Paul Scholes Retired: An Absolute Legend And a Legendarily Bad Tackler
By Ty Duffy
Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Fittingly, his longtime arch-minion Paul Scholes will retire, for good, alongside him. Scholes was a fixture of Ferguson’s second-wave of youngsters in the early 1990s, which also produced Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Gary Neville. Playing his entire career at United, he won 11 league titles, five domestic cups and two Champions Leagues. Not a bad haul.
Scholes was the most cultured English footballer of his generation, perhaps any generation. With phenomenal, intelligence and technical skill, he was one of that rare caliber of players who functions long after the legs leave, because he’s just that brilliant. Scholes was, in essence, a Catalan’s Englishman. Xavi, yes that Xavi, called him “the best central midfielder I’ve seen.”
If that wasn’t enough, Scholes played with asthma, played through Osgood-Schlatter disease as a teenager and played six and a half seasons at the club after suffering permanent vision damage during the 2005/06 season.