Football Legend Ryan Giggs Reveals Who His Boyhood Sporting Hero Was

Ryan Giggs will do down as one of the greatest ever footballers to grace the Premier League.

With 114 goals in 672 appearances for Manchester United, he's still worshipped by the club's fans and is remembered for being one of the key players during the team's most dominant era.

But while his 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League winners' medals are impressive, it was his individual ability with the ball at his feet that made most Red Devils supporters fall in love with him.

His dribbling from the left wing and vision to pick a pass from anywhere on the pitch made him one of the most naturally-gifted players to ever don the famous red shirt.

So if you were to take a wild guess at who Giggs' sporting hero growing up was, then you'd probably look no further than someone like United legend George Best.

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Or even the likes of Johan Cruyff or Diego Maradona?

Wrong.

In fact, Giggs' boyhood idol didn't even play football.

It turns out he was a massive fan of Australian rugby league great Mal Meninga.

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As a young ball boy at Old Trafford, Giggs used to see NRL immortal Meninga walking around in the tunnel before going out to play for St. Helens during the mid-80s.

And according to Matty Johns, that wasn't the only time the two rubbed shoulders.

"There was the 1986 Ashes at Old Trafford between Great Britain and Australia," Johns said on his Fox Sports podcast.

"The crowd at Old Trafford was absolutely jammed, it was electric. Playing that night was some of the biggest names in Australian rugby league history. There was Wally (Lewis), Sterlo (Peter Sterling) and all those other guys in the team. But the ball boy for Great Britain that day was Ryan Giggs.

"I remember they asked him in a soccer magazine who his hero was and he said Mal Meninga. He said he was ball-boying that day and Mal came off the bench to warm up and ran straight past him. He said he just couldn't take his eye off his legs - they're a great set of legs."

And Giggs isn't just a fan of Meninga, he also continues to follow rugby league religiously and is famously quoted as saying: "I love rugby League just as much as football."

The Welshman even appeared during one of Channel Nine's State of Origin segments where he was interviewed by Andrew Johns before the game.

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"It's an experience," Giggs said prior to the 2013 series.

"It's like a SuperBowl, an FA Cup final. The atmosphere and the buildup. We've been in Sydney for the last three or four days and we've seen it on the newspapers and on the TV."

Topics: Football News, Football, Manchester United, Rugby League, nrl, Ryan Giggs, Old Trafford, Australia, rugby league news

Max Sherry

Max Sherry is a journalist for SPORTbible Australia. After migrating Down Under from London as a teenager, he instantly fell in love with Aussie sport and its culture. From NRL to AFL, cricket to rugby — you name it, Max watches it (with a beer in hand, of course). During his time at Fox Sports, he worked in the football department covering the Premier League, A-League, Socceroos and Matildas. Born a stone's throw away from West Ham's training ground, Max is obviously a die-hard Liverpool fan.

@maxysherry