A prodigious and precocious talent, Ryan Giggs enjoyed a glittering career with Manchester United where he accumulated a medal collection which bears comparison with those of football’s greats.
The knowledge and expertise he gleaned during a glittering career led to him becoming a coach who guided Wales, his native country, to the Euro 2020 finals — held last year due to the coronavirus — but allegations of assault meant he did not join his team at the tournament as he stepped down for his assistant Rob Page to take over.
For almost three decades, the Welshman, 48, has been a poster boy for the game, the benchmark to which others aspire after rising from a difficult childhood to secure a place in the Old Trafford pantheon and a reputation which extends much further.
Born Ryan Wilson in Cardiff in November 1973, he moved to Salford aged 7 when his father Danny Wilson headed north to pursue a career in professional rugby league, adopting his mother’s maiden name, Giggs, after his parents split up.
If life was testing, football was his escape and having demonstrated his abundant potential as a schoolboy, he was snapped up by United from under the noses of derby rivals Manchester City on his 14th birthday.
Impressed by Giggs’s pace and dribbling ability, manager Sir Alex Ferguson thrust him into the limelight as a 17-year-old and, while placing a protective arm around his prodigy, expertly nurtured his budding talent.
Ferguson once said: “When Ryan runs at players he gives them twisted blood. They don’t want to be a defender any more.”
Swiftly labelled “the new George Best”, a tag which never seemed to weigh him down, the winger instantly took to senior football, with Ferguson all the while ensuring his feet remained firmly on the ground.
He won his first silverware as a member of the side that beat Nottingham Forest in the 1992 League Cup final but, perhaps as significantly, he was also in the United team that won the FA Youth Cup that year.
The core of that side — the fabled ‘Class of 92’, which comprised Giggs, Gary and Phil Neville, David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt — went on to be the nucleus of the first team that swept all before them.
Giggs constantly adapted his game to the challenges that came his way and as age started to take its toll, he transformed himself from a flying winger with a knack of scoring spectacular goals into a more intuitive midfielder, a process which did little to blunt his influence.
When he finally hung up his boots at the age of 40 in 2014, he had amassed 963 appearances for United and won 34 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues, scoring 168 goals.
On the international front, he earned 64 caps for Wales between 1991 and 2007 but never played at a major tournament.
Having worked as player-coach under Ferguson’s successor David Moyes, Giggs briefly took charge of the first team after the Scot’s dismissal in April 2014, and was retained as assistant to Louis van Gaal on his appointment.
Tainted by association with the Dutchman’s ill-fated spell at the helm, his near 30-year stay on the red half of Manchester drew to a close in 2016, only for a dream job to come his way in January 2018 when he was appointed Wales boss.
The national team, which had made it to the Euro 2016 semi-finals but failed to qualify for the World Cup two years later, prospered under his charge, with a new generation of players emerging to ensure a return to the European stage.
About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
What is tokenisation?
Tokenisation refers to the issuance of a blockchain token, which represents a virtually tradable real, tangible asset. A tokenised asset is easily transferable, offers good liquidity, returns and is easily traded on the secondary markets.
The biog
Age: 30
Position: Senior lab superintendent at Emirates Global Aluminium
Education: Bachelor of science in chemical engineering, post graduate degree in light metal reduction technology
Favourite part of job: The challenge, because it is challenging
Favourite quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” Gandi
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Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Zayed Sustainability Prize
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Green ambitions
- Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
- Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
- Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
- Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
