Feared by the Blues....Stalked by Me (Giggs: The Autobiography - Ryan Giggs)

Member Name: Sarccyslayer

Product:	Giggs: The Autobiography - Ryan Giggs
Date:	14/12/05 (2926 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's a great insight into a world class player

Disadvantages: None

I have been a massive fan of Ryan Giggs since I was 12 years old. My bedroom wall was covered in posters of him, I had scrap books full of articles about him, all of my Manchester United shirts had ‘Ryan Giggs’ emblazoned on them and I even went to watch Manchester United train in the hope that I would get to see Ryan Giggs. As it turned out I met everyone but Giggsy.

When I first heard he was writing an Autobiography I was initially excited at the prospect of reading the ins and outs of a football player I have been a fan of for over a decade and when it came out into the shops, I sent my beloved Husband on a mission to secure the purchase for me. Either that or his life wouldn’t have been worth living and he certainly would have gone hungry :o)

So what’s it all about? Well the book is basically about the life and trials of Ryan Joseph Giggs as a boy dreaming of being a professional footballer and Ryan Giggs the professional footballer and in between we get to read about what life was like at home, what it is like to live your life in and through the media and his life now.

Throughout his playing career Ryan Giggs has lived a lot of his life in the media eye with regards to relationships with well-known television personalities such as Dani Behr and Davinia Taylor. He has been dubbed as the “Welsh Wizard” and described as being “An inspirational left winger who terrorises defenders with searing pace and incisive running”. Sir Alex Ferguson is quoted as saying 'I knew we had an outstanding talent when we gave him his debut.' Which relates back to 1991 and now as a pivotal part of Manchester United’s team and we get are given an insight into Ryan Giggs, the player wearing the number 11 shirt.

The book is basically split into five different sections as we go through the timeline of Ryan Giggs’ and we whilst it is mainly about his footballing career, we are given an insight into how family life changed and evolved throughout his childhood, moving to Manchester and being spotted by a chief steward for Manchester United whilst being a youth team player for Manchester City.

The book starts with the birth of Ryan Giggs to his mother Lynne Giggs and his father Danny Wilson on November 29th 1973 in Cardiff where he lived until the tender age of seven. From then on Ryan Giggs was brought up in the city of Manchester and we read through school memories and being the odd one out in his class for having a Welsh accent and how he tried really hard to ‘lose it as quickly as possible’ to avoid being ridiculed. During his adolescent years Ryan Giggs toyed with the idea of playing rugby like his father but it was found that his talents lay on a different pitch with a different game – football and in 1982 during a school game, a man named Denis Schofield who was a scout for Manchester City, happened to catch sight of the young Ryan Giggs playing his game. From there on in, Ryan joined Schofield’s youth team at Manchester City.

The next section 1986 – 1991 deals with Giggs time as an apprentice with Manchester United. Ryan ended up playing for Manchester United after Alex Ferguson send Brian Kidd along to watch him play after being tipped off by the chief steward at Manchester United and it wasn’t until December 1986 that he was given a trial. We are then given details of how Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United turned up at the home of Ryan Giggs the day after he turned 14 to sign him up as a school boy apprentice until he reached the age of 16. The book then goes into further details of life as an apprentice footballer and what that involved and the amount of time players have to give to their prospective career even though there is a chance they may not make it professionally.

Then we are taken to the years 1991 – 1993, which details Ryan’s life moving from the Youth Team. This section I aptly titled ‘From Youth Team to Accolades’ and we relive the time when Ryan was voted PFA Young player of the year at the tender age of 17 years old and 321 days, and still to this day remains holder of being the youngest Welsh player to achieve this award. Making his debut for Manchester United against Everton at Old Trafford in March 1991 by coming onto the pitch as a substitute, it was however against Manchester City that Ryan made his full debut and scored the winning goal.

During the years of 1993 – 1999 Ryan Giggs talks about his life at Manchester United, detailing everything from his first appearance at the club as a first team player right through to winning the treble in 1999.

The final section deals with the years 1999-2000 we are given in-depth analysis of what it is like to be a player for the biggest club in the world, what it was like to be a part of that treble winning team and basically how it affected his life in the media, his relationships both with his family members and with his team mates and then life as it is now for Ryan and his family.

The book is my opinion is a great insight into one of the footballing world’s greatest players, someone who is keen to stay out of the limelight and concentrate on the job in hand. I particularly enjoyed reading about the progression from youth team football to first team football at a club as big as Manchester United. Over his fourteen year career with Manchester United Ryan Giggs has seen some of the best football players come and go – Peter Schmeichel, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and of course Roy Keane.

Since writing this book, Ryan Giggs has signed an extension to his contract with Manchester United to the year 2008 and he has also now made 600 League Appearances.

I would certainly recommend this book to any Manchester United fan, any Ryan Giggs fan and indeed any football fan.

Additional Details:

Cost: £12-£16
Hardcover 336 pages (August 15, 2005)
Publisher: Michael Joseph Ltd
Language: English
ISBN: 0718148436

Summary: An insight into the life and trials of a world class player