Worrall F. - Giggsy: The Biography of Ryan Giggs

H e would become the most decorated, successful and, many would contend, the best player ever to pull on the proud red shirt of Manchester United. But the road to legend and riches wasnt presented on the proverbial plate for Ryan Giggs. When he finally established himself in the first team at Old Trafford, he would talk about how important the history and the traditions of the club were to him because he was a local lad. Yet while it is true that he was picked out from obscurity while living just a few miles from Old Trafford, he had been born and bred in an altogether different environment. In a different country, in fact; in a country in which he had known hardship and had had to contend with learning and developing within the confines of a fractured and fractious family.

Yes, he was a local lad (in Manchester) from the age of six, but before that Wales was his home, or more precisely, a tough district of Cardiff. He would never forget his Welsh upbringing, how it moulded and formed him and, in later life, would talk of his pride in being Welsh and how he never considered himself English, even when he captained the England schoolboys team.

What we are trying to establish early on is this: Ryan Giggs is undoubtedly a phenomenon in world football, but he is not the stereotyped straightforward, straitlaced, somewhat boring Mr Manchester United some pundits would have you believe. Of course, he is an honourable, respectable man one of the nicest guys in football, for sure but he is also an intense thinker and a complex character prone to deep introspection and self-analysis, and is at heart a very private being.

It is these very contradictions that help make Ryan the man and the footballer he is. Even some of his friends would tell you he can be stubborn, defensive in attitude and dismissive of fools. On the other hand, he is warm, generous, compassionate, and has time for anyone.

It is perhaps surprising that he could ever have been dismissed as one-dimensional, given the contradictions and vagaries of his upbringing. He had to battle his way to the very top of world football after being born into a poor, broken home, with no father by his side for his formative years. But he would overcome all the obstacles to reach the very top of his profession and always remain a truly nice guy. All in all, no mean achievement.

Ryan Giggs is a winner always was, from the very first day he kicked a football and a man who gets what he wants. He is driven by a desire for perfection and the goal of being the best. So where do all these complexities of character and ambition come from? Its easy to guess it was down to his childhood in Wales, the love-hate relationship he enjoyed with his rugby playing, womanising, boozing father over the years and the move to Manchester. It was also due to the bond he has always shared with his mother and subsequently Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United and a surrogate father figure during the early days of their relationship and of Giggss footballing career.

Giggs weighed 7lb when he was born Ryan Joseph Wilson in Cardiff on 29 November 1973, to labourer and rugby-playing father, Danny Wilson, and childrens nurse and cook mother, Lynne Ceri Giggs. The couple met when they were still at school and by the time Ryan arrived on the scene, they were both still only seventeen.

Lynne was Welsh and hailed from the more tranquil Pentrebane in west Cardiff; Danny was born to a Welsh mother and a father from Sierra Leone, and would become a promising halfback with Cardiff Rugby Union Club. His mother Winnie a hospital cleaner and Danny senior a merchant seaman hailed from the then rough dockland area known as Tiger Bay.

Ryans first home would be with his mum and his dad on the Ely council estate. The surname on his birth certificate was registered as Giggs, and his mother gave her parents address in Pentrebane. The space where his fathers name should have been entered was left blank.

The relationship between Lynne and Danny hardly augured well from the start. Inevitably, there were arguments as money was tight and they were very young to be coping with a baby. And they wanted different things. Lynne was a reserved girl who wanted stability; Danny was more rough and ready he was handsome and would become known for his eye for the girls. She had no time for clubs and discos; he loved nothing more than a night on the town.

It was a potentially explosive mix looking at it, even on paper you would say they were hardly suited from the start. And so it would prove. They would never marry and life was tough: at times, Lynne worked two jobs, and had to rely on her parents to look after Ryan.

That was the one solid base the youngster had throughout his life the love, care and reliability of his maternal grandparents, Dennis and Margaret. In reality, he would alternate his time as he grew up between staying with his parents in Cardiff and with Dennis and Margaret in Pentrebane. He would become a regular sight in the district as he played with a football and a rugby ball for hours on end outside his grandparents home.

Staying with them provided him with the stability he needed and which he was often denied when his dad was home. The rows between Danny and Lynne would worsen as the years rolled by and their relationship was in no way cemented when another son, Rhodri, was born three years after Ryan. Indeed, Ryan admitted that the arguments took on a more unpleasant aspect not just shouting and crying but physical. Visits from the local constabulary werent uncommon. In fact, after Rhodri was born, Danny would be arrested after one particularly bad fight and told to get out by Lynne.

Ryan admitted that as he grew up and came to realise the way his father treated his mother, he found he liked him less and less. He was a self-confessed mummys boy and drifted apart from Danny, rarely talking to him as he grew from boy to man.

In his 2005 autobiography, Ryan described his relationship with his father in these terms: I have to admit that at one time I did look up to my dad It wasnt until we moved to Manchester that I realised the full extent of the rotten life my dad gave her [Lynne]. He was a real rogue, and a ladies man. He also revealed that his father didnt exactly set the right sort of example.

The growing rift would lead to Ryan eventually changing his name from Wilson to Giggs when he was sixteen. He would take the decision then, two years after his parents separation, so the world would know he was his mothers son. The rift would also, inevitably maybe, lead to him becoming a more inward-looking, insular boy. On the plus side, it also made him more determined not to be like his father (whom he considered a failure for wasting his talent) and set him on a path to find perfection in his own career. Ryan would also admit, I didnt set out purposely to be different to my dad, but it influenced me subconsciously. He had a great talent and that was wasted. People tell me he was the greatest player theyve seen.