Friday 5 August 2011

Ferguson Pays Tribute to Scholes

Sir Alex Ferguson has hailed Paul Scholes as one of Manchester United's "greatest players of all time".

The United manager paid tribute to the 36-year-old former England midfielder ahead of Scholes's testimonial match on Friday (kick-off 1930 BST).

A side of current and past United players will face New York Cosmos in front of a sold-out Old Trafford.

Ferguson said: "To my mind Scholes will go down as one of the greatest players of all time for Manchester United."

Many of Scholes's former team-mates have paid tribute to the Salford-born midfielder, who clocked up 674 appearances for United and has now joined the club's coaching staff.

Ferguson added: "I was with Fabien Barthez on Wednesday having a chat and he said 'pass my regards on to Scholesy, he's the best player I ever played with'."

Striker Michael Owen tweeted: "Scholesy's testimonial tonight. Great news that it's a sell out to honour a legend."

Rio Ferdinand also used the social networking site to praise Scholes. He posted: "[Scholes] deserves a full house to celebrate a great trophy collecting career. Great goals+most consistent 25yard passer I seen #fact".

An all-star New York Cosmos side, assembled by the club's Director of Soccer Eric Cantona and Honorary President Pele, will include Nicky Butt, Wayne Bridge, Sol Campbell, Fabio Cannavaro, Brad Friedel, Robbie Keane, Gary Neville and Patrick Vieira.


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