How Ryan Giggs was discovered by a milkman in Manchester

Ryan Giggs turns 40 today and doesn’t seem to have any intentions of retiring. Even in sports which are less rigorous than football — like cricket — players are usually done by the time they are 40. Even tennis or basketball don’t see careers like this where someone’s hunger to achieve shows no sign of ending (Sachin Tendulkar excepted). But if you saw Giggs play against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League two days before his birthday, you would realise just how much of a phenomenon he is. The Welshman, now plying his trade as a crafty midfielder — compared to the marauding left-winger he was earlier — made United’s game tick in a match which ended 5-0 in their favour. [caption id=“attachment_1258183” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Giggs and Rooney — the United No 10 said in an interview that he had run out of words to describe Giggs. Reuters[/caption] Dennis Schofield was a part-time Manchester City scout and a milkman when he saw an eight-year-old bamboozle defenders on the left-wing in a kick-about at Grosvenor Road Primary in Swinton, Manchester. He immediately knew he was watching something special unfold in front of him. “I introduced myself (to Giggs’ mother) as someone who ran Deans Youth and Ladies FC, and asked if Ryan might be interested in playing for my team. For our next training session, I picked him up from his house and took him and his younger brother Rhodri along knowing I had something special on my hands,” Schofield was quoted in a feature on BBC Sport. Giggs’ father was a rugby player and it was clear that his son had inherited his speed and balance. “I’ve been a coach and scout for over half a century and he was the best prospect I’d ever seen. He had skill, control and movement, and he was destined for the big time,” Schofield said. There are few people who know him as Schofield does and he has no qualms in saying that Giggs will be the next Manchester United manager after David Moyes. He said that Giggs comes out as the shy type but is very ‘chatty’ when it comes to football. He never spoke about anything else — not even girls. Schofield still wonders what would the scenario be like if Giggs had signed for Manchester City. The former City scout was so disappointed with their failure to sign young Giggs that he quit the club because of that — talk about commitment! Recalling old matches where he coached him, Schofield said that opposition players would always ask him whether Giggs was playing or not — but couldn’t swap shirts because there were no spare ones. He also managed to coax Alex Ferguson once to let Giggs play an U-16 Cup final where he scored the winning goal. “One of my fondest memories is of Ryan running over to me after he scored and putting his arms around me,” he said. Click here to read and watch the full BBC Sport feature.