Legend would be no overstatement

It's a sad, but celebratory week for football. Sad, because possibly the greatest English player of the last two decades has retired. But celebratory in that we've been been graced with Paul Scholes' consistent brilliance for the best part of twenty years.
As a football crazy kid, I remember when I first came across Paul Scholes. His picture was in a Manchester United magazine with the caption: "Nicky Butt, Youth Team."

Before long he was impossible to confuse. He was in the first team and couldn't stop scoring. Soon after he was being picked for England and unlike many great English players, fulfilled his potential on the international stage for the time he decided to stay there. When asked if Scholes' place was in danger in the lead up to Euro 2004, Sven just laughed and said: "Haha I don't think so. Paul has nothing to worry about." (that is not verbatum).

But Scholes was also a credit to himself, the spirit of Manchester United and to English football; never one to be splashed across the Sun's gossip pages, steering clear of high profile contract negotiations and only rarely giving interviews. A football player with traditional values who never grew so big as to crave media attention. Unlike virtually every other football player of his generation, I've watched him play for hours, but heard him speak for barely minutes.

Rather that wax lyrical for too long (many football pundits have done this far better than I could), I thought I would just share my favourtie Scholes moments (there were four more but I can't find the clips...)

England vs. Tunisia
I remember watching this in the library at school, because the match was during the school day. Scholes was a certainty from the start, whilst Beckham was started on the bench because of questions over his temprament.



England vs. Scotland 1999
On a couple of occasions, Scholes single handedly pulled England over the line. His hatrick against Poland also comes to mind, but his brace in the European Championship has to be one of his strongest England matches

Manchester United vs. Arsenal FA Cup semi-final 2004
I watched Scholes live a few times, but in this semi-final at Villa Park he was absolutely everywhere . I've never seen a player with such an engine. He was box to box and not suprising when he popped up in the penalty box to score the only goal of the game.

Manchester United vs. Barcelona 2008
Later in his career Scholes played deeper and scored far more rarely. However the ones he did score were both spectacular and vital. This winner in the semi-final against Barcelona sticks in the mind along with his winner last season in the Manchester derby in the depths of injury time. For the latter, I was in a pub in Manchester - the roof came off.

Manchester United vs. Manchester City 2010