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Manchester United are one of the most successful football clubs in the world and their exploits both domestically and in Europe have made them one of the most widely followed sporting franchises in the world.
The club's rich history is riddled with decades of triumph and brushes with the heartbreakingly calamitous. But the 'comeback kings', as they are admiringly called, Manchester United have always found a way to rise from the ashes.
The Red Devils are the most successful club in the Premier League era and they have been able to consistently field some of the best footballers in the world. Manchester United's academy is famous for producing world-class players who have gone on to achieve great things.
Manchester United have had some legendary midfielders on their books
Old Trafford, also known as the 'Theatre of Dreams', has been and continues to be home to some incredible footballers. Without further ado, let's take a look at five of the best Manchester United midfielders of all time.
#5 Nobby Stiles
Standing at 5"6, Nobby Stiles did not look anything like the archetypal defensive midfielder. But once the whistle was blown and the game was in motion, it was difficult to find any player who was as unflinching and uncompromising on the football field as Nobby Stiles was.
A tough-tackling, ball-winning midfielder, what Stiles lacked in size, he made up for with heart and hard work. Long before the role of deep-lying defensive midfielder was popularized by the likes of Claude Makelele, Nobby Stiles had mastered the art of running opposition attackers ragged, stealing the ball and distributing it to help his team get back on the front foot again.
So it'd be fair to say that Stiles was a pioneer of sorts who popularized the 'destroyer' role in football. The Englishman was also a vital cog in the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. Stiles played every single minute of the tournament and his best performance came against Portugal when he absolutely nullified the threat posed by the prolific Eusebio.
Stiles won the European Cup with Manchester United in the 1967-68 season and also won the league title twice during his 11 year stint that started in 1960.
#4 Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson is considered one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. Unfortunately, his stint at Manchester United came during their great drought but he did find some redemption in his final years when the Red Devils won two Premier League titles.
Robson is the longest-serving captain in the history of Manchester United. He joined Manchester United in 1981 after breaking onto the scene at West Bromwich Albion. A box-to-box midfielder, Bryan Robson's technical expertise enabled him to be equally effective on both sides of the pitch.
He was just as good at finding the back of the net as he was at tackling and winning the ball back for his side. Robson was an extremely intelligent footballer who had a great ability to read the game and this was reflected in his off-the-ball movements. He also had a never-say-die attitude and always gave his all on the pitch.
Robson left Manchester United in 1994 and by then he had won two Premier League titles, three FA Cups and one European Cup Winners' Cup.
#3 Roy Keane
Ruthless aggression meets unbridled passion. That's Roy Keane. The Irishman is as divisive a figure as they come in the world of football. But for Manchester United fans, he will always be Captain Fantastic. The man who would rather die of exhaustion on the football field than let his enemy have the last laugh.
Roy Keane was the captain of the historic treble-winning Manchester United team that was written off by many as being too young and inexperienced to make it at the highest level. Keane was a warrior footballer but he is not just the personification of courage and tenacity.
The unsympathetic Roy Keane was also an excellent technician. His inspirational display in the 1998-99 Champions League semi-final second leg against Juventus, where he scored a goal and sparked an improbable comeback win, will go down in history as one of the greatest performances by a captain in Europe's elite competition.
After the match, Alex Ferguson said that it was one of the greatest performances he had ever seen.
"It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field. Pounding over every blade of grass, competing if he would rather die of exhaustion than lose, he inspired all around him. I felt it was an honour to be associated with such a player."
Roy Keane spent 12 glorious years at Manchester United before leaving in 2005. By then, he had won seven Premier League titles, one Champions League title, four FA Cups and one Intercontinental Cup.
#2 Paul Scholes
One of the greatest midfielders of a generation that has had no shortage of outstanding individual performers in the center of the park, Paul Scholes' genius still feels underappreciated. The Englishman has garnered praise from his contemporaries like very few have and he was instrumental in Manchester United's dominance in the Premier League under Sir Alex Ferguson.
A one-club player, Scholes even returned from retirement to help Manchester United win the Premier League title in the 2012-13 campaign which was Sir Alex Ferguson's final season in charge. Scholes was the complete package. He had incredible vision and the passing range to match it. He could score from anywhere on the pitch and was nearly impossible to dispossess.
Scholes was just as good at playing in a box-to-box role as he was in playing in the role of a deep-lying playmaker. To get an idea of how good he was, it's important to look at what the players he has gone up against have said about him.
Thierry Henry said Scholes is one of the greatest players in the history of the Premier League. Barcelona legend Xavi has once said that Scholes is the best midfielder he had seen in 15-20 years.
Scholes spent a total of 19 years at Manchester United and won 11 Premier League titles, two UEFA Champions League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, one Intercontinental Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup.
#1 Sir Bobby Charlton
One of the greatest footballers ever, Sir Bobby Charlton will forever hold a special place in the hearts of football fans who know his story. A survivor of the Munich air disaster in 1958, which took the lives of eight Manchester United players, Bobby Charlton was the face of Manchester United's resurgence through the 60s.
Charlton was a goalscoring midfielder who scored 249 goals across all competitions for the Red Devils, a record which was broken only by Wayne Rooney. He could score screamers from range and was a force to be reckoned with in the centre of the park.
He captained Manchester United to English First Division triumphs in 1965 and in 1967. He won the Ballon d'Or in 1966, the same year in which he won the FIFA World Cup with the England national side. Charlton then led his Manchester United side to European glory in 1968, scoring two invaluable goals in the final.
He is as iconic a football figure as any and will forever be regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time.
