senior team had only once in the 1990s won two Five Nations Championship games in one year (1995). However, the team of the 2000s were close runners-up in the expanded Six Nations Championship several times, and were disappointingly knocked out of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, failing to advance from the pool stage. Four Triple Crowns during the 2000s equaled the amount Ireland had won in the previous one hundred years. A two-win Six Nations campaign in 2008 was the exception, leading to the departure of manager Eddie O'Sullivan.

Their crowning moment came under Declan Kidney in 2009 when they won the Grand Slam and Six Nations Championship. They remained unbeaten throughout 2009, beating World and Tri Nations champions South Africa in their final match of the year. The ''Sunday Independent'' proclaimed the noughties as "the greatest decade in the history of Irish rugby. In the space of 10 years we have progressed from penury to riches". Most of this group of players have also led their respective Irish club/provincial sides to unprecedented success, with Munster winning the Celtic League in 2003 and 2009 and the European Cup in 2006 and 2008; and Leinster winning the Celtic League in 2002 and 2008 and the European Cup in 2009 and 2011.

Brian O'Driscoll

Paul O'Connell

Ronan O'Gara

Gordon D'Arcy

Girvan Dempsey

Donncha O'Callaghan Malcolm O'Kelly

Geordan Murphy

Peter Stringer

Shane Horgan

John Hayes

Eric Miller Leo Cullen Denis Hickie

Simon Easterby

Paddy Wallace

References

Category:Football in Portugal Category:Nicknamed groups of sportspeople Category:Nicknamed groups of association football players Category:Cultural generations

ja:黄金世代 pl:Złote pokolenie piłkarzy portugalskich

playername	Ryan Giggs
fullname	Ryan Joseph Giggs
dateofbirth	November 29, 1973
cityofbirth	Cardiff
countryofbirth	Wales
height
position	Midfielder
currentclub	Manchester United
clubnumber	11
youthyears1	1985–1987 |youthclubs1 Manchester City
youthyears2	1987–1990 |youthclubs2 Manchester United
years1	1990– |clubs1 Manchester United |caps1 614 |goals1 110
nationalyears1	1990 |nationalteam1 Wales U21 |nationalcaps1 1 |nationalgoals1 0
nationalyears2	1991–2007 |nationalteam2 Wales |nationalcaps2 64 |nationalgoals2 12
pcupdate	22:14, 22 August 2011 }}

Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE (born Ryan Joseph Wilson on 29 November 1973) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season. He established himself as a left winger during the 1990s, and continuing in this position well into the 2000s, though he has been increasingly used in a deeper playmaking role in his latter years. He holds the club record for competitive appearances.

Giggs is also the most decorated player in English football history. He has won 12 Premier League winner's medals, four FA Cup winner's medals, three League Cup winner's medals and two Champions League winner's medals. He has two runner-up medals from the Champions League, three FA Cup finals and two League Cup finals, as well as being part of the team five times when it finished second in the Premier League. In recent years, Giggs has captained the team on numerous occasions, particularly in the 2007–08 season when regular captain Gary Neville was ruled out with various injuries.

Giggs has a number of personal achievements. He was the first player in history to win two consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year awards (1992 and 1993), though he did not win the PFA Player of the Year award until 2009. He is the only player to have played and scored in every season of the Premier League and he also holds the longest run of successive scoring seasons in UEFA Champions League history (11). He has been elected into the PFA Team of the Century in 2007, the Premier League Team of the Decade, in 2003, as well as the FA Cup Team of the Century.

At international level, Giggs played for the Welsh national team prior to his retirement from international football on 2 June 2007, and was once the youngest player to ever represent his country.

In addition to the many honours Giggs has received within football such as being named in the Football League 100 Legends (the last active player in the list), he was appointed an OBE in the Queen's 2007 Birthday Honours List, and was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2005, for his services to English Football. He was named as BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2009. On 31 January 2011, Giggs was named Manchester United's greatest ever player by a worldwide poll conducted by United's official magazine and website. Sir Alex Ferguson presented him with the award.

Early years

Born as Ryan Joseph Wilson (he later adopted his mother's maiden name as his professional surname) at St David's Hospital in Canton, Cardiff, to Danny Wilson, at the time a rugby union player for Cardiff RFC who would go on to become a Wales international representative in rugby league, and Lynne Giggs (now Lynne Johnson). As a child Giggs grew up in Ely, a suburb of western Cardiff. His younger brother, Rhodri, manages non-league Salford City.

He spent much time with his mother's parents and playing football on the roads outside their house in Pentrebane. In 1980, when Giggs was six years old, his father switched rugby codes and signed for Swinton RLFC, forcing the whole family to move north to Swinton, a town in Salford, Greater Manchester. The move was a traumatic one, as Giggs was very close to his grandparents in Cardiff, but he would often return there with his family at weekends or on school holidays. Giggs is mixed race – his paternal grandfather is from Sierra Leone – and has spoken of the racism he faced as a child.

After moving to Salford, Giggs appeared for the local team, Deans FC, who were coached by Manchester City scout Dennis Schofield. His first game for Deans ended in a 9–0 defeat to Stretford Vics but, nevertheless, many people commented that Giggs had been the best player on the pitch that day. Schofield recommended Giggs to Manchester City, and he was signed up to their School of Excellence. Meanwhile, Giggs continued to play for Salford Boys, who went on to reach the final of the Granada Schools Cup competition at Anfield in 1987. Giggs captained the Salford team to victory over their Blackburn counterparts, and the trophy was presented to him by Liverpool chief scout Ron Yeats. Yeats was impressed by Giggs's performance, and would have recommended him to Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, had Giggs not already been picked up by Manchester United.

While playing for Deans, Giggs was observed regularly by local newsagent and Old Trafford steward Harold Wood who regularly recommended the young man to senior staff at Manchester United to no avail. Wood spoke personally to Alex Ferguson who sent a scout who was impressed enough for United to offer Giggs a trial over the 1986 Christmas period. Giggs played in a match for Salford Boys against a United Under-15s side at The Cliff and scored a hat trick, with Ferguson watching from his office window. On 29 November 1987 (his 14th birthday), Ferguson turned up at Giggs's house with United scout Joe Brown and offered him two years on associate schoolboy forms. They offered to waive YTS forms, and persuaded Giggs to sign by offering the opportunity to turn professional in three years. Using the name Ryan Wilson, Giggs captained England at schoolboy level, playing at Wembley Stadium against Germany in 1989. He changed his surname at the age of 16, when his mother remarried. His parents had separated two years earlier.

Manchester United first team

Debut and breakthrough season

Giggs was offered his first professional contract on 29 November 1990 (his 17th birthday), by which time he was described by various sources to be the finest prospect in English football since George Best in the 1960s. He accepted the contract and became a professional two days later (1 December 1990).

At this time, United had recently won the FA Cup – their first major trophy since the appointment of Alex Ferguson as manager in November 1986. After two precarious seasons in the league where they had finished mid table, they were finally starting to threaten the dominance of Liverpool and Arsenal, though they only managed to finish sixth that season. Ferguson's quest for a successful left winger had not been an easy one since the departure of Jesper Olsen two years earlier. First he had signed Ralph Milne, but the player was not a success at United and lasted just one season in the first team before Ferguson secured the Southampton winger Danny Wallace in September 1989. Wallace had failed to repeat the performances that had made him one of the highest rated flanksmen in his days on the South Coast, and by the time Giggs turned professional Wallace was battling with 19-year-old Lee Sharpe for the role of first choice left winger.

Giggs made his League debut against Everton at Old Trafford on 2 March 1991, as a substitute for the injured full-back Denis Irwin in a 2–0 defeat. In his first full start, Giggs was credited with his first ever goal in a 1–0 win in the Manchester derby on 4 May 1991, though it appeared to be a Colin Hendry own goal. However, he was not included in the squad of 16 that defeated Barcelona in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final 11 days later. Lee Sharpe, who had now won the race to displace Danny Wallace as United's regular left winger, took to the field as United's left winger, while Wallace was selected as a substitute. He became a first-team regular early in the 1991–92 season, yet remained active with the youth system and captained the team, made up of many of "Fergie's Fledglings", to an FA Youth Cup triumph in 1992.

Giggs broke into the first team even though he was still aged only 17, a mark of his skill and maturity, and paved the way as the first of many Manchester United youth players to rise into the first team under Ferguson. As the youngest member of the United first team squad, Giggs looked to the older players such as Bryan Robson for advice. Robson recommended that Giggs sign up with Harry Swales, the agent that he himself had inherited from Kevin Keegan.

That season, Giggs played in the team that finished as runners-up to Leeds United in the final year of the old First Division before the advent of the Premier League. United had led the table for much of the season before a run of dismal results in April saw them overtaken by the West Yorkshire side. Giggs collected his first piece of silverware on 12 April 1992 as United defeated Nottingham Forest in the League Cup Final, after Giggs had set up Brian McClair to score the only goal of the game. At the end of the season, he was voted PFA Young Player of the Year – the award which had been credited to his colleague Lee Sharpe a year earlier.

Early career

By the start of the 1992–93 season, the first season of the newly formed Premier League, Giggs was firmly established as United's first-choice left winger, and became known as one of British football's most prodigious young players, where Giggs was also hailed as the more prodigious half of English football's two best emerging young wingers, alongside Steve McManaman, who were notable for being a throwback to the Stanley Matthews era of the 1950s' wingers, and for their ability to "embarrass defences with their mazy runs, which too often lack the finishing touch they deserve". Giggs, as the leader of this new revival of pacy and stylish football after the traditional years of long ball and route one styles of previous decades, played a key role in reshaping English football, and helped United to its first top division title win for 26 years, though they didn't go top until after Christmas and fought off competition from big spending Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers as well as surprise title contenders Norwich City.

His emergence and the arrival of Eric Cantona heralded the dominance of United in the new league. His manager was very protective of him, refusing to allow Giggs to be interviewed until he turned 20, eventually granting the first interview to the BBC's Des Lynam for ''Match of the Day'' in the 1993–94 season. This was the season when United won the double and Giggs was one of their key players alongside the likes of Eric Cantona, Paul Ince and Mark Hughes. Lee Sharpe, the player Giggs had ousted on the left wing a couple of years earlier, was now vying with Andrei Kanchelskis for the right wing position – with both players having key parts in the club's success. They topped the table from the fourth game in late August and were not overtaken all season. Giggs also played for United in the Football League Cup final, where they lost 3–1 to Aston Villa, ending their hopes of a unique domestic treble.

Off the pitch, newspapers claimed Giggs had "single-handedly revolutionised football's image" when he appeared as teenager "with pace to burn, a bramble patch of black hair bouncing around his puppy popstar face, and a dazzling, gluey relationship between his impossibly fleet left foot and a football." As a result of this, he was afforded many opportunities not normally offered to footballers at his young age, such as hosting his own television show, ''Ryan Giggs' Soccer Skills'', which aired in 1994, and also had a book based on the series. Giggs was part of the Premier League's attempt to market itself globally, re-forging its image after the hooliganism-blighted years of the 1980s and he featured on countless football and lad mag covers, becoming a household name, and fuelling the era where footballers started to become celebrity idols on a par with pop stars, in and around the mid to late 1990s. Despite his aversion to attention, Giggs also became a teenage pin-up and was once described as the "Premiership's First Poster Boy", and the "boy wonder", arguably the original footballer who catapulted the term into the public lexicon. He was hailed as the first football star to capture the public imagination in a way unseen since the days of George Best; the irony was that Best and Bobby Charlton used to describe Giggs as their favourite young player, turning up at The Cliff training ground just to watch him, where Best once quipped, "One day they might even say that I was another Ryan Giggs."

At the end of the 1993–94 season, Giggs won a second title in a row, and became the first player in history to win two consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year awards, a feat that has not been bettered, and been equalled since only by Robbie Fowler and Wayne Rooney.

Giggs proved to be a great goalscorer, many of his memorable goals being shortlisted for various Goal of the Season awards. Widely regarded as among his best were those against Queens Park Rangers in 1993, Tottenham in 1994, Everton in 1995, Coventry in 1996, and the most remarkable of all, his solo-goal against Arsenal in the replay of the 1999 FA Cup semi-final. During extra time, Giggs picked up possession after Patrick Vieira gave the ball away, then ran from the half-way line, dribbled past the whole Arsenal back line, including Tony Adams, Lee Dixon and Martin Keown before launching his left-footed strike just under David Seaman's bar and beyond his reach. He famously whipped off his shirt as he ran to celebrate with his teammates. It also has the distinction of being the last ever goal scored in an FA Cup semi-final replay as, from the following season, the FA Cup semi-finals are decided in a single game, with extra time and a penalty shootout if required.

Mid-late 1990s

1994–95 saw Giggs restricted through injury to 29 Premier League games and only 1 goal, later in the season he recovered his form and fitness, though it was too late to help United to any major trophies. A failure to beat West Ham United on the final day of the season saw them lose the Premier League title to Blackburn Rovers. A week later, Giggs came on as a substitute in the FA Cup final against Everton, but United lost 1–0.

On a more positive side in the 1994–95 season, Giggs did get on the scoresheet twice in the opening Champions League game against IFK Gothenburg (a 4–2 win, although United ultimately failed to progress to the quarter-finals) and also managed a goal in the FA Cup fourth around victory over Wrexham, meaning that he had managed four in all competitions that season.

The 1995 close season brought more controversy as United sold Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis and began the following season without a major signing, though they had added Andy Cole to their ranks for a national record £7 million halfway through the previous season.

In 1995–96, Giggs returned to full form and played a vital part in United's unique second double, his goal against Everton at Goodison Park on 9 September 1995 being shortlisted for the "goal of the season" award, though it was eventually beaten by a goal by Manchester City's Georgi Kinkladze. In November that season, Giggs scored two goals in a Premier League match against Southampton, arguably his finest performance of the season, where United won 4–1 to keep up the pressure on a Newcastle United side who actually went 10 points clear on 23 December but were finally overhauled by United in mid March. Giggs was also in the side for United's FA Cup final win over Liverpool on 11 May 1996, though Eric Cantona scored the late winner – the only goal of the game. By now, Giggs had several new key colleagues in breakthrough youngsters Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, David Beckham and Paul Scholes. Beckham took over from Andrei Kanchelskis on the right wing and Butt succeeded Paul Ince in central midfield to complete a new look United midfield along with Giggs and Roy Keane.

The following season, Giggs had his first real chance to shine in Europe. Having played a key role in United winning their third league title in four seasons, he helped them reach the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, the first United side in 28 years to achieve this. However, their hopes of European glory were ended by Borussia Dortmund, who edged them out by winning each leg of the semi-final 1–0. At the end of this season, Juventus' Alessandro Del Piero told Italian media that Giggs was one of his two favourite players, and gave the following memorable quote:"This is embarrassing to say but I have cried twice in my life watching a football player; the first one was Roberto Baggio and the second was Ryan Giggs."

In 1997–98, United were pipped to the Premier League title by Arsenal, following a dismal run of form in March and early April, leaving them without a trophy for only the second time since 1989. The following season, Giggs missed a lot of games through injury, but when he was fit his form was consistently excellent and he played in both of United's cup finals that season. Memorable moments were his extra-time goal in the FA Cup semi-final against arch-rivals Arsenal to give United a 2–1 win, and his 90th minute equaliser in the home leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final against Juventus, a 1–1 draw which was followed two weeks later by a 3–2 win in Turin where United came from two goals behind.

The highpoint in the 1998–99 season was when Giggs set up the equalising goal scored by Teddy Sheringham in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final that set United on their way to the Treble. Striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the winning goal with the last kick of the game two minutes later. Giggs was also the Man of the Match as United beat Palmeiras 1–0 to claim the Intercontinental Cup later that year.

2000–2005

Giggs became United's longest serving player when Denis Irwin left in May 2002, and he became a pivotal part of the club, despite still being in his twenties. Giggs continued to excel in the four years that followed the Treble triumph of 1999. United were Premier League champions in three of the four seasons following the treble, as well as reaching the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals three times and the semi-finals once. He celebrated his 10-year anniversary at Old Trafford with a testimonial match against Celtic at the start of the 2001–02 campaign. However, this was one of the most disappointing seasons United had endured since Giggs made his debut for them, as a dismal run of form in early winter ultimately cost them the league title and they were surprisingly knocked out of the Champions League on away goals in the semi finals by German underdogs Bayer Leverkusen. A year later, in the autumn of 2002, he bagged his 100th career goal in a draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

He played in his fourth FA Cup triumph on 22 May 2004, making him one of only two players (the other being Roy Keane) to have won the trophy four times while playing for Manchester United. He has also finished with a runners-up medal three times (1995, 2005 and 2007). His participation in the victory over Liverpool in September 2004 made him the third player to play 600 games for United, alongside Sir Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his contribution to the English game.

Since 2006

After that season, Giggs signed a two-year contract extension with United when chief executive David Gill relented on his normal policy of not signing players over 30 to contracts longer than one year. He has subsequently signed three further one-year contact extensions, to keep him at Old Trafford until at least June 2011, when he will be 37. Giggs benefited from being largely injury-free aside from a series of hamstring problems.

On 6 May 2007, with Chelsea only able to manage a 1–1 draw with London rivals Arsenal, Manchester United became the champions of England. In doing so, Giggs set a new record of nine league titles, beating the previous record of eight he shared with Alan Hansen and Phil Neal (who won all of their titles with Liverpool). Giggs played a starring role in United's 2007 Charity Shield victory after netting in the first half to bring the game to a 1–1 draw, which led to penalty triumph for the Red Devils after keeper Edwin van der Sar saved all of Chelsea's first three penalties.

In the 2007–08 season, Alex Ferguson adopted a rotation system between Giggs and newcomers Nani and Anderson. Nevertheless, Giggs remained the favoured choice for the anticipated clash with Chelsea at Old Trafford and put in a cross with the outside of his boot for Carlos Tévez to score his first United goal.

Giggs scored his 100th league goal for United against Derby County on 8 December 2007, which United won 4–1. More landmarks have been achieved: on 20 February 2008 he made his 100th appearance in the UEFA Champions League in a game against Lyon and on 11 May 2008 he came on as a substitute for Park Ji-Sung to equal Sir Bobby Charlton's record of 758 appearances for United. Giggs scored the second goal in that match, sealing his, and United's, tenth Premier League title. Ten days later, on 21 May 2008, Giggs broke Bobby Charlton's appearance record for United when coming on as an 87th minute substitute for Paul Scholes in the Champions League Final against Chelsea. United would go on to win the Final, defeating Chelsea 6–5 on penalties after a 1–1 draw after extra time. Giggs converted what became the winning penalty in sudden-death for United and joined Steve McManaman and team-mate Owen Hargreaves in becoming the only British players to have played in and won more than one Champions League final. (This is not true for European Cups as several Nottingham Forest players achieved this in 1979 and 1980 and several Liverpool players in 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1984.) Giggs lifted the Champions League trophy with Rio Ferdinand as captain Gary Neville had been out for nearly the entire season with an injury.

At the start of Manchester United's 2008–09 campaign, Sir Alex Ferguson began placing Giggs at central midfield, behind the forwards, instead of his favoured wing position. Giggs has since adapted very well to his new position and supplied two assists in as many games, against Middlesbrough and Aalborg. Sir Alex Ferguson said in an interview, "(Giggs) is a very valuable player, he will be 35 this November but at 35, he can be United's key player. At 25, Ryan would shatter defenders with his run down the flank, but at 35, he will play deeper." Giggs has begun taking his coaching badges and Ferguson has hinted that he would like Giggs to serve as his coaching staff after retirement like Ole Gunnar Solskjær did.

On 8 February 2009, Giggs maintained his record of being the only player to score in every season of the Premier League since its inception in 1992 by netting the only goal in a 1–0 win over West Ham United. Following speculation earlier in the year, in February 2009, Giggs signed a one-year extension to his current contract – which was due to expire in June 2009. After a successful season, Giggs was short-listed along with four other Manchester United team mates for the PFA Player of the Year. On 26 April 2009, Giggs received the award, despite having started just twelve games throughout the 08/09 season (at the time of receiving the trophy). This was the first time in his career that Giggs had received the award. Prior to the awards ceremony, Alex Ferguson had given his backing for Giggs to win the award and stated that it would be fitting, given Giggs' long term contribution to the game. Giggs made his 800th appearance for Manchester United on 29 April 2009, in the 1–0 semi-final win over Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League. On 16 May 2009, Manchester United won the Premier League after a 0–0 draw against Arsenal, both United's and Giggs' 11th Premier League titles.

Giggs scored his first Manchester United hat-trick in a pre-season friendly against Hangzhou Greentown after coming on as a second-half substitute.

On 12 September 2009, Giggs scored United's first goal in a 3–1 Premier League win against Tottenham Hotspur, at White Hart Lane, maintaining his record of having scored in every Premier League season since its inception, the only player to have done so. This game also marked Giggs' 700th start for United. Giggs scored his 150th goal for United, only the ninth player to do so for the club, against Wolfsburg in his first Champions League game of the season. The goal, as well as his previous strike of the season against Spurs, was direct from a free-kick, albeit with a huge deflection. It also made it a record-equalling 14th Champions League season in which he had scored, drawing him level with Raúl who had achieved the feat 15 days earlier. He then set up Michael Carrick to score the winner to give United a 2–1 win against the Champions League newcomers. On 28 November 2009, the eve of his 36th birthday, Giggs scored his 100th Premier League goal – all for Manchester United – scoring the final goal in a 4–1 victory over Portsmouth at Fratton Park. The goal along with his previous two strikes of the season was another free kick, stating his claim for regular set-piece taker since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, he also became only the 17th player to reach the milestone in the Premier League.

On 30 November 2009, the day after his 36th birthday, it was reported that Giggs would be offered an additional one-year contract which would run until the end of the 2010–11 season and see him past the 20th anniversary of his first game and first goal for United. On the same day, Giggs was nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2009. On 5 December 2009, Giggs' appearance against West Ham United – a game that he ended playing at left-back – equalled countryman Gary Speed's outfield record of 535 Premier League games. On 12 December, Giggs surpassed Speed's feat by playing against Aston Villa. The following day, Giggs won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. On 18 December 2009, Giggs signed a one-year contract extension with United, keeping him at the club until June 2011, taking him past the 20th anniversary of his first professional contract and that of his first team debut – a rare occurrence of a player reaching the 20-year mark with the same club and with unbroken service. On 31 December 2009, Giggs was named the Manchester United Player of the Decade. On 24 April 2010, Giggs scored the first ever league penalties of his career in his 900th game, netting two penalties in a 3–1 home win over Tottenham Hotspur, which was crucial as it sent United to the top of the Premier League after several weeks in second place behind Chelsea.

On 16 August 2010, Giggs kept up his record of scoring in every Premier League season since its inception as he netted United's third in their 3–0 home victory over Newcastle United in their opening fixture of the new campaign. As he found the net in the final two seasons of the old Football League First Division, he has now scored in 21 successive top division campaigns. His second goal of the season came against Birmingham City in a 5–0 victory against the Midland's side. On 17 January 2011, Giggs reached 600 league appearances (all for Manchester United), as he played in their goalless draw against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Giggs signed a one-year contract extension with Manchester United on 18 February, keeping him at the club until June 2012. On 6 March 2011, Giggs surpassed the Manchester United league appearance record of Bobby Charlton by playing his 607th game against Liverpool. On 26 April, against Schalke 04 in the Champions League Semi-Final First Leg, Giggs scored the first goal from a Wayne Rooney pass, also making himself the oldest goalscorer in Champions League history to date. United would go on to win the first leg 2–0.

In the 2011 Champions League final, where Manchester United was defeated 3–1 by Barcelona, Giggs made an assist to Rooney, which ended up being the only goal for the team.

International career

Born in Cardiff to Welsh parents, Giggs represented Wales at international level. As a youngster, Giggs captained England Schoolboys. Contrary to popular belief, he was never eligible for the full England team (eligibility at the schoolboy level depends solely upon the location of the school, in Giggs' case Moorside High School in Salford). He has stated that he would have chosen to play for Wales anyway. When he made his international debut in 1991, he broke the record as the youngest debutant for Wales and held it for some seven years when it was broken by Ryan Green in June 1998. He went on to win 64 caps, and scored twelve goals for the Welsh national team between 1991 and 2007. He was appointed captain of Wales in 2004. During a 2006 World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan on 12 October 2005, Giggs scored a rare double in a 2–0 win but Wales failed to reach the play-offs. In September 2006, he played in a friendly against Brazil at White Hart Lane. Such was his display that, following the 2–0 win for Brazil, Brazil coach Dunga paid Giggs the compliment by stating he would not look out of place playing for the five-time world champions alongside stars such as Kaká and Ronaldinho.

His first senior goal for Wales came on 31 March 1993 in a 3–0 win over Belgium in Cardiff in a World Cup qualifying game, the same game in which Ian Rush scored for Wales for a record 24th time.

Giggs received criticism for his reluctance to participate in friendly international matches. Since his debut in 1991 against Germany, Giggs did not attend a friendly international until some nine years later, when he then missed 18 consecutive friendly games. The official reason given for such absences was that Giggs was injured on each occasion. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had a policy of refusing to release the player for friendly games.

Giggs announced his retirement from international football on Wednesday, 30 May 2007, at a press conference held at The Vale of Glamorgan Hotel, drawing the curtain on a 16-year international career. He cited concentrating on his United career as the main reason for stepping down. His final game for Wales, and as captain, was the Euro 2008 qualifier against the Czech Republic on 2 June at Cardiff. He earned his 64th cap in this game and won the Man of the Match award as Wales drew 0–0. In November, he was one of three players in the final nomination by the FAW for the Wales Player of the Year award, which was ultimately won by Craig Bellamy.

In an interview with the ''Western Mail'' on 26 March 2010, Giggs hinted that he might be tempted to come out of international retirement for his country's UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, in order to cover for the injured Aaron Ramsey. He later clarified his position to BBC Radio Manchester, saying that he would only return to Wales duty in an emergency.

International goals

Cardiff, Wales 8 September 1993 7 September 1994 2 June 1996 11 November 1997 4 September 1999 29 March 2000 29 March 2003 8 October 2005 rowspan="2" 21 May 2006 28 March 2007

# !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Score !! Result !! Competition
1	31 March 1993	|		2–0	Win	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)>1994 FIFA World Cup Qual.
2	|	Cardiff, Wales		2–2	Draw	1994 FIFA World Cup Qual.
3	|	Cardiff, Wales		2–0	Win	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying>UEFA Euro 1996 Qual.
4	|	Serravalle (San Marino)>Serravalle, San Marino		5–0	Win	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)>1998 FIFA World Cup Qual.
5	|	Brussels, Belgium		2–3	Loss	1998 FIFA World Cup Qual.
6	|	Minsk, Belarus		2–1	Win	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying>UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
7	|	Cardiff, Wales		1–2	Loss	Friendly match>Friendly
8	|	Cardiff, Wales		4–0	Win	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying>UEFA Euro 2004 Qual.
9	|	Belfast, Northern Ireland		3–2	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)>2006 FIFA World Cup Qual.
10	12 October 2005 ||	Cardiff, Wales		2–0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup Qual.
11
12	|	Bilbao, Spain		1–0	Win	Non-FIFA football>Non-FIFA representative friendly
13	|	Cardiff, Wales		3–0	Win	2008 UEFA European Championship>UEFA Euro 2008 Qual.

Discipline

Giggs has never been sent off when playing for Manchester United and only once when playing for Wales, on 5 September 2001 in a World Cup qualifier against Norway; Giggs received a second yellow card in the 86th minute. In November 2003, he was found guilty of improper conduct by the FA due to his behaviour following the Battle of Old Trafford against Arsenal. In the same week, Giggs received a two-match suspension from international football for deliberately elbowing Russian player Vadim Evseev in the face during the first leg of the Euro 2004 play-offs. The offence was missed by referee Lucílio Batista, but Giggs was later charged using video evidence.

Career statistics

Club

1 4 9 13 1 11 3 8 3 6 5 7 8 7 5 3 4 3 2 5 2 0

Club	Season	League	FA Cup	!colspan="2"	!colspan="2"	Other	Total
!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
rowspan="22"	Manchester United		2	|	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1
1991–92 Manchester United F.C. season	1991–92	38	|	7	0	8	3	1	0	1	0	51	7
1992–93 Manchester United F.C. season	1992–93	41	|	2	2	2	0	1	0	0	0	46	11
1993–94 Manchester United F.C. season	1993–94	38	|	7	1	8	3	4	0	1	0	58	17
1994–95 Manchester United F.C. season	1994–95	29	|	7	1	0	0	3	2	1	0	40	4
1995–96 Manchester United F.C. season	1995–96	33	|	7	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	44	12
1996–97 Manchester United F.C. season	1996–97	26	|	3	0	0	0	7	2	1	0	37	5
1997–98 Manchester United F.C. season	1997–98	29	|	2	0	0	0	5	1	1	0	37	9
1998–99 Manchester United F.C. season	1998–99	24	|	6	2	1	0	9	5	1	0	41	10
1999–2000 Manchester United F.C. season	1999–00	30	|	–		0	0	11	1	3	0	44	7
2000–01 Manchester United F.C. season	2000–01	31	|	2	0	0	0	11	2	1	0	45	7
2001–02 Manchester United F.C. season	2001–02	25	|	1	0	0	0	13	2	1	0	40	9
2002–03 Manchester United F.C. season	2002–03	36	|	3	2	5	0	15	4	0	0	59	14
2003–04 Manchester United F.C. season	2003–04	33	|	5	0	0	0	8	1	1	0	47	8
2004–05 Manchester United F.C. season	2004–05	32	|	4	0	1	1	6	2	1	0	44	8
2005–06 Manchester United F.C. season	2005–06	27	|	2	1	3	0	5	1	0	0	37	5
2006–07 Manchester United F.C. season	2006–07	30	|	6	0	0	0	8	2	0	0	44	6
2007–08 Manchester United F.C. season	2007–08	31	|	2	0	0	0	9	0	1	1	43	4
2008–09 Manchester United F.C. season	2008–09	28	|	2	0	4	1	11	1	2	0	47	4
2009–10 Manchester United F.C. season	2009–10	25	|	1	0	2	1	3	1	1	0	32	7
2010–11 Manchester United F.C. season	2010–11	25	|	3	1	1	0	8	1	1	0	38	4
2011–12 Manchester United F.C. season	2011–12	2	|	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Total	!615!!110!!68!!11!!37!!9!!140!!28!!18!!1!!878!!159

International

|- |1991||2||0 |- |1992||3||0 |- |1993||6||2 |- |1994||1||1 |- |1995||3||0 |- |1996||3||1 |- |1997||3||1 |- |1998||1||0 |- |1999||3||1 |- |2000||4||1 |- |2001||4||0 |- |2002||5||0 |- |2003||7||1 |- |2004||3||0 |- |2005||6||3 |- |2006||5||0 |- |2007||4||1 |- !Total||64||12 |}

Honours

Club

;Manchester United

Premier League (12): 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11

FA Cup (4): 1993–94, 1995–96, 1998–99, 2003–04

Football League Cup (4): 1991–92, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10

FA Community Shield (8): 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010

UEFA Champions League (2): 1998–99, 2007–08

UEFA Super Cup (1): 1991

Intercontinental Cup (1): 1999

FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2008

Individual

PFA Young Player of the Year (2): 1991–92, 1992–93

PFA Team of the Year (6): 1992–93, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2006–07, 2008–09

PFA Team of the Century (1): 1997–2007

Bravo Award: 1993

PFA Player of the Year (1): 2008–09

BBC Sports Personality of the Year (1): 2009

BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year (2): 1996, 2009

Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year (1): 1997–98

Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year (2): 1990–91, 1991–92

Premier League 10 Seasons Awards (1992–93 to 2001–02): Overall Team of the Decade

UEFA Champions League 10 Seasons Dream Team (1992 to 2002): 2002

Wales Player of the Year Award (2): 1996, 2006

Premier League Player of the Month (3): September 1993, August 2006, February 2007

Goal of the Season (1): 1998–99

English Football Hall of Fame Inductee: 2005

Orders and special awards

OBE for services to football: 2007 Honorary Master of Arts degree from Salford University for contributions to football and charity work in developing countries: 2008 Freedom of the City of Salford: 7 January 2010. He is the 22nd person to receive the Freedom of the City of Salford.

Records

Has won a record 12 top division English league titles as a player, and only Manchester United player to have winner's medals from all 12 Premier League title wins.

Most Premier League appearances for a player, with 574. Most Premier League assists (accurate records are only available from 2002 onwards). Only player to have scored in first 19 Premier League campaigns.

Only player to have scored in eleven consecutive Champions League tournaments (1996–97 to 2006–07) Raúl is the only who has scored in fourteen consecutive Champions League tournaments (1997–98 to 2010–11).

Only Manchester United player to have scored in fifteen different Champions League tournaments.

Most goals by a British player in the Champions League/European Cup proper history, and 14th overall (not including preliminary rounds).

Most appearances by a Manchester United player.

First player to score 100 Premier League goals for Manchester United.

Second midfielder to have scored 100 goals in the Premier League for a single club (first being Matt Le Tissier).

One of four Manchester United players to win two Champions League Medals (others are Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Wes Brown).

Oldest (37 years, 148 days) player to score in the Champions League, when he scored against Schalke 04 on 26 April 2011.

One of two Manchester United Players to win at least 10 Top division medals (the other one is Paul Scholes.)

Endorsements and public image

Giggs has been featured in adverts for Reebok, Sovil Titus, Citizen Watches, Givenchy, Fuji, Patek Phillipe, Quorn Burgers, ITV Digital and Celcom.

According to an article by BBC Sport: "In the early 1990s, Giggs was David Beckham before Beckham was even holding down a place in the United first team. If you put his face on the cover of a football magazine, it guaranteed you the biggest sales of the year. Why? Men would buy it to read about 'the new Best' and girls bought it because they wanted his face all over their bedroom walls. Giggs had the million-pound boot deal (Reebok), the lucrative sponsorship deals in the Far East (Fuji) and the celebrity girlfriends (Dani Behr, Davinia Taylor) at a time when Beckham was being sent on loan to Preston North End."

Giggs has said that he deliberately shunned the media fuss. "Nothing could have prepared me for the limelight I was thrust into at 17," said Giggs. "I was in newspapers, magazines, on TV, and everyone in the street knew me. It was strange for me and I dealt with it by trying not to create a fuss. I've just tried to keep it that way ever since." At the height of his celebrity, Giggs' relationships caused him to change his media approach. Giggs has spoken about this decided shift away from publicity —- a route he seemed destined to take as celebrity pin up —- as occurring sometime in the mid 1990s. "The high-profile relationship I had with the TV presenter Dani Behr was the turning point for me", said Giggs. "Before I knew it, we were being photographed outside my house and cameramen followed us everywhere. It was very uncomfortable. At that point I decided the celebrity lifestyle wasn't for me. Around that time I felt my commercial work was affecting my work, too. I thought 'no, football is my bread and butter. It has to, and always will, come first'", he told the ''Daily Mirror''.

Personal life

Family

Giggs married his longtime partner, Stacey Cooke, in a private ceremony on 7 September 2007. They have two children, both born in Salford: Liberty Beau (known as Libby, born 2003) and Zachary Joseph (known as Zach, born 2006), and live in Worsley, Salford, Greater Manchester.

Activism

In August 2006 Giggs became an Ambassador for UNICEF UK, in recognition for his work with Manchester United's 'United for UNICEF' partnership with the children's organisation. Giggs visited UNICEF projects in Thailand and told the BBC: "As a footballer I can't imagine life without the use of one of my legs... Sadly this is exactly what happens to thousands of children every year when they accidentally step on a landmine."

Post-playing career

In October 2010, Giggs said he would "probably finish [his] career here [Old Trafford]", and that he could not see himself "dropping down leagues and playing at a lesser level." He said he wanted to go into coaching, calling managing Manchester United or Wales, "the two ultimate jobs", and that he was halfway through his UEFA 'A' coaching licence.

Gagging order

In May 2011, it was reported in non-UK media sources that Giggs was the identity of ''CTB'' in ''CTB v News Group Newspapers'', a footballer who had obtained an anonymised gagging order in relation to an alleged extra-marital affair with model Imogen Thomas. Giggs took legal action against the social networking site Twitter after he was named by a user in a list of identities of individuals who had allegedly taken out so-called "super-injunctions". A blogger for ''Forbes'' magazine remarked that Giggs had "not heard of the Streisand effect", observing that mentions of his name had increased significantly after the case against Twitter had been reported.

On 22 May 2011, the ''Sunday Herald'', a Scottish newspaper, published a thinly disguised photograph of Giggs on its front page, with the word "CENSORED" covering his eyes. ''Sunday Herald'' editor Richard Walker stated that the London High Court ruling had no force in Scotland, unless copies of the paper were sold in England or Wales.

On 23 May 2011, the gagging order set off a political controversy, with Prime Minister David Cameron commenting that the law should be reviewed to "catch up with how people consume media today". On the same day, Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to name Giggs as ''CTB''.

Notes

References

External links

Photos & statistics at www.sporting-heroes.net

Profile at ManUtd.com

The National Football Museum Hall of Fame

Profile at Premier League

Ryan Giggs profile, Chris Whyatt, ''BBC News'', 23 May 2011, stats

Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:Association football wingers Category:BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners Category:BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year Category:British people of Sierra Leonean descent Category:English Football Hall of Fame inductees Category:Manchester United F.C. players Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Cardiff Category:Premier League players Category:Sierra Leone Creole people Category:The Football League players Category:Wales international footballers Category:Wales youth international footballers Category:Wales under-21 international footballers Category:Welsh footballers Category:Welsh people of Black African descent Category:People educated at Moorside High School

ar:ريان جيغز bn:রায়ান গিগস bg:Райън Гигс ca:Ryan Giggs cs:Ryan Giggs cy:Ryan Giggs da:Ryan Giggs de:Ryan Giggs et:Ryan Giggs el:Ράιαν Γκιγκς es:Ryan Giggs eu:Ryan Giggs fa:رایان گیگز fr:Ryan Giggs ga:Ryan Giggs ko:라이언 긱스 hi:रियान गिग्स hr:Ryan Giggs id:Ryan Giggs is:Ryan Giggs it:Ryan Giggs he:ראיין גיגס jv:Ryan Giggs kn:ರಿಯಾನ್‌ ಗಿಗ್ಸ್‌ ka:რაიან გიგზი lv:Raiens Gigss lt:Ryan Giggs hu:Ryan Giggs mk:Рајан Гигс ml:റയൻ ഗിഗ്സ് mt:Ryan Giggs mr:रायन गिग्स ms:Ryan Giggs mn:Райан Гиггз my:ရိုင်ယန်ဂစ်ဂ် nl:Ryan Giggs ja:ライアン・ギグス no:Ryan Giggs pl:Ryan Giggs pt:Ryan Giggs ro:Ryan Giggs ru:Гиггз, Райан simple:Ryan Giggs sk:Ryan Giggs sl:Ryan Giggs sr:Рајан Гигс fi:Ryan Giggs sv:Ryan Giggs ta:ரியன் கிக்ஸ் te:రియాన్ గిగ్స్ th:ไรอัน กิกส์ tr:Ryan Giggs uk:Раян Ґіґґз vi:Ryan Giggs zh-yue:傑斯 zh:瑞恩·吉格斯

fullname	John George Terry
height
dateofbirth	December 07, 1980
cityofbirth	Barking
countryofbirth	England
currentclub	Chelsea
clubnumber	26
position	Centre back
youthyears2	1991–1995
youthyears3	1995–1998
youthclubs1	Senrab
youthclubs2	West Ham United
youthclubs3	Chelsea
years1	1998–
years2	2000
clubs1	Chelsea
clubs2	→ Nottingham Forest (loan)
caps1	345
goals1	22
caps2	6
goals2	0
nationalyears1	2000–2002
nationalyears2	2003–
nationalteam1	England U21
nationalteam2	England
nationalcaps1	9
nationalgoals1	1
nationalcaps2	68
nationalgoals2	6
club-update	08:11, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
nationalteam-update	15:00, 24 April 2011 (UTC) }}

John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional footballer. Terry plays in a centre back position and is the captain of Chelsea in the Premier League. He is also captain of the England national football team, having been reinstated in March 2011 after previously holding the post from August 2006 until February 2010.

Terry was voted best defender in the UEFA Champions League in both 2005 and 2008, the PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2005, and was included in the FIFPro World XI for four consecutive seasons, from 2005 to 2008. He was also named in the all-star squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the only English player to make the team. He wears the number 26 shirt for Chelsea.

Terry is Chelsea's most successful captain, having led them to three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and two League Cups since 2004. He is one of five players to have made over 450 appearances for Chelsea and is also the club's all-time highest scoring defender. In 2007, he became the first captain to lift the FA Cup at the new Wembley Stadium in Chelsea's 1–0 win over Manchester United, and also the first player to score a full international goal there, scoring a header in England's 1–1 draw with Brazil.

Club career

Early career

Terry was born in Barking, east London, and attended Eastbury Comprehensive School. Terry played initially for Senrab, a side that featured many future stars of the English game, including current Premier League players Sol Campbell, Jermain Defoe, Bobby Zamora, Ledley King and Jlloyd Samuel. As a boy he initially was part of West Ham United's youth system, joining them as a midfielder in 1991. He moved to Chelsea at 14, playing for the club's youth and reserve teams. It was due to a shortage of central defenders that he was moved to centre-back, the position he plays today.

Early time with Chelsea

Terry made his Chelsea debut on 28 October 1998 as a late substitute in a League Cup tie with Aston Villa; his first start came later that season in an FA Cup third round match, a 2–0 win over Oldham Athletic. He spent a brief period on loan with Nottingham Forest in 2000 to build up his first team experience and was subject to interest from both David Platt and Huddersfield Town manager Steve Bruce.

In 2002 Terry was involved in an incident at a West London nightclub with Chelsea team mate Jody Morris and Wimbledon's Des Byrne. He was charged with assault and affray, but later cleared. During the affair, he was given a temporary ban from the England national side by the FA. Previously, along with Chelsea team-mates Frank Lampard, Jody Morris, Eiður Guðjohnsen and former team-mate Frank Sinclair, in September 2001 Terry was fined two weeks wages by Chelsea after drunkenly harassing grieving American tourists in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September attacks.

During his early days at Chelsea, Terry shared a flat with Andrew Crofts.

First-team regular

Terry began to establish himself in the Chelsea first team from the 2000–01 season, making 23 starts, and was voted the club's player of the year. He continued his progress during 2001–02, becoming a regular in the defence alongside club captain and French international Marcel Desailly. On 5 December 2001 he captained Chelsea for the first time, in a League match against Charlton Athletic. Chelsea reached the FA Cup final, following wins against London rivals West Ham and Tottenham in the fourth and six rounds respectively, and Fulham in the semi-final – where Terry scored the only goal in a 1–0 victory. A virus denied Terry a place in the starting line-up for the final, although he came on as a second-half substitute as Chelsea lost 2–0 to Arsenal. In season 2003–04, his performances led to him being handed the captain's armband by manager Claudio Ranieri, when Desailly was out of the side. He played well in the absence of the French international, forming a strong defensive partnership with William Gallas.

Back-to-back Premierships as captain

Following Desailly's retirement, new Chelsea manager José Mourinho chose Terry as his club captain, a choice which was vindicated throughout the 2004–05 season as Chelsea won the Premier League title in record-breaking fashion with the best defensive record in Football League history with the most clean sheets and the most points accrued. He was voted Player of the Year by his fellow professionals in England and scored eight goals, including a late winner against Barcelona, in the UEFA Champions League. He was voted the best defender in the Champions League for the season. In September 2005 he was selected as a member of the World XI at the FIFPro awards. The team was chosen by a vote of professional footballers based in 40 countries. Chelsea defended their Premier League title in 2005–06, earning 91 points, and confirming the title with a 3–0 victory against Manchester United.

Recent seasons

In a match on 14 October 2006 against Reading, Terry had to take over in goal for Chelsea after both of Chelsea's usual keepers, Petr Čech and Carlo Cudicini were injured in the game. He wore the number 40 shirt belonging to third-choice goalkeeper Henrique Hilário. However, as the game continued for only a little over a minute, Terry did not have a single save to make – in fact, his goalkeeping experience was limited to taking a free-kick from inside the penalty area. Chelsea managed to hang on to a one-goal lead and win the game and Terry kept a clean sheet. On 5 November 2006, playing against Tottenham Hotspur, Terry was sent off for the first time in his Chelsea career. He received two yellow cards as Chelsea lost at White Hart Lane for the first time since 1987. Terry was charged with misconduct by the F.A. for questioning the integrity of match referee Graham Poll after the game. On 10 January 2007, John Terry was ordered to pay £10,000 for the inappropriate conduct after he changed his mind and pleaded guilty to the FA.

In the 2006–2007 season Terry missed matches for Chelsea due to a recurring back problem. After the tie to Reading on 26 December 2006, José Mourinho stated that his captain may require surgery to fix the problem. In the games that he had missed, Chelsea had conceded six goals. On 28 December Chelsea released a press statement saying Terry had had back surgery: "The operation to remove a sequestrated lumbar intervertebral disc was successful." Although he was expected to return at the game against Wigan Athletic, Terry was missing once again, due to the recurring back problem. He made his return against Charlton Athletic on 3 February 2007. He played his first 90 minutes of football for nearly three months against Middlesbrough and received much applause from the Chelsea faithful. Playing in the UEFA Champions league last-sixteen away against Porto, he suffered another injury, this time to his ankle, and was set to miss the 2007 League Cup Final against Arsenal, but managed to recover from the injury within days and played in the final. During the second half of the match, at an attacking corner, he threw himself at the ball with a diving header; Arsenal's Abou Diaby, in an attempt to clear the ball, kicked Terry in the face. Terry was unconscious for several minutes, at which point he nearly swallowed his tongue. He was carried off the field on a stretcher and immediately transferred to the University Hospital of Wales, where he was successfully treated. Terry discharged himself the same day and returned to the Millennium Stadium to celebrate his team's 2–1 win. The only recollection he had of the second half is walking out onto the pitch and he did not remember the 10 minutes he played prior to his injury. Following the incident, Terry thanked the Arsenal physiologist Gary Lewin for saving his life. Lewin was the first medic that rushed over to assist him after his tongue had blocked his airways. After spending two weeks on the sidelines, he made his return to the Chelsea team against Blackburn in March. He went on to lead Chelsea to the semi-finals of the Champions League, the third time in four years that Chelsea had made it to the final four of the competition. In May 2007, Terry captained Chelsea to the FA Cup, in the first final at the new Wembley Stadium.

Despite failing to agree terms to a new contract immediately following the 2006–2007 season, Terry stated on several occasions that he had no intention of leaving Chelsea. In late July he signed a new five-year contract with a base salary of between £131,000 and £135,000 per week, making him the highest-paid player in the Premier League at the time. Frank Lampard's contract with Chelsea, signed in August 2008, surpassed Terry's with Lampard earning £151,000 a week to become the highest-paid player in the Premier League. On 16 December 2007 whilst playing against Arsenal, while going to clear a ball Terry's foot was stepped on by Emannuel Eboue and Terry had suffered 3 broken bones in his foot. He was expected to be out for at least three months but made a speedy recovery and managed to captain Chelsea to the 2008 League Cup final against Tottenham, which Chelsea lost 2–1. On 11 May 2008 whilst playing in the last league game of the season against Bolton, he collided with goalkeeper, Petr Čech, and suffered a partially dislocated elbow which was put back in while in the ambulance on the way to hospital. This injury did not prevent him playing in the Champions League final against Manchester United. The match went to penalties, and Terry missed a penalty which would have won Chelsea the match (and the Champions League). His standing leg slipped as he took his kick, and the ball missed the goal. Chelsea lost the shootout 6–5, which Terry reacted to by breaking down in tears. On 28 August 2008, Terry was awarded the Defender of The Year award from UEFA at the UEFA Champions League Group Stage Draw in Monaco, together with Frank Lampard and Petr Čech who received the award on their respective positions. On 13 September 2008, Terry received the first straight red card of his career against Manchester City for rugby-tackling Jô. However, this was later rescinded on appeal. Despite being a defender, he occasionally scores important goals for Chelsea, such as in the Champions League Group A home game against A.S. Roma in the 2008–2009 season. However, Chelsea went on to lose the away leg 3–1.

Along with Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Petr Čech, Terry is regarded as a part of the spine of the Chelsea team. He has won seven trophies as Chelsea captain (one more than Dennis Wise) Being an English player who came through the club's youth system, he is especially popular with Chelsea fans.

In July 2009, Manchester City made a third bid for Terry, but Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti has insisted Terry will remain at Chelsea. Before the start of the season, Terry was again awarded with UEFA Defender of the Year, his 3rd time winning the award. John Terry made his debut for the new season against Premier League side Hull City, a match Chelsea won. On 8 November 2009, Terry scored the decisive goal in Chelsea's match against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge to preserve their perfect home record for the season.

On 9 May 2010, Terry captained Chelsea as they won their fourth League title after an 8–0 win against Wigan Athletic at Stamford Bridge. A week later on 15 May 2010, Terry captained Chelsea as he won his fourth FA Cup medal, defeating Portsmouth in the final by 1–0 at Wembley.

International career

Terry made his England debut in June 2003 against Serbia and Montenegro, and started his first game for England on 20 August 2003 at Portman Road, Ipswich, in a friendly against Croatia. England won the game 3–1. His main central defensive partner has been Rio Ferdinand. He played for his country at Euro 2004, and England Manager Sven-Göran Eriksson stated that Terry was the first-choice centre back, ahead of Sol Campbell.

In a FIFA World Cup Qualifying match against Poland, Terry had the honour of wearing England's captain armband, replacing Michael Owen as captain after the latter was subbed.

He has cemented his place in the England squad by being selected for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In a warm-up match for that tournament against Hungary on 30 May 2006, Terry scored his first goal for England, the team's second in a 3–1 victory. Despite an injury scare in a friendly against Jamaica, he recovered to play in England's opening fixture against Paraguay, a 1–0 victory.

In the next match against Trinidad and Tobago, Carlos Edwards beat England's Paul Robinson to a cross and as Stern John bundled a header towards the goal, Terry cleared the ball off the line with an overhead kick. In the quarter-finals match against Portugal, Terry played the entire match, but England lost on penalties and he was left in tears with his fellow players. Six days later, he was the only English player to be named in the tournament's all-star squad.

England captaincy

On 10 August 2006, Steve McClaren named John Terry as the England captain, succeeding David Beckham. McClaren said, "Choosing a captain is one of the most important decisions a coach has to make. I'm certain I've got the right man in John Terry. I'm convinced he will prove to be one of the best captains England has ever had." Terry scored a goal on his debut as the England captain, in a friendly international against Greece. This was the first goal of the match and, as such, the first goal during McClaren's reign as manager. When celebrating he kissed his new captain's armband. However, with Terry as captain, England did not qualify for Euro 2008 – their first absence from a tournament finals since the 1994 World Cup. Midway through the qualification campaign, Terry had accepted that he would "bear full responsibility" should England fail to qualify.

On 1 June 2007, Terry became the first player in the senior England team to score an international goal at the new Wembley Stadium when he scored England's goal in a 1–1 draw with Brazil. He scored from a header in the box after a free kick cross by David Beckham. Almost a year later, he scored a similar headed goal once again from a freekick cross by David Beckham to put England 1–0 up against the USA on 28 May 2008.

Terry was confirmed as the England captain in August, and will captain England in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. During his first match after being reinstated as the permanent England captain he was given a torrid time by Milan Baroš and was turned far too easily when Baros scored the first goal for the Czech Republic. The match ended 2–2 with Joe Cole scoring a fortunate equaliser for England in the 92nd minute of the game. He scored his first competitive England goal against Ukraine in the qualifiers for the World Cup, grabbing a late winner after earlier giving away a free kick which saw Andriy Shevchenko equalise for Ukraine.

On 5 February 2010, following allegations regarding Terry's private life, Fabio Capello announced that Terry was removed as the captain of the England team. He was replaced by fellow defender Rio Ferdinand.

On 19 March 2011 Fabio Capello announced John Terry would be the permanent England captain following a long term injury to previous captain Rio Ferdinand.

2010 World Cup

At the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals, England started with two draws against the USA and Algeria which received heavy criticism from the English media.

Two days after the Algeria game in a media interview, Terry hinted at dissatisfaction with Capello's team selection and stated that the players were bored with little to do in the evenings at their training base; he also said that a clear-the-air team meeting would take place that evening. The next day Capello responded by saying that Terry had made "a very big mistake" in challenging his authority to the media.

Manchester, England 16 August 2006 1 June 2007 28 May 2008 19 November 2008 1 April 2009

colspan="7"	International goals
! # !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Score !! Result !! Competition
1	30 May 2006	|		2–0	3–1	Friendly match
2	|	Manchester, England		1–0	4–0	Friendly match
3	|	London, England		1–0	1–1	Friendly match
4	|	London, England		1–0	2–0	Friendly match
5	|	Berlin, Germany		2–1	2–1	Friendly match
6	|	London, England		2–1	2–1	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Sponsorship

Terry is the main face alongside Michael Owen for the Umbro sportswear brand often introducing new brand lines and products as well as new England kits. He has also appeared in adverts for Samsung, Nationwide and Swedish betting company Svenska Spel, as well as being in a sponsorship deal with football gaming series ''Pro Evolution Soccer''. On the UK version of ''Pro Evolution Soccer 6'', he appears on the front cover with Brazil international Adriano.

Family and personal life

Terry's parents are Ted and Sue. His brother, Paul (born 1979), is a professional footballer currently with Conference South side Thurrock F.C..

Despite being a one club man with Chelsea in his professional career, Terry was a Manchester United supporter growing up. Terry revealed in a 2005 interview that he has to go through about 50 superstitious rituals before each game.

Terry currently lives in Oxshott, Surrey. He and his wife Toni (née Poole) are the parents of twins, Georgie John and Summer Rose, born on 18 May 2006 in Westminster, London. Terry celebrated their birth when scoring for England against Hungary, when he performed a baby-rocking celebration. The couple married at Blenheim Palace on 15 June 2007.

Terry is one of a very small group of footballers to have been paid more than £1 million for their autobiography. His deal with publisher Harper Collins was negotiated in 2004 by Chris Nathaniel of NVA Management.

In 2009, Terry was named "Dad of the Year" after he came top of a poll of UK adults in a Daddies Sauce survey.

In January 2010, a super-injunction was imposed by a High Court judge preventing the media from reporting allegations that Terry had had a four-month affair in late 2009 with Vanessa Perroncel, the former girlfriend of Wayne Bridge, his former Chelsea and England teammate. The injunction was lifted a week later, and the British media – especially the tabloid press – covered the rumours in great detail in the days following. On 3 October 2010, The News of the World printed an apology to Perroncel for invading her private life, and accepted that the claims against Terry and her were untrue. The rumours led to Capello dropping Terry from the England captaincy on 5 February 2010, replacing him with Rio Ferdinand. Terry was reinstated as captain the following year.

Career statistics

Club

|- | 1998–99||rowspan="2"|Chelsea||rowspan="2"|Premier League||2||0||3||0||1||0||1||0||6||0 |- | 1999–00||4||0||4||1||1||0||-||-||9||1 |- | 1999–00|||Nottingham Forest|||First Division||6||0||-||-||-||-||-||-||6||0 |- | 2000–01||rowspan="12"|Chelsea||rowspan="12"|Premier League|||22||1||3||0||1||0||-||-||26||1 |- | 2001–02||33||1||5||2||5||0||4||1||47||4 |- | 2002–03||20||3||5||2||3||0||1||1||29||6 |- | 2003–04||33||2||3||1||2||0||13||0||51||3 |- | 2004–05||36||3||1||1||5||0||11||4||53||8 |- | 2005–06||36||4||4||2||1||1||8||0||49||7 |- | 2006–07||28||1||4||0||2||0||10||0||46||1 |- | 2007–08||23||1||2||0||2||0||10||0||37||1 |- | 2008–09||34||1||2||0||1||0||11||2||48||3 |- | 2009–10||37||2||4||1||1||0||8||0||46||3 |- | 2010–11||33||3||3||0||1||0||8||1||45||4 |- | 2011–12||3||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||3||0 350||22||43||10||26||1||85||9||501||42

International

|- |2003||6||0 |- |2004||9||0 |- |2005||6||0 |- |2006||14||2 |- |2007||7||1 |- |2008||6||2 |- |2009||10||1 |- |2010||7||0 |- |2011||2||0 |- !Total||67||6 |}

Honours

Chelsea

; Premier League:

2004–05, 2005–06, 2009–10

; FA Cup:

2000, 2007, 2009, 2010

; Football League Cup:

2005, 2007

; FA Community Shield:

2005, 2009

Individual

PFA Player of the Year: 2004–05

FIFA World Cup Team of the Tournament: 2006

FIFPro World XI: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

UEFA Club Football Awards Best Defender: 2005, 2008, 2009

UEFA Team of the Year: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009

Chelsea Player of the Year: 2001, 2006

References

External links

Official Chelsea profile

TheFA.com profile

BBC profile

England Profile and Record

Premier League profile

Category:1980 births Category:2006 FIFA World Cup players Category:2010 FIFA World Cup players Category:Association football central defenders Category:Chelsea F.C. players Category:English footballers Category:England international footballers Category:England under-21 international footballers Category:Living people Category:Nottingham Forest F.C. players Category:People from Barking Category:Premier League players Category:The Football League players Category:UEFA Euro 2004 players Category:West Ham United F.C. players

ar:جون تيري bn:জন টেরি be-x-old:Джон Тэры bg:Джон Тери ca:John Terry cs:John Terry da:John Terry (fodboldspiller) de:John Terry et:John Terry es:John Terry (futbolista) fa:جان تری (بازیکن فوتبال) fr:John Terry (footballeur) ga:John Terry ko:존 테리 hy:Ջոն Թերի hi:जॉन टेरी hr:John Terry id:John Terry is:John Terry it:John Terry he:ג'ון טרי jv:John Terry ka:ჯონ ტერი sw:John Terry la:Ioannes Georgius Terry lv:Džons Terijs lt:John Terry hu:John Terry mr:जॉन टेरी ms:John Terry mn:Жон Терри nl:John Terry (voetballer) ja:ジョン・テリー no:John Terry nn:John Terry pl:John Terry pt:John Terry ro:John Terry ru:Терри, Джон simple:John Terry sk:John Terry sl:John Terry sr:Џон Тери fi:John Terry sv:John Terry te:జాన్ టెర్రీ th:จอห์น เทอร์รี tr:John Terry uk:Джон Террі vi:John Terry zh-yue:泰利 zh:約翰·泰利