Cristiano Ronaldo once said
“When we were in training, I used to do a lot of tricks which hardly any players at the club could do. Once, I was showing my skills to Scholes. After I finished, Scholes took the ball and pointed to a tree which was about 50m from where we were standing .
He said I’m going to hit it in one shot. He kicked and hit the tree. He asked me to do the same; I kicked about 10 times, but still couldn’t hit it with that accuracy
He smiled and left.” That tells how good Paul Scholes was.
As I mentioned in my video “ Paul Scholes is not only the best midfielder but one of the best players from the Premier League.”
The greatest of the game too once said about Paul Scholes “ if he was playing with me , I would have scored so many more.”
Zidane was asked once “who is the toughest opponent you have ever faced” and he answered “Paul Scholes”
Andres Iniesta told the press that his biggest regret in football is not playing with Paul Scholes.
At the time of when Paul Scholes was playing football , players with brute strength and physical structure were more in demand like Roy Keane, Patrice Evra etc who are termed as saviour, heros of the team, but as I stated in my video “ saving is needed when you have committed mistakes but Scholsey never never made mistakes.”
Xavi once said “Paul Scholes is the best central midfielder he has seen in 15-20 years.”
Theirry Henry stated “without a doubt he is the best player in the premier league.”Lionel Messi once said that in La Masia the staff used to tell the stories of Paul Scholes to the kids.
But for me the best quote on Paul Scholes is from Luis Figo “On the pitch you can’t catch him, Off the pitch he disappers.” And this is because Scholes used to keep a very low profile , no social media connections, not going to media events which lead to him getting neglected at times. Paul Scholes was only elected 2 times for the PFA award and if you compare Stevan Gerrard was elected 8 times for the same. Steven Gerrard himself stated “Paul Scholes would have been the best player in the Premier League in the modern times.”
Paul Scholes was part of the “Fergie fledglings” which was the part of the youth team handpicked by Sir Alex Ferguson to develop and propel them for the First team.
Scholes made his Premier League debut in the 1994-95 season in which he scored 5 goals in 17 appearances . In the 1995-96 season Paul Scholes became a more regular player in the team scoring 14 goals in the campaign. In the 1996-97 season Roy Keane got injured which was a blessing in disguise for Scholes as he became more regular. In the 1998-99 season , Manchester United won the treble and Paul Scholes thrived in this season scoring in the FA Cup Final and in the Champions League Quarter final against Inter Milan too. But then something changed as Alex Ferguson signed Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron which changed the system of United making Scholes as a more attacking midfielder placing him just behind the striker. Playing in the new role Scholes really had an amazing time till 2004-2005 season. Then Paul Scholes had to deal with an issue of blurry eye which affected his game and also led to less game time. But Scholes made a comeback with one of his best seasons (2006-2007) because of which he is getting admired today too. Next season too Paul Scholes had a marvellous campaign which included the 25 yard screamer against Barcelona in the UCL semi finals and then won the Cup.
But from here it went down for Scholes as I mentioned in the video. He announced his retirement in the 2011 season after the UCL final 3-1 defeat against Barcelona . But the story isn’t over yet, As in the 2012-2013 season Manchester United sustained an injury crisis due to which Alex Ferguson called Scholes and he came out of his retirement impacted the United team immediately and won them their last Premier League title as of now.
As I briefed in my video , for me Paul Scholes is the best midfielder of the Premier League, but one of his actions which made him not that popular in England is taking early retirement in 2004 from national duties and prioritizing his family and Club football more. But he is still one of the best . He is the one who makes football simple and beautiful.
