Giggs Wins the award for the Greatest United Player

After six weeks of voting and thousands of submissions, United fans have crowned Ryan Giggs the club’s greatest ever player, topping a poll held by the club’s official magazine, Inside United, and ManUtd.com.

Giggs– already the most decorated player with the most appearances in the United's history – took yet another accolade by a healthy margin, confirming the esteem in which he is held by Reds fans young and old.

Second place in the poll went to Eric Cantona, who fractionally edged George Best into third position.

Welsh winger Giggs was typically magnanimous when he found out he’d won. “When I got told I was really chuffed,” he said.

“I couldn’t believe it to be honest, especially when you look at the list of other players who are up there.”

The poll was launched by Inside United in December 2010, with voting open until mid January. Readers were asked to nominate a first, second and third choice, and the responded in droves through the magazine, ManUtd.com and via the club’s Facebook page.

Inside United will announce Giggs as the winner in its March issue, out on 2 February. As well as counting down the rest of the top 10, the magazine also has an exclusive interview with vote-winner Giggs, who talks about the honour of winning, the privilege of wearing the Red shirt and his intention to add to his United legacy.

Giggs was presented with an award recognizing the vote result by Sir Alex Ferguson prior to the home game against Birmingham City on 22 January.

Look out for more reaction to 'the greatest' vote on ManUtd.com on Tuesday. Sir Alex gives his reaction to the absence of Denis Law and Duncan Edwards from the top 10 (they finished 13th and 11th respectively), plus there's more from Giggsy, a 'best of' video from our winner and an exclusive desktop wallpaper.
(http://www.manutd.com/)

Manchester United is one of the best clubs in the world to play, and has had some of the greatest players in the world. When fans were asked to vote, they chose Ryan Giggs, the most decorated United player, who has been playing there professionally since 1991. It is clear that he won the award because not only is he a great player, but he has stayed loyal to United and is still playing. Of course players like Paul Scholes and Gary Neville are still playing, but Giggs still has a starting left wing position, and is probably United’s most valuable player right now. He provides the team with experience and a lot of skill that he has gained over 20 years with United. Other players that were voted in the top ten are mostly players that ended up leaving the club, like Ronaldo, Beckham, Best, etc.

There is no doubt that Giggs deserves this award for his skill and loyalty for the red devils. Hopefully seeing that fans think he is the greatest will make him decide to stay playing professionally as long as possible. Any United fan would say they love Giggs and even rival fans will admit that he is a great. I submitted three players that I thought were the greatest as well, placing Giggs at first with Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo following. I chose Giggs because he is my idol as a player. This loyalty that he shows makes him a great role model and I think he desrves it.Beckham was second on my list because he is one of the most famous players in the world starting his professional career with United. His crossing ability is known worldwide and I also try to perfect this ability as a player. I put Ronaldo in the third position because he is the player that you either love or hate. At the time when he was at the top of his career in United, the team won almost every piece of silverware that they could. He had a great partnership with Rooney as well as with Giggs and Berbatov to set up many of the goals scored from 2007-2009. He had to fill the shoes of Beckham with the number seven jersey and that he did. He also acted as a mentor to International partner Nani, to set him up to take over the position after his departure to Real Madrid. All three of these players made the top 10, Giggs obviously with first, Ronaldo in fifth and Beckham in seventh.
-JoeyB