Premier League - Giggs storms into Greatest XI
Ryan Giggs won the vote among Eurosport-Yahoo! writers and readers to find the Premier League's greatest left midfielder - by a landslide.
Next season will be the 20th in Premier League history and over the summer we are compiling the best XI to grace the top-flight since the competition's inception in 1992.
Each Monday, we will provide a short list of players and you can vote for your favourite in the Eurosport-Yahoo! online poll or on the Eurosport Facebook page.
Each Thursday, our panel of experts make their decision – their votes count for 50% - while the poll votes also count for 50%.
The verdict across all three votes was predictably unanimous. For all the magic and wonder induced by Le Tissier over the years, a haul of a dozen Premier League titles was more than enough for the Welshman to trump the opposition.
Le Tissier was comfortably everyone's second favourite, while David Ginola (who scooped both the PFA and Football Writers' awards in United's treble-winning 1998-99 season) beat Joe Cole into third place.
Giggs joins Peter Schmeichel, Gary Neville, Tony Adams, Nemanja Vidic, Ashley Cole, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard in our XI, which now consists of six United players and one each from Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Eurosport Experts' Result (50% - double points): 10-Ryan Giggs, 8-Matt Le Tissier, 6-David Ginola, 4-Joe Cole, 2-Harry Kewell
Facebook Poll Result (25%): 5-Ryan Giggs, 4-Matt Le Tissier, 3-Joe Cole, 2-David Ginola, 1-Harry Kewell
Home Page Poll Result (25%): 5-Ryan Giggs, 4-Matt Le Tissier, 3-David Ginola, 2-Joe Cole, 1-Harry Kewell
Final scores: 20-Ryan Giggs, 16-Matt Le Tissier, 11-David Ginola, 9-Joe Cole, 4-Harry Kewell
Here's some of the best user comments left on the Eurosport-Yahoo! website, the Eurosport mobile app and the Eurosport Facebook page:
"I love Le Tiss, he was a genius and only getting 8 caps for England is an insult to the man. However Giggs is a level above, in the same pantheon as the Rauls and Figos of this world." - Matt
"Let's not confuse success for skill here. Yes Giggs the most decorated player in the Premeriship and has been a top player for Utd over the years but for skill, pace & excitement it has to be Ginola for me, the guy was a wizard on the wing & was truly a great entertainer. So Giggs may have the honours but comes nowhere near Ginola or Le Tiss for true skill and entertainment value." - GEORGE
"'Pound-for-pound' is a very unfortunate phrase to use in connection with Le Tiss, who a carried a bit of surplus most of the time. Doubt if there will ever be another like Giggs - consistently excellent for so long. And I recall Hansen saying on MOTD in the mid-nineties he'd slipped to 'mediocre'!" - trevormarch43
"Giggs all the way. I'm not a United fan but what he has achieved in his career is phenomenal. I'm Welsh but think its a shame that he happened to have represented Wales, can you imagine him in an international team with other players at his level. I think if he'd had that chance he would have been talked about as one of the best ever and not just the Premier League era." - richard
"Le Tissier for sure. Everybody is inevitably and predictably blinded by the name Giggs, who was surrounded by far more quality than Le Tissier ever was, and so inevitably people assume he is better. Le Tissier scored more goals in far less games, and was a veritable talisman to an otherwise poor Southampton side." - Ross Hendry
"This is the easiest of all the positions to pick. Giggs is the best left-sided player of the last 25 years..in the whole of Europe. Would have got in any team in the world." - red under the bed
Come back on Monday when we start the search for our number 10...
Comment 146 - 165 of 165
Giggs is always an inspiring play when he in the Pitch and looks parent both to players and funs
Go Gerrard go, we are here for you.
put Steven Gerrard before Roy Keane is an absolute joke, what did gerrard do that keane didn't nothing, Steven Gerrard is only an average player in my book
Gigsy is a man who knows his game on and off the pitch.
Who cares about Giggs's private life?! There looking for the best FOOTBALLERS here, not the people with the best private life. So shut up about Giggs's private life, u morons.
I wish Ryan Giggs would have played for England and not Wales he would have been among one of Englands greats for sure! you don't play at the top for so long in one of the worlds best teams and not be a great! it will be sad when he retires from football! he deserves this honour! what he's done in his private life is his business and nobody else's! it's what he's done on the football pitch that matters! Thank You Ryan
People Cry about there being so many united players in this team? Have you actually stopped and asked your self why ?
Because a lot of these players where dedicated to Manchester united. In turn Fergie and the coaching team turned them into brilliant players. Paul Scholes And Giggs Have been the most consistent players to ever grace the premier league FACT and Served the same team for those years unlike the players of today, Oh his giving me an extra half a million a year i am going there oh this guy giving me a bigger signing on bonus blah blah blah. To many players when they are happy and are playing good jump boats expecting to turn into the next super star and when they move they realize oh @#$% i don't gel well with this team the managers a bit of a @#$% and don't speak English. Oh well least i got my Ferrari to go right off......
Giggs going down on the left handside?????
That is PLONKING your on about????
That he is TOPS at doing..
It amazes me, here we all are complaining about NOTW and yet you just have to read some of these comments, NOTHING to do with football, which I thought he was being judged on.
He is not the first and I believe won't be the last to be a little errant off the field, just a few "high profile" footballers to consider; Jan Molby (prison, Joey Barton( prison),Tony Adams (gambling/Alcohol),
Paul Merson (drugsalcohol), Mickey Thomas (prison), John Terry (infadelity), Ashliegh Cole (infidelaty), Ryan Giggs (infadelity), Eric Cantana (community service), Marc Bosnich (drugs).
The list is endless, as can be seen, Apart from JT, AC, & RG ALL the others are ILLEGAL infidelity is not.
So knock it off and get your vicarious kicks elsewhere and concentrate on what thes pages are supposed to be about. FOOTBALL or are you saying that EVERYONE in this country is such a parragon of virtue and 100% true/faithfull and without any sin. I think not.
that list to me shows how much british people know about football!!!wheres the players with technicall ability???steven gerrard what a joke!!!
I have no interest in Giggs or the worthless creatures who think that attaching themselves to a particular football team from the other end of the country makes them winners by association when it merely exposes them as spineless beta males.
Giggs is proof that money can get you anything and anywhere you want.
Including your brother's missus' knickers......
More like the greatest overpaid muppets.
Funny that, Imogen didn't rate him so high!
What this dirty old git. He looks like an old man. All he seems to do is shag women. When does he get time for football.
this is becoming like a soap a bloody turn off, how about doing it all in one go, instead of waiting for tomorrows installment yawn...........zzzzzzzzzzzz
Giggs is a legend, cant say i wasnt shocked by whats happened recently thought, but i love him as a loyal footballer.
Six United players and only 1 from Liverpool. And none from man sh1tty. Says it all really!
Six United players - enough said!
He may be a great footballer, but......(the next section has a super injunction against it) ....... Sheep.
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