The joy, the pain, the chest hair: Eleven iconic images of Ryan Giggs, in his own words

The Class of 92

That’s obviously a photo of the famous youth team. Eric Harrison got a special award from Carling because all those players had made their first team appearance by then. I had been playing in the first team a few years by then and the others lads came after me.

Eric was a great coach. He was old school, you didn’t mess with him, he was a typical Yorkshireman. You didn’t want to get on the wrong side of him but he was a really good coach.

That was a pretty special youth team and I don’t think anything like that will happen again. I think six of the players went on to get at least 50 international caps each and played for United hundreds of times. It was such a one off.

Stranger in Moscow

I think that was one of my first trips to Europe with United. I think we were playing Torpedo Moscow in the UEFA Cup [in 1992]. We actually got a bit of time to do some sightseeing and we went to see Red Square and the Summer Palace.

A group of photographers asked me to pose with the hat which is something I wouldn’t do these days, but as a naïve 18-year-old I thought ‘yeah, why not?’

You wouldn’t be able to do that these days because there’s a good chance you would get mobbed so you’re more confined to your hotel room. That’s one way that football has changed. Pre-season is a bit better because you have two or three weeks to look around a place.

At the double

That was my first FA Cup and we also won the league that year so to win the double was amazing. I grew up watching the FA Cup and I always dreamed of walking up those steps to collect the FA Cup so to finally fulfil a boyhood dream was a great feeling.

To share the moment with Eric was also great because he had such a big influence on my career. He came to the club when he was 26 and he was a ready-made professional. I was still a teenager and I really looked up to him because of the way he prepared and the way he delivered on the pitch every Saturday.

In the youth team we were always encouraged to do extra training but when you saw Eric doing it you realised that when you got to the first team you didn’t stop trying to improve.

Toffee trouble

That photo sums up the way I felt after one of the most disappointing seasons I can remember with United. Everton beat us in the FA Cup final and anyone who has lost a cup final will tell you it’s one of the worst feelings in football.

I hadn’t played the last three or four weeks of the season because I did my hamstring in the semi-final of the FA Cup so I came on as a sub at Wembley and didn’t do a lot. So both personally and as a team that moment marked the end of a really disappointing season. We had lost out in the Premier League to Blackburn and then we lost the FA Cup.

The worst thing about losing in the FA Cup final is that you have the whole summer to think about it and stew on it. If you lose a match in the league you always have another game to get it out of your system but you can’t do that after the FA Cup final.

The Knight, the Prince and the Wing Wizard

I’m looking pretty young there! I think it was at Old Trafford and four or five players plus the manager went along to support an event for the Prince’s Trust.

To meet Prince Charles was a great honour especially as he is the Prince of Wales. That was the first time I met him and I was quite young so it was nice that he knew who I was. He knew his football and he was very impressed with Old Trafford.

That’s been one of the good things about being a professional footballer, you get to meet other famous people and to meet Charles was a real privilege.

Is that...? Surely it can't be...? Yes it is! Gary Pallister!

That photo is of a restaurant opening we were invited to. Bill Wyman was a nice bloke.

You get invited to a lot of things when you’re a footballer and that was one all the lads agreed to go along to. It was for a restaurant called Sticky Fingers which isn’t there anymore but we had a good night.

Getting shirty

Blimey, the rug! That was obviously after the goal against Arsenal in the semi-final of the FA Cup.

I think if you asked most players what it feels like to score a goal it’s hard to explain but something seems to just take over you and sometimes it’s hard to control yourself. When you score a goal in an important match that feeling gets multiplied by 10 and it’s a great feeling. I lost all feeling at the time and I just decided to whip my top off and go and celebrate.

That was one of the personal highlights of my career and a goal that people always talk about. A few people gave me a bit of stick for my hairy chest but I just about got away with it because the goal was such a good one.

That night in Barcelona

That was one of the best nights of my life. The club had been trying to win the Champions League for a few years so to finally win it was amazing. To share it with Becks was very special because we had grown up together playing in the youth team.

He usually played on the right and I played on the left so we made a great partnership. [FourFourTwo: We see you’ve got a beer in your hand...?] Amstel were one of the competitions sponsors so we thought we should make the most of it. We went back to the hotel that night and had a big party.

When in Rome...

That was one of the most disappointing nights of my career. The complete opposite feeling to when we won in Barcelona.

The hype around the Champions League final is massive and you can’t help but get caught up in it so to lose in the final is pretty devastating. It’s like with the FA Cup final when it’s the last game of the season. You have seven or eight weeks of stewing on it, constantly thinking about it on the beach when you’re trying to enjoy your holiday.

That was a particularly bad night because we never really turned up and we didn’t play well. But it also serves as a great motivation because it makes you want to come back and put things right and you’re even more determined to be successful.

On the spot

That was my penalty in Moscow in the Champions League final against Chelsea. I think that was the last penalty that went in because Anelka missed the next one so to score the winning penalty was great.

To be honest, I was just relieved to see it go in. The pressure was massive and it’s a long walk to the penalty spot. I had a bit of the jelly legs making that walk but at the same time I felt pretty confident. I had practiced a lot in the build-up so I was happy with how I was going to take it.

There was a big gap between winning the Champions League in 1999 and winning it again in 2008 so I probably appreciated it a bit more the second time around. It was also a special night because I surpassed Sir Bobby Charlton’s appearance record for United.

Shushing the 'noisy neighbours'

That was when I scored in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester City at their place. We actually lost the match but we went on to beat them in the second leg and got through to the final.

I always enjoyed scoring against City. I was at their Centre of Excellence from the age of 11 to 13 so to score at their place was always nice.

The rivalry with City has changed massively over the years, especially now they have come into so much money. It’s so much bigger these days. I think I didn’t lose a derby match for the first 20 and then we lost a couple at Maine Road and the last few years it’s been an awful lot tighter.