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The man’s been there, seen it, done it - and he’s
got the sweat-stained shirts of some of world soccer’s biggest names
to prove it. When you see Ryan Giggs take the field you know you’re watching
a legend. Even the top dogs, who’ve tried to stop him for Brazil and
Real Madrid, acknowledge his skill and staying power. They’re more than
happy to swap shirts with him on the final whistle.
But as Giggs breezes through what tabloid writers love to term the autumn of
his career, he retains a passion for his homeland. As fellow Premiership Welshmen
such as Robbie Savage and Gary Speed have, for differing reasons, played little
or no part in John Toshack’s quiet revolution, Giggs has been a rock.
His efforts may not see the squad bring home the European Championship or World
Cup in the next few years, but nobody will be able to say that Giggs was to
blame.
His thoughts on modern Wales reflect the way he has committed himself to the
Welsh cause in recent years. They even sound like a rallying cry to the nation
to be wholeheartedly positive in taking control of its future. It’s not
just the country’s football that he cherishes.
“
What’s Welshness today?” he asks in response to my question. “We’re
lucky as a country because we’ve got history coming from so many directions,
and we’ve also got great new things happening. Look at Cardiff, for instance.
It’s got attractions like the Millennium Stadium and the castle right
in the middle - it’s got a lot of things that many other cities can only
dream of. A lot of stadiums are out of the city these days - but not this one.
As a country we’ve shown that we’ve got the solid base of our past
and that we’re not scared to move on.”
"
You’ve got to move with the times," he says, "And, as well
as the buildings, you’ve got to have people you can look up to. The Cool
Cymru thing of the 90s was important in that respect. It’s good for the
people of Wales to be able to relate to heroes or to people they like to see
at football matches, at the cinema or in concert. It’s important for
our culture and our country that we have people we can look up to."
I wonder who he’d add to the modern roll call of Welsh greats. “Charlotte
Church has done so well for herself at such a young age," he says. "And
the Wales rugby team were so brilliant last year. Not only did they win the
2005 Six Nations, but also they did it in style. The way they played their
rugby was like it was back to the 70s. They ran with the ball rather than kicking
it, going against trends in the game over the past 10 to 15 years. To see a
team do that and succeed was refreshing." He sees a nice parallel with
the playing philosophy at United too. “For me, I think we like to play
football in the right way too," he explains. "I feel that we’ve
always done that.”
The footballer’s latest accolade is to appear in quite probably Wales’s
first photographic hall of fame, a collection of giant prints on show at Cardiff’s
Wales Millennium Centre. There’s a book to go with it as well, along
with a fly-on-the-wall TV documentary series. It’s a big deal for the
Children’s Hospital for Wales, which is delighted to be using the whole
project - the Cool Cymru Collection - as a raiser of awareness and funds.
Giggs and his fellow hall-of-fame subjects sat for free, giving their time
and attention to Welsh photographer Terry Morris. Prior to the Cool Cymru shoot
at Manchester United’s indoor training academy there was a lengthy, sophisticated
photo shoot going on a goalkick away. Photographers from sportswear giant Nike
had set up a studio. Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand and South Korean player
Ji-sung Park were among the starts ushered in to pose.
Read the full interview in the current issue of RedHanded.
TOP SHOTS
Ryan Giggs likes to keep a low profile, but he was happy to sit for the new Cool Cymru photography project, he tells Andy Pearsonz