Paul Scholes: The best quotes about legendary Man Utd midfielder

Paul Scholes is a Manchester United legend and one of the greatest and most technically gifted footballers that England has ever produced.

He won an extraordinary number of trophies during his career and successfully transformed himself from goalscoring midfielder to deep-lying playmaker over the years, mastering both roles as his career developed to contribute to phenomenal longevity at the highest level.

It is too easy for those who never saw him play to look back at his career and wrongly conclude that Scholes was overrated because he didn’t score as many goals as some of his contemporaries, or create as many chances as others measurable by modern statistics.

There is far more to football than which can be recorded by such numbers alone, from touch, to class, poise, grace, mentality, vision and so much more which isn’t captured by just goals or assists.

To truly understand how good Scholes was, the only way is to reflect on what those who played both with and against him, who knew his game best, have said about him over the years and the respect he commands from those teammates and opponents.

"In the last 15-20 years, the best central midfielder that I have seen - the most complete - is Scholes. I have spoken with Xabi Alonso about this many times. Scholes is a spectacular player who has everything. He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesn't give possession away. If he had been Spanish, then maybe he would have been valued more."

- Xavi

"Brian Kidd adored him. Sir Alex said, 'If he doesn't become a football player we can all pack it in,'...and that was when he was 18. I get to the end of my career and I say he's the best player that I ever played with."

- Gary Neville

Career Overview

Manchester United: 718 appearances, 155 goals (1994 – 2013)

England: 66 appearances, 14 goals (1997 – 2004)

"He’s almost untouchable in what he does. I never tire of watching him play. You rarely come across the complete footballer, but Scholes is as close to it as you can get. One of my regrets is that the opportunity to play alongside him never presented itself during my career."

- Zinedine Zidane

"Scholes is the best I've played with and he helped me a lot when I was young. He's amazing."

- Cristiano Ronaldo

"At La Masia, his name was mentioned a lot. He's a teacher."

- Lionel Messi

Blessed with a level of technical ability and football intelligence rarely associated with English football, Scholes' influence extended far beyond Manchester. He even became a point of reference for young Barcelona players in the youth ranks at La Masia.

"People say he is a great player, but you have to define what a great player is. For me, it is a player who has a bottom level that means his worst performance is not noticed. Scholes, of all the players I have played with, has the highest bottom level. His reading of the game is unsurpassed. He has an eye for a pass, for what the play or the game needs at that precise moment, that I have never seen anyone else have."

- Peter Schmeichel

Consistency can be a huge difference between a good player and a great one.

"The things he could do with the ball, he obviously wasn’t the quickest but he was so sharp you couldn’t get near him. I remember knowing that at the back end of my career I’d be going back into midfield so I was almost studying him and watching him in training and games. It was brilliant for me, first hand, to watch him and learn."

- Wayne Rooney, UTD Podcast

"I’m star-struck when I see Paul Scholes because you never see him. On the pitch you can’t catch him. Off the pitch he disappears."

- Luis Figo

"He’ll do ridiculous things in training like say, ‘You see that tree over there?’ – it’ll be 40 yards away – ‘I’m going to hit it’. And he’ll do it. Everyone at the club considers him the best."

- Rio Ferdinand

Stories about Scholes' precision accuracy are commonplace in football.

"We won’t ever see another one like Paul Scholes. He is a legend and a real benchmark. He is not interested in the modern-day footballer’s life off the pitch, but he is a world-class player on it. He has probably never really got the true recognition he deserved outside of Manchester United because he never did the media. He didn’t do interviews and never put himself out for things like that."

- Darren Fletcher

Career Honours

Premier League (1995/96, 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2000/01, 2002/03, 2006/07, 2007/08, 2008/09, 2010/11, 2012/13)

FA Cup (1995/96, 1998/99, 2003/04)

League Cup (2008/09, 2009/10)

Champions League (1998/99, 2007/08)

Intercontinental Cup/FIFA Club World Cup (1999, 2008)

PFA Team of the Year (2003/03, 2006/07)

"Maybe one small regret is that I never got to play with Paul Scholes - but I was never going to leave Barcelona and he was never going to leave Manchester United."

- Xavi

"When I first signed for United, I was with the goalies and Tony Coton is the goalie coach. We were just taking it in turns to get warmed up and I’m taking a moment to watch the outfield lads training. Somebody played a ball over to Paul Scholes and, without breaking stride or anything – and the ball was travelling [fast] to him, by the way – on the half volley straight out to the wing. I must have gone, ‘Oh my God’, involuntary. And Tony Coton, who is leathering these balls to the goalies just went, ‘Who was it? Scholesy?’. That’s what it was because that, for Scholesy, was just run of the mill. He did that every day in training."

- Ben Foster (see video below)

"[Manchester] United always had many amazing players, but whenever we faced them we were always, always, always scared of what Paul Scholes could do. Ask anyone from that old Arsenal team, they will tell you the same. If you let him play, he can kill you, and for me he was so underrated. The way he plays: one touch, arriving late into the box, the way he strikes the ball, his vision, his passing. Incredible. I know people used to give him some stick for his tackling, but I liked that. He put his foot in, showed some character, had a go, but I liked that about him too. For me he is one of the best midfielders I have ever seen."

- Thierrry Henry

"I always thought he was a great player, but after I played alongside him, I realised he was Manchester United’s greatest player of all time. He had it all. He had a calm personality, he did not speak much, we used to joke about that. He said nothing. He did his talking on the pitch, which is what I liked most."

- Fabien Barthez

Scholes often commanded even more respect from his peers, fans and the media because he famously didn't chase the limelight during an era in which football became intertwined with celebrity culture on a new level that had never been seen before.

"No celebrity bullsh*t, no self promotion – an amazingly gifted player who remained an unaffected human being."

- Roy Keane

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