Manchester United legend, Ryan Giggs, has revealed that former Barcelona boss, Pep Guardiola, almost made him retire a lot earlier than he actually did. The Welshman retired only two years ago in 2014 but said that he could have retired a lot earlier when he got beaten to the Champions League winners’ medal by the current Manchester City boss’ Barcelona side in 2009.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Giggs reminisced how devastated he was when the Red Devils got outplayed in Rome and seriously thought about quitting the game altogether.
"The first occasion I faced a Pep Guardiola team, I sat alone on the team coach after the match and for the first time in my playing career I thought seriously about retiring from football," Giggs said.
Giggs then went on to admit that the loss handed to his side by Pep Guardiola’s magnificent Barca was the worst point of his career.
"That was the 2009 Champions League final in Rome, forever in my mind the lowest point of my 23 years as a professional footballer.”
The magnitude of the blow was such that the former Wales international contemplated about throwing in the towel so that he wouldn’t have to feel anything like that ever in his life again.
"We had got it wrong that day, Barcelona had got it right and as I contemplated my life at that moment my overriding emotion was that I never wanted to feel like this again. If that meant ceasing to play football then - at that moment, at least - so be it.”
However, as time went by, the excruciating pain finally faded away during the course of the summer as he met with the epiphany of the truth: that his reaction was a natural stimulus to losing in the Champions League final.
"My emotions were quite overwhelming at the time, but over the course of the summer they subsided, and eventually I recognised them for what they were - the extreme reaction to a defeat in the biggest game of all, a Champions League final.”
In the end, Giggs went on to play for another 5 years as he retired aged 40, winning three more major titles at the Theatre of Dreams.
"I was 35 in 2009 and I would go on to play another five seasons for United. I am glad I did not miss out on all the experiences and the three major trophies that followed."
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