Filed under: Manchester United, Premier League, Football
Three months before Paul Scholes played his final Manchester United game against Barcelona, the former England international was described as the most complete midfielder of the past two decades by Xavi."In the last 15 to 20 years the best central midfielder that I have seen - the most complete - is Scholes. I have spoken with Xabi Alonso about this many times. Scholes is a spectacular player who has everything," Xavi told The Daily Mail.
"He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesn't give possession away. If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more."
It is fair to say that Zinedine Zidane was also impressed, claiming that never having played alongside Scholes was one of the things he looks back on with disappointment.
"It's only natural to want to select your best players and there is no doubt for me that Paul Scholes is still in a class of his own," Zidane told The Sunday Mirror in 2010.
"He's almost untouchable in what he does. I never tire of watching him play. You rarely come across the complete footballer, but Scholes is as close to it as you can get.
"One of my regrets is that the opportunity to play alongside him never presented itself during my career."
Not bad for a little bloke from Oldham.
In fact, from winning the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award in 1993, the honours and compliments flowed non-stop for almost two decades.
He stands fourth on the club's list of all-time appearance makers, behind Ryan Giggs, Sir Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes, and few can claim to have served such a successful club so well for so long.
Scholes made his debut with two goals in a 2-1 League Cup win over Port Vale in 1994 - Sir Alex Ferguson was criticised for playing so many youngsters - and appeared in the league in United's next match, going on to make another 674 appearances for the club.
His impressive debut season - scoring five league goals as United just missed out on the Premier League and FA Cup - must have been a major factor in Ferguson's decision to let Paul Ince, Andrei Kanchelskis and Mark Hughes move on in the summer of 1995.
In recent years he has reinvented himself in a deeper role so it is easy for younger fans to struggle to remember the impish attacking midfielder who had the knack of timing runs into the area perfectly.
He had a wonderful range of passing, as comfortable sliding a five-yard pass through a gap as he was raking a 60-yarder across field and also possessed a great power and accuracy with his long-range shooting, although his tackling has always been lamentable and he was notoriously shy off the field.
He scored a total of 14 goals as United confounded the critics to win the Double in 1996, with kids David Beckham, Gary and Phil Neville and Nicky Butt starring, and it just went on and on.
Scholes made his England debut under Glenn Hoddle in 1997, after winning another title with United, and made his mark at the 1998 World Cup with a stunning goal in his country's 2-0 win over Tunisia.
There was also a memorable hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Poland at Wembley in 1999, shortly before carving his name into United folklore by playing a key role on the way to the 'Treble'.
He scored in the 1-1 quarter-final second leg draw at Inter and scored in the FA Cup win over Newcastle before missing the Champions League final win over Bayern Munich through suspension.
Scholes struggled with his form after Juan Sebastian Veron's arrival in 2001, being pushed forward to a second striker role, but bounced back the year after with 20 goals.
At the 2004 European Championships, he was also moved around to accommodate Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in central midfield and decided to call time on his international career after 66 caps and 14 goals.
Both Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello tried to tempt him back but he was having none of it and we can only wonder about how many caps he would have earned over the last seven years.
Scholes had a penalty saved as United lost the 2005 FA Cup final to Arsenal and also struggled with vision problems in 2006 but was still capable of coming up with sensational goals.
He remained a key man as United bounced back from four years without a title to win three on the bounce, gradually dropping deeper and deeper as his legs struggled to drag him up and down.
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