Nate’s 9: Favorite Manchester
United Players 1997-2014
This is
clearly an era that is getting close to its end this weekend. Manchester United players that I have been
following since soccer started airing here in the states are saying goodbye to
the club for the last time. It’s
tough. I too plan on saying goodbye,
albeit in a different way. The amount of
passion and enthusiasm that I have given has been a big part of my life for
almost 20 years now, and I have no regrets.
Hell, if I can’t take the fandom out of it, I’ll be cheering just as
hard again and care just as much that 3rd weekend in August.
Sitting down and choosing my 9
favorite players is a next to impossible task, because there have been so many
that I've been proud to see in my favorite kit.
But for the effort that they have given the great club of Manchester
United, I’m about to sit down here and try.
X – Two players that were never going to make my nine, but I
just want to give a quick shout-out to two of the most shrewd signings that Sir
Alex ever made – Alan Smith and Michael Owen.
I enjoyed both of them for their careers prior to playing for Manchester
United, and I will never forget Owen’s goal at the end of the Utd-City Derby
that sent us into raptures that I haven’t experienced before or since. It was one of the greatest games I've ever
seen. Alan Smith’s career essentially
ended the day he broke his leg against Liverpool , but he
was an all-effort guy and I really believe he would've had a great United
career if he had been able to avoid such unfortunate circumstances.
XI – I saw Eric Cantona play one time. Now I have no doubt he’d be at the top of my
list if exposure had come to the U.S. sooner, but his style of play and
temperament are of legendary status and I’m glad I was able to see him for that
one game. I, of course have seen the chip since, and it’s definitely in my top
nine goals...
#9 – Cristiano Ronaldo.
To be honest, I really didn't like him at first. He had an arrogance (had?) problem, and I
think he was more concerned with pulling off tricks then by scoring goals and
winning games. But by the end, I was really sad to see him go. He’s probably the only player on this list,
or was even considered that really isn't United through and through, but we
were such a nightmare to play against when he was in the line-up and on his
day. He single handedly carried United
through some games and even some seasons, and he was able to rebound nicely
from encouraging the referee to send off Rooney in the 2006 World Cup (He deserved
it though). I must like him enough
though, a small part of me was excited that he scored twice against United in
last year’s Champions League, but he did handle it with more humility than I
ever thought he could muster.
#8 – Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
To be honest, I probably loved him a little too much. Seeing him go was still probably my least
favorite feeling as a United fan, even though we replaced him with Rooney, Cristiano
Ronaldo, eventually Tevez and won 5 of 7 Premier league seasons. He was probably one of the best snipers that
the current generation has ever seen. He
could make a goal out of just about absolutely nothing, and had the striker’s
ego, which I believe is also a key component of a player that can be described
as one of the world’s best. Although it
seems that most players have a fallen out with Sir Alex have to take most of
the blame, this was one of the few situations where I sided with the
player. Alex wanted him out for the
young guys. I still miss him.
#7 – Paul Scholes. I loved it when his name was in the
starting 11. My favorite United style of
play is that of high passing percentage and up the pitch possession. I can’t think of another player to wear the
shirt that partook in this particular style with the grace and elegance of one
Paul Scholes. Even Xavi and Andres
Ineista expressed their joy at watching Scholes play, and they probably took
that style to an entire new level. Anyway,
here is a player that just loved playing for United. He retired from England
at 30. His name was literally never
linked away with another world club. He
scored with his fist! (although subsequently got sent off). And he knew exactly
what he was doing when he went in with all those clumsy hard challenges that
got him sent off so frequently throughout his career. He had that perfect balance between finesse
and aggression.
#6 – Peter Schmeichel. I will argue this to my death, but I
think he’s far and away the greatest goalkeeper from my young generation. With respect to Gianluigi Buffon, Oliver
Kahn, and Jose Chilavert, he made every team he was a part of instantly better,
and I think players feared rather than relished one-on-one situations when
faced with Schmeichel. Of course 1999
was his greatest year, and he led us out in the Champions League Final against
Bayern Munich. I only wish that I had
seen him a little earlier during his peak years with both United and Denmark .
#5 – Nemanja Vidic.
One half of the greatest CB partnership that I have ever seen. I remember the gaping hole that was left in
our defense when Jaap Stam had his fallen out with Sir Alex and was sent to
Lazio. We tried to fill it with Mikael
Silvestre, Laurent Blanc, Gabriel Heinze, Wes Brown, John O’Shea and while they
were all good, we still had a hard time competing for Premiership titles as
well as in Europe without someone to partner Rio . Then a January purchase for a Spartak Moscow centre
back changed everything. I didn’t know
much about him at the time, other than that we had signed a player that had
evidently already agreed to a contract with Fiorentina in Italy . We had a huge hole in defense by that time,
as Gabby when down for the season and Kieran Richardson and O’Shea were the
left side of our defense. Well Vidic and
Patrice Evra came in, and we won titles.
Some of his best years with the club, I don’t believe any striker could
better him. He and Rio
are pretty much the only reason that they had to sell Gerard Pique, but I
wouldn’t have it any other way.
#4 – Rio Ferdinand. The other half. That’s what makes this year so
difficult. Not only were United not
challenging for trophies, but they were doing it in the last season of most of
these great players careers with United.
I think Rio is one of the greatest CB’s the world
has ever seen and along with Marcel Desailly the other central defender I would
want in my World 11 squad. He was so
calm and composed and always in position to make a play during the prime of his
career. Then, in certain situations he
could come forward and score a goal as well.
Two of my favorite United goals of all-time have come from this
man. To sum it up, I can say that I have
been quite blessed as a United fan to have had Rio and
Vidic partnering together for 8 years.
There weren’t any other players in the world that I would have preferred
otherwise, and I think it’s fitting that their last season with United was also
their last season together.
#3 – Ryan Giggs. Tearing you apart, definitely. For all of
his personal issues, there has been a comfort in knowing that he has been in
the line-up every single year from the time that I was in elementary
school. His pace, dribbling and crossing
skills have probably been the best that United has seen, since the days of
George Best. For as good as Cristiano
is, Giggs could deliver a ball too. He
has won so much along with these other guys, and I think that it’s his work
ethic and desire to be great that has kept him going for so long. I’m still 9 years younger than he is and my
knees hurt, my back is sore, my feet swell and my joints kill, so I can’t
imagine what it feels like for him.
There are always going to be the great moments: The Arsenal goal, the Juventus goal, that
penalty, and the goal against Everton which put him at 23 seasons in which he
had scored a 1st division goal.
And all that was great. But the
reason that I enjoyed him for so much more than that were the moments that
he’ll never know. Changing the
#11(eleven) to renaming it Giggs. Naming one of my children “Giggs”. Knowing people that have named their sons
Ryan, in his honor. Becoming my 2nd
favorite Manchester United manager of all-time.
Being the 1st player I ever named on my infamous World
11. All of that.
#2 – Roy Keane. This
was hard. Sometimes I feel like Keane
should be 3 and Giggs should be 2. I
only had about 7 of Keane’s years, because of another rift with the great Sir
Alex. I think that he could have
continued excelling at Manchester United and I think that United could’ve won
more, if they could have just moved past their differences. For from the time he left, it took the luck
of finding an Edwin van der Sar and the improvement of Wayne Rooney and
Cristiano to really get this team back to the level that they used to be. I still think they were a tad short at the
end of the day. And it pretty much
correlates to the leadership and skill set of one Roy Keane. He was an absolute monster in the
mid-field. And he could do everything.
He could tackle, pass, score, run, jump, dribble, and connect defense to
attack. He is probably the only true
box-to-box that I have ever seen in all the years of watching soccer. (Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi are close
though). He was an asshole, and his tackle against Alf Haaland was unjustifiable, but United
needed an asshole to help out David Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Neville and the
like. We had great players. But he was the one that brought out the best
in them. The real Captain Fantastic, and a true United legend.
#1 – Wayne
Rooney. Probably not what everyone
expected, but there is a story behind it.
Growing up, I was a huge fan of the NFL.
Football was what I breathed, dreamed, ate, you name it. I started playing Tecmo Bowl when I was 6
years old, and fantasy football when I turned 13. It was my thing. We actually used to make fun of soccer
players whenever we came in contact with one.
Lawn fairies, entertainers, actors, the whole nine. Then, one night. Everton was playing Arsenal in late October
and Arsenal was leading the Premier league.
My poor United just couldn’t seem to catch them, and they (Arsenal) had
already won the title the year before.
They had Henry. They had Bergkamp. I was getting to the point where I was
enjoying soccer, but I knew that it was still #2. David Moyes (yep, same guy), sends on a 16
year old. And the rest they say is
history. For all of his inconsistencies
and foul language and motivational indifference, I still am enthralled by his
style of play. When he is on, he will
harass you around the entire pitch. He
can score from anywhere on the field (right, West Ham?) He will bully you. He
is tantalizing. So he comes on as a 16
year old, gets himself right in the middle of the game, takes a touch and
blasts it over the outstretched hands of one David Seaman. In the 90th minute. Against a team that hadn’t lost in 30
games. That were on top of the
league. That one moment made me fall in
love with a sport that will be with me for the rest of my life, will never
yield its position as my favorite sport, and I owe it all to this guy.
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