Born on November 29 1973 as Ryan Joseph Wilson in Ely, Cardiff. He is a Welsh football player, and he spent almost his entire career playing for Manchester United in the Premiership. Giggs is the son of Danny Wilson, a noted Rugby League player, and his mother is Lynne Giggs. Although born in Cardiff, he was raised in Pendlebury, England and speaks with a Mancunian accent. His father is of mixed race (of Sierra Leonean and Dutch ancestry) and Giggs has always expressed pride at his mixed heritage. Giggs is Manchester United's longest-serving current player. He made his first appearance for the club during the 1990-91 season and been a regular player since the 1991-92 season. He has played the second highest number of competitive games for the club (second only to Bobby Charlton), and holds the club record of team trophies won by a player.

Begginings

Giggs began his football career as a junior member of Deans Sports F.C. in Swinton and was spotted as a 14-year-old by Manchester City. His dribbling skills were compared to legendary players such as George Best, Diego Maradona, and Johan Cruyff. His talent became widely recognised, and Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson went to his house personally to urge him to sign for Manchester United instead of Manchester City, and he joined them on 29 November 1987 - his 14th birthday.In 1994, the BBC described Giggs as "one of the most photographed persons" in Great Britain. Giggs, or "Giggsy", as he was known, was also hailed as one of the FA Premier League's biggest stars and could often be found as the picture-book merchandising icon of the league's early years. He (along with Jamie Redknapp and Lee Sharpe) was part of the league's attempt to market itself globally, re-forging its image after the hooliganism-affected years of the 1980s.Giggs turned professional on 29 November 1990 (his 17th birthday) and made his League debut against Everton F.C. at Old Trafford on 2 March 1991, as a substitute for Denis Irwin. In his first full start, Giggs was credited with his first ever goal in a 1-0 win in the Manchester derby.1992-93 season - the first season of the newly-formed FA Premier League, Giggs was firmly established as United's first choice left winger, and became known as one of British football's most prodigious young players. His emergence and the arrival of Eric Cantona heralded the dominance of United in the new Premier League. His manager was very protective of him, refusing to allow Giggs to be interviewed until he turned 20, eventually granting the first interview to the BBC.His ability to consistently dribble past opposing players by using his own exceptional balance, pace, and skill became the most noticeable aspect of his game.

His goals were regularly shortlisted for various Goal of the Season awards, and tended to be memorable, particularly the ones against QPR in 1993, Tottenham in 1994, Everton in 1995, Coventry in 1996, and the most remarkable of all, his amazing solo-goal against Arsenal in the replay of the 1999 FA Cup semi-final.
By the late 1990s, with the retirement of Cantona and the emergence of more younger players like David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Philip Neville and Nicky Butt, his popularity and fame gradually evened out and attention was paid to some of the younger stars, with Beckham receiving particularly high levels of media attention on and off the field. However, his football skill was still marked genius, and he developed into a more mature senior player by the time United won their record breaking and unprecedented "Treble" in 1999.
He played in his fourth FA Cup triumph on 22 May 2004, making him one of only two players (the other being Roy Keane) to have won the trophy four times, while playing for Manchester United. He has also finished with a runners-up medal three times (1995, 2005 and 2007).

His participation in the victory over Liverpool in September 2004 made him the third player to play 600 games for United, alongside Sir Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his contribution to the English game. After 2005/2006 season, Giggs signed a two-year contract extension with Manchester United when chairman David Gill relented on his normal policy of not signing players over 30 to contracts longer than one year. This will keep him at Old Trafford until at least June 2008.
Ryan Giggs made his 700th appearance for Manchester United on 3 March 2007 in a Premier League match against Liverpool, which Manchester United won 1-0.
Sir Alex Ferguson has stated he believes Giggs can carry on playing for United beyond this date. In his subsequent match, after the international break, Giggs dribbled past two defenders and netted a deflected shot (his first league goal of the season) in the second half of a 4-1 Manchester United romp away to Aston Villa. The goal means that along with Gary Speed (currently at Sheffield United), Giggs has scored in every single Premiership season since its inception in 1992. Giggs scored his 100th league goal for Manchester United against Derby County on 8 December 2007, which Manchester United won 4-1.
Giggs won 64 caps and scored 12 goals for the Welsh national team between 1991 and 2007. However his international career was frustrating as, like Alfredo Di Stéfano and George Best, he did not play in either a European Championship or a World Cup finals, because Wales failed to qualify. He was appointed captain of Wales in 2004.
In September 2006, Giggs put in a dazzling performance in a friendly against Brazil at White Hart Lane. Such was his display that, following the 2-0 win for Brazil, Brazil coach Dunga paid Giggs the ultimate compliment by stating he would not look out of place playing for the five-time world champions alongside stars such as Kaká and Ronaldinho
Giggs announced his retirement from international football on Wednesday 30 May 2007 at a press conference held at The Vale of Glamorgan Hotel, drawing the curtain on a 16-year international career. His final game for Wales, and as captain, was the Euro 2008 Qualifier against the Czech Republic on 2 June at Cardiff. He earned his 64th cap in this game and won the Man of the Match award as Wales drew 0-0.

Personal life

Other than his notorious spate of womanising as alleged in tabloids such as the Daily Mirror over the years, Giggs has otherwise managed to avoid the limelight of celebrity trappings that tagged his earlier years. In his autobiography, Giggs: The Autobiography, he revealed possible reasons for his aversion to attention, and accounted for his quiet and bashful demeanour.

The biography told of the racial taunts that Giggs endured as a child because he was the product of a mixed marriage. Although he admired his Rugby league-playing father's sporting gifts (Giggs attributes his speed and balance to his father's genes), he hated the impact his "bullying aggressive nature" had on his family.
Giggs is considered by many as a player who, unlike Lee Sharpe and George Best, achieved considerable fame despite a relatively low profile overall as a celebrity. He has hosted adverts for Reebok, Sovil Titus, Citizen Watches, Givenchy, Fuji, Patek Phillipe, Quorn Burgers and Celcom, and has been used for video-mapping in computer game simulations like EA Sports' FIFA 2003, for which he also did a commercial.

According to an article by BBC Sport: "In the early 1990s, Giggs was David Beckham before Beckham was even holding down a place in the United first team. If you put his face on the cover of a football magazine, it guaranteed you the biggest sales of the year. Why? Men would buy it to read about 'the new Best' and girls bought it because they wanted his face all over their bedroom walls. Giggs had the million-pound boot deal (Reebok), the lucrative sponsorship deals in the Far East (Fuji) and the celebrity girlfriends (Dani Behr, Davinia Taylor) at a time when Beckham was being sent on loan to Preston North End.

Campaignes

In recent years, Giggs has also become a UNICEF representative, launching a campaign to prevent landmines from killing children in 2002.

Giggs, who had visited UNICEF projects in Thailand, told the BBC: "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. Giggs is also an active campaigner in the fight against racism in football, alongside fellow mixed-raced players like Rio Ferdinand and Thierry Henry.

He told the Football Anti-Racism site 'Stop the BNP' the following in 2004: "A lot of people don't know that my father is black. 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."[2]

He also added in the French sports newspaper, L'Equipe, "Looking at me from the outside, it is not very obvious, I know but half my family is black and I feel close to their culture and their colour. I am proud of my black roots and of the black blood that runs in my veins. I do not wish to hide my origins, nor do I seek to make it a subject of conversation. I am what I am.

Giggs is also a patron of the Manchester-based 'five Star Scanner Appeal', a charity that aims to raise £1m to fund a new scanner at a new Manchester Children's Hospital due to be built ready for 2009.

With the achievements in his professional career and contribution to one of the greatest football clubs in the world, Ryan Giggs will always be a Manchester United Legend.