Expert Opinion
Giggs: still defying the onset of time
Statistics may be stark, bloodless things, but occasionally they have a poignancy bordering on the poetic. Take Ryan Giggs, for instance. The Manchester United phenomenon has played more Premier League games in the modern era (590) than Manchester City, who have featured in only 569 since Sky invented football in 1992.
While you are getting your head around that thought, Giggs is resting in preparation for his 900th Manchester United appearance, which will probably come in the return leg of tonight’s Europa League tie against Ajax. He has made a further 64 appearances for Wales, at senior level, and is likely to pass the fabled 1,000 game milestone next season.
That will be his 22nd as a professional footballer. To put such longevity into context, Rio Ferdinand – an Old Trafford old boy himself, at 33 – admits his favourite DVD as a schoolboy featured Giggs, John Barnes, George Best and Diego Maradona.
Giggs has dropped a shoulder, and nutmegged Father Time.
He could have succumbed a year ago, but cured an ominous succession of hamstring problems by taking up yoga. The switch from the left wing to central midfield has spared him the shuttle runs from hell that a wide player must undertake at the highest level.
Many more shifts, like the one he put in during last weekend’s defeat of Liverpool, will accelerate the ageing process. But there is a mental, as well as physical, aspect to Giggs’s durability. His time as a winger has given him the instinctive courage of a natural survivor.
One of the bravest things in the game is to knock a ball past an opponent and attempt to run around him, on the other side. Any subsequent tackle on your standing leg, as you are trying to cross the ball, can destroy your cruciate ligaments and finish your career.
Giggs has learned to handle malevolence, and found Paul Scholes’s struggle to deal with the routines of retirement instructive. It is the final, most difficult, decision facing any professional athlete. The best they can hope for is that fate will not take it for them.
I’d like to see him given one final honour: a place in the 2012 Olympic team.
Such a concession would outrage the cynics, and the sour old men at the Welsh FA. No one can doubt Giggs’s loyalty to his nation’s cause, but, at 38, he deserves to play in the finals of a major international tournament, before he goes gently, into that good night.
Related articles:
Competition: Win a Manchester United shirt signed by Ryan Giggs!
Fanzone: We need to talk about Evans
Video: Van Persie to Real, Chelsea want Falcao, Gaitain to Man Utd
Video: “This is very much a forced apology” from Suarez
Mike Calvin: Evra becoming a liability for Man Utd
Rob Smyth: Jones earmarked for Man Utd defence but better in midfield
Follow Mike Calvin on Twitter @CalvinBook
Follow Life’s a Pitch on Twitter @BTLifesapitch
Watch Man Utd live on BT Vision:
Ajax v Man Utd, live 5:15pm, 16 February, Channel 5 (Europa League)
Tottenham v Man Utd, live 4pm, 4 March, Sky Sports 1
Not got BT Vision? Find out how to get it
Featured ContributorsMore >
-
Mike Calvin
Award-winning writer Learn more >
-
John Cross
The Daily Mirror's back page newshound Learn more >
NewsMore news >
-
Liverpool manager search continues
Liverpool will continue the process of sounding out prospective candidates for the vacant manager’s job this week. Read more >
43 mins ago -
Champions League exclusion costs Spurs
Tottenham’s exclusion from the Champions League due to Chelsea’s triumph in the tournament will cost Spurs up to £35million in cash – but the real damage could be far greater in terms of keeping their stars, say football finance experts. Read more >
2 hours ago
Most popular
4 weeks ago
59 seconds ago
Comments
Please leave your comments using the box below. Learn more
BT is not responsible for any external content or links uploaded by users of the site. Nor does the presence of information or links about other parties' products or services confer any form of endorsement of another party's products or services by BT. Please show respect to other users and avoid bad language when posting