It was right at the start of the ’90s that I heard the name Paul Scholes for the first time. The football world and the media, this newspaper in particular, was waking up to the fact that something unusual and wonderful was taking shape at Manchester United.
A group of kids who were growing up together at Old Trafford were starting to make ripples. Some of them who were aged just 16 or 17 were already pushing for a place in Alex Ferguson’s first team.
So I took myself off to United’s old training centre, The Cliff in Salford, to have a chat with the Reds youth team coach Eric Harrison who watched over that talented bunch of youngsters like a mother hen. Of course Eric was eager to sing the praises of David Beckham, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt.
But Eric became even more animated when talking about the boy I had never heard of. That boy was Paul Scholes. “You won’t believe this,” said Eric, “but Scholesy has got a fan club. “Have you ever heard of a 17-year-old footballer with a fan club, because I haven’t. “But scores of young girls turn up at The Cliff just to watch him training.
“He’s tiny, he’s got a mop of ginger hair and he suffers from asthma. But to those young girls he’s already a star. Of course Scholesy doesn’t take advantage of his stardom. “He’s only interested in playing football. At least that’s what he tells me. “What those young fans are seeing, I believe, is that they are watching the birth of a great career in professional football at the very highest level.
“And do you know what? I couldn’t agree with them more. The scrawny ginger haired kid I am talking about is going to become a superstar over the years ahead.”Let’s wind the clock on 20 years to an interview with Thierry Henry broadcast by Sky Sports earlier this season.
The programme was filmed in New York where the brilliant French striker was giving the interviewer a grand tour of the Red Bulls Stadium where he now plays. The conversation turned to the days in the late ’90s and early 2000s when Arsenal and United comprehensively dominated the Premier League.
Henry was asked if he and his Arsenal team-mates feared any of United’s players. Roy Keane for his ferociousness perhaps, or maybe Ruud van Nistelrooy for his goal-scoring ability?
Henry’s reply was instant and revealing. “We respected all of United’s players,” he answered diplomatically. “But there was one United player we genuinely feared – and that player was Paul Scholes.
“Scholes had everything.
“We prided ourselves on our defence but he could split it open with one pass.
“He could score fantastic goals out of nothing and, although he was small in stature, to say he could take care of himself on the pitch is a massive under-statement. “At his peak he was one of the greatest midfield players of his generation, not just in the English Premier League but right across Europe.”
Genius: So there it is. Two tributes to the ginger genius from north Manchester separated by two decades. The first from his former youth team coach Harrison could be expected. Eric treated the members of that famous class of 1992 as though they were his adopted sons. But when you look again at that second tribute 20 years later from one of the world’s greatest strikers, there is only one conclusion to be reached.
That scrawny asthma-stricken kid, born in Salford but raised in Langley, was THE greatest English midfield player of his generation and arguably the greatest English midfielder of ALL time. Why then was Scholes not showered with personal honours throughout his glittering career?
Why no PFA Player of the Year award? Why no Football Writers’ Player of the Year honour? Those questions are difficult to answer. The only explanation I can come up with is that throughout his career Scholes preferred to keep himself under the radar.
He never sought publicity. Quite the reverse. He was dynamic on the field but purposely anonymous off it. To him giving an interview to the press was the equivalent of having your teeth pulled out with pliers – without the anaesthetic.
Had he been more media-friendly he would certainly have banked extra millions during his career from sponsorships and various TV advertising campaigns.All right, he didn’t have the film star looks of a Beckham or a Jamie Redknapp, but that hasn’t stopped Peter Crouch making a fortune outside the game has it?
And he’s twice the size but half the talent of Scholes, that’s for sure. But that was the Ginger Prince wasn’t it? Turn in a match-winning performance, take a shower, get dressed and then it’s off home to take the wife and kids to the pictures.
A man who somehow managed to live a normal life in an abnormal profession. United have granted Scholes a testimonial match later this year to celebrate his extraordinary career.
If the organisers of that match haven’t yet fixed up an opposing team for Scholes’s testimonial I would urge them to look no further than United’s ‘noisy neighbours’ from Eastlands. For almost two decades now my fellow Blue Mooners have ‘hated’ the little ginger haired midfield genius from Old Trafford.
But I’m sure I’m speaking for every true City supporter by saying that if Scholes had been wearing the sky blue shirt instead of a red one throughout those years he would have been idolised.
The Eastlands congregation would flock to Old Trafford in their thousands to say a last goodbye to one of football’s true greats. A fellow Mancunian who reached the very peak of his profession with the minimum of fuss and the absence of publicity. We will not see the likes of him again, more’s the pity.
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