One of soccer’s greatest managers, Sir Alex Ferguson, announced his retirement from the game after a legendary stay in charge of Manchester United. Ferguson managed the players, establishing who would play week in and week out, setting a playing style and mentality that would set the foundation for success.
After taking over, Ferguson made his club into a world power, worth billions of dollars, winning 49 trophies in the process. Thiry eight of these were won at Manchester United.
Being a head coach/manager has always been a high pressure position, but not even the rigurous coaching positions in the American top five leagues match the intensity of managing in English premier league, where managers often have to joust with a ferocius media. All this makes Sir Alex’s reign at Manchester United even more awe inspiring.
In a time where foreign talent often determines success, Sir Alex has coddled some of the most precocius British talent in English Premier League history. Ferguson was responsible for introducing the likes of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, all players that will go down as some of the best of their generation.
However, that doesn’t mean he was adverse to foreign talent: his nurturing of Cristiano Ronaldo helped turned the Portuguese international into one of the world’s best players. Ferguson’s sides have always struck a balance between domestic and foreign players that many sides often fail to replicate, a mix of technicality and physicality, which propel his sides to miles above their peers.
Despite these star players, Ferguson has consistently taken the approach of “team over player,” overseeing the high end departures of Beckham, Ronaldo and Roy Keane seamlessly, always avoiding potential public bust-ups that would compromise the club’s image. Filling cracks left by departures has always been Ferguson’s specialty, such as choosing when to spend big on other talent or promoting from within.
Beyond Ferguson’s 13 premier league titles, five F.A Cups, 4 League Cups, 10 community shields, two Champions league titles, one UEFA cup winner’s cup, one intercontinental cup and one FIFA club world cup, is the legacy he left off the field and in the boardroom.
Earlier this year, Manchester United became the first soccer club to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange; no other club has come even close to considering this. Manchester United is currently valued at $3.3 billion – $1.2 billion higher than the next most valuable sports team. An estimation by Forbes deems Sir Alex Ferguson too have made $385 million in value for Manchester United by himself, an astonishing figure.
Many managers can lay claim to being the greatest ever, including the likes of Brian Clough, Giovanni Trapattoni, Otmar Hitzfield, but none have had the kind of success Ferguson enjoyed. Along with promoting Manchester United to the biggest club in the world, Ferguson also stood at the forefront of a English Premier League that can claim to be the most popular soccer in the world. Ferguson should now be recognized as the greatest manager ever.