Ryan Giggs Quotes

#1. Celebrity culture, it's everywhere, isn't it? It's reality TV, Big Brother. I didn't become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn't want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day?

Ryan Giggs

#2. Looking at me from the outside, it is not very obvious, I know half my family is black and I feel close to their culture and their color.

Ryan Giggs

#3. Where does it stop? You get offered money for your wedding, then for your kids, new houses, holidays ... We earn enough from football and sponsorships, why do you need any more?

Ryan Giggs

#4. I like to let my football do the talking, I'm respectful of other good teams such as Arsenal.

Ryan Giggs

#5. Where I grew up, people obviously knew my dad because it's a small place and he was the top player for Swinton - they'd go and watch him play, see him in the papers, so they knew he was black.

Ryan Giggs

#6. What you've got to realise is that footballers, and me in particular, have seen everything in the changing room. Everything. I've seen the manager kicking off with the players, the players kicking off with him, players fighting each other, managers fighting, everything.

Ryan Giggs

#7. I do not wish to hide my origins, nor do I seek to make it a subject of conversation. I am what I am.

Ryan Giggs

#8. As a footballer I can't imagine life without the use of one of my legs ... Sadly this is exactly what happens to thousands of children every year when they accidentally step on a landmine.

Ryan Giggs

#9. Roy Keane is Damien, the devil incarnate off the film The Omen. He's evil. Even in training.

Ryan Giggs

#10. It's not just the players, it's the culture. Sometimes it's the people around them; the people who are looking after them - the money they're given. Some of the families give up their jobs and live off their sons. That would never have happened 10 years ago.

Ryan Giggs

#11. I just want to be as successful as I can in football.

Ryan Giggs

#12. I've put myself forward to be involved. Whether I get picked, we'll have to wait and see. Obviously everybody is excited about it, about the Olympics coming to London and the football being played in different parts of Britain.

Ryan Giggs

#13. Many players want to make as much money as they can and change teams for ten grand. How is that going to make much difference to their lives?

Ryan Giggs

#14. He was a professional rugby player in the area that I played as a youngster. So a lot of people who I went to school with knew who he was and knew that he was black. So I would get racist taunts in school.

Ryan Giggs

#15. When you lose a game or don't play well you can't wait for the next one, because it soon disappears, the disappointment.

Ryan Giggs

#16. I had an early taste of fame. I was 20, going out with TV presenter Dani Behr and we'd have paparazzi chasing us. I'm not comfortable being photographed, though I accept it is part of the job. I had to ask myself, 'What comes first, being a celebrity or footballer?'

Ryan Giggs

#17. I am proud of my black roots and of the black blood that runs in my veins.

Ryan Giggs

#18. I didn't become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn't want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day? I couldn't think of anything worse.

Ryan Giggs

#19. As players, you just play for the club. I love Man United, I'm going to play for Man United, and that's what my focus is on.

Ryan Giggs

#20. My dad played rugby, so I used to watch a lot of rugby union and rugby league.

Ryan Giggs

#21. Messi is probably the best player of the last 20 years.

Ryan Giggs

#22. I've always had people come up to me to say that they admire the way I play, and then they tell me they're not United fans. That's always been nice.

Ryan Giggs

#23. I hope this match never ends. When the match ends, the memories begin.

Ryan Giggs

#24. Every footballer wants to play forever. And if you are going to keep on playing - to enjoy it to the full - you want to win games, and as a result, trophies.

Ryan Giggs

#25. Nelson Mandela is my hero outside of football. I was fortunate enough to meet him a couple of times. He was really clued up on his football and he knew me, so that was just unbelievable. It really stuck with me.

Ryan Giggs

#26. There's never been completion in my football career because I've always been striving for that next thing.

Ryan Giggs

#27. I actually don't feel the years passing, although the younger players make sure to remind me of my age. If there's a clip of Bobby Charlton playing or a game's in black and white they'll ask: Were you playing in that Giggsy?

Ryan Giggs

#28. When Cristiano Ronaldo gets the ball, you can just leave him to it while he beats player after player.

Ryan Giggs

#29. We will go back to playing like Manchester United.

Ryan Giggs

#30. Too much money at a young age, it just takes your eye off the ball. And you're not as hungry as players used to be. You think you've made it before you've done anything.

Ryan Giggs

#31. Football is easy when things are going well, but when its not, it becomes the biggest test.

Ryan Giggs

#32. I have played with some great players during my time at United but I would have to put Paul Scholes down as the best.

Ryan Giggs

#33. He is the best passer of a ball in the world, and Real's style fits him.
(on David Beckham)

Ryan Giggs

#34. I'm not comfortable being photographed, though I accept it is part of the job.

Ryan Giggs

#35. A lot of people don't know that my father is black.

Ryan Giggs

#36. I have always considered myself to be very fortunate. To play for the biggest club in the world, which also happens to be the team I supported as a boy, means I have never had to consider changing away from Manchester United.

Ryan Giggs

#37. You get yourself prepared for a big game, you get yourself up for it. Then afterwards you don't sleep or eat properly.

Ryan Giggs

#38. All players have 'ordinary' periods in their career and it's hard to explain why. So at these times, its all about self belief, hard work and hopefully you get the break and your form returns.

Ryan Giggs

#39. Every one is special. Especially after the disappointment of last year, losing out on the last day, it is a great achievement by the lads.

Ryan Giggs

#40. If I feel I'm not influencing games, not scoring goals or making goals, then that's the time I'd pack it in.

Ryan Giggs

#41. My weight doesn't really fluctuate, but I make sure I don't eat late at night. It's about making sure I'm right physically because mentally I'm OK.

Ryan Giggs

#42. I had my footballing heroes such as Bryan Robson and Diego Maradona but my dad was a rugby league star, and he was my real hero. But the relationship with my mum was rocky and we saw things that would affect any youngster.

Ryan Giggs