WE SALUTE PAUL SCHOLES

Paul Scholes plays in his 600th game for Manchester United tonight. He has been a fixture for Man Utd for 15 long years and he is the model professional; a player who every professional footballer should emulate and display the humility that he personifies.

He is the one player who does not believe in hype and decided long ago to let his footballing skills do his talking for him. He doesn’t do the interview unless rarely mandated by his team and he is not one to trot out when there is a big game to spout nonsense like Rooney or loud moth Gary Neville.

When Sven Erikkson was undecided on where to play him and stuck him out on the left; rather than complain he quietly resigned without any rancour claiming he wanted to play longer for his clubside.

He doesn’t do the WAG nonsense like Wayne and Colleen Rooney who has now become a celebrity not unlike Jade or Jordan who are famous for no reason at all. Scholes eschews all kinds of private publicity that is not football related.

Scholes is a fantastic player who we never heard was leaving to join Real Madrid or Barcelona. He was content to serve Man U and unlike Cristiano ‘refs don’t protect me’ Ronaldo who believes contracts are for plebeians. He has no agent so no one is feeding him rubbish about how much more money he could be making elsewhere.

He agrees his own contracts and unlike Rio Ferdinand doesn’t believe that he should hold out for some thousand pounds more when he is already on a kings ransom for kicking a leather ball round a field.

Even when he was a kid he was never heard to fall out of night clubs or be involved any unsavoury behaviour anywhere.

He was a model professional described by the greatest footballer of our times Zinedine Zidane as the complete midfielder. His goal tally is immense and for a player who suffered from asthma to have the engine he has is remarkable.

When he is pulling the strings from midfield, he is a joy to watch and his short or long passes are always keeping his tem in motion. He can’t tackle but continues to slide in late for tackles in every game but that is the only deficiency for a player who has given us a lifetime of thunderous shots and goals to make up for that one deficiency.

Paul Scholes is a giant in this beautiful game and deserves our applause as he runs out tonight for the 600th time. Man Utd and football has become richer for having the character of Paul Scholes around.