What?

The Beeb made is sound dramatic, why cant I?

How that rag won i'll never know. Had to be Jenson Button for me

Wasn't Giggs eligible for England having been brought up (I always though born in, but apparently not) in Salford/Manchester, as his dad moved up north to play for Swinton?

Anyway, I can't think of a more worthy winner of an award. The bloke should go down as one of the finest footballers ever and a great person, too, by all accounts.

phil the power taylor.


i bet he didnt even get a mention. disgrace.

Possibly but in my opinion IF he was eligible (I don't know for certain either way) then choosing to play for the country of his birth rather than flying the flag of convenience is another feather in Giggs' cap.

Had he played for England then aside from any footballing benefits he also would have no doubt made a lot more money as he would have been an even bigger draw for sponsors. The fact that he put loyalty to his heritage first should be applauded not denigrated. Presumably Richeastender is the type of "Ingurlund Till I Die" merchant who is bitter towards Giggs because England's left wing has been bereft of talent for the majority of his career.

I hate Man United. I don't hate Ryan Giggs. That's pretty much the highest accolade I can pay him! I still would have voted for David Haye had I been in when SPOTY was on though.

I was really hoping that Jenson would win it. His drive in the penultimate race of the season was enough to prove to me he is world champion material. I'm very very excited about McLaren next year, Hamilton and Button. What a team!

A cyclist to big up this year should be World Champion Mountain Bike Downhiller Steve Peat, the guy is a legend and an inspiration to thousands of kids (and grown-ups) who get out Mountain Biking every weekend, not just here but around the world where he is probably better known.
Sadly he is hardly heard of by the masses in this country due to our pathetic mainstream media.

See my post about his eligibility. If an Italian was brought up in England he would have been able to play for England but there are rules in place to stop this happening between English and Welsh lads (possibly Scottish and Norn Ironish lads as well). He is on record as saying if he did have the choice he would have played for Wales anyway because he is er Welsh and proud of it.

Dropkick, I've heard on many occasions the most bitter anti-United Liverpool fans talking about the respect they have for Giggs (and Scholes) and I think this speaks for itself. I don't know why there's so much fuss to be honest, there was not much opposition to Gascoigne winning in 90 (after a decent World Cup), Owen in 98 (After one decent game in the World Cup) and Beckham in 2001 (after a decent game in a World Cup Qualifier). It's good to see that it's the third player to win it who have scored winning goals for United against City

.

For what's it's worth I don't think Giggs was the best person to win it and it was won out of sentiment of what he has done over a career rather than what he has done this year, a bit like the PFA award he won this year, but he was possibly the best person out of the ten nominees.

I think giggs deserved this award he is a credit to the game, playing for man united for 20 years and i cant remember a bad headline, you dont see him falling out of nightclubs like a lot of other players only time he was in trouble was at the age of 17 when he was in a club that some ex united players bought and he was sat on the owners car which he left in the club and told him to off when asked to move haha.

I'll big up who I like. Wiggins did very well, no doubt. Cavendish won six stages. That is a hefty achievement whether you like it or not.

Mark Cavendish wins six stages of the worlds greatest drugfest... I mean bike race. An incredible feat by anyone, but the fact that it was done by an Englishman (is a Manxman English?) makes it a huge acheivement.

Beth Tweddle wins a gymnastics world title in one of her lesser events at the (by Gymnastics standards) geriatric age of 24.

Boxing doesn't have the 'status' it once had, heavyweight boxing even less, but winning a world title in one of the senior divisions (WBA) against a beast like Valuev is something to be proud of.

Winning the premier motorsport world title has to put Jenson Button up there.

Jessica Ennis became world champion at the womens multi-discipline atheltics event. Had a man done the same then he would be compared to the great Daley Thompson and probably be a household name.

All of these reached the highest pinnacle of their chosen sport and (except for Cavendish) became world champion in 2009.

Despite being a great bloke and a fantastic footballer, what did Ryan Giggs actually acheive in 2009. Did he single handedly drag Utd to the League Title in 2009? Did he score a record number of goals in 2009? With X-Factor dominating the TV viewing figures on Sunday night and many (including me) having to V+ SPotY to watch it later, I suspect that the Sports Personality was 'hijacked' by Utd fans.

Wiggins = 4th
Cavendish = 131st.

No further questions, m'lud.

Think it's time you got "on your bike"

the position that cavendish finished isn't that relevent though as he is a specialist sprinter, and during the various mountain stages (the stages which usually indicate where you're gonna finish) most of the sprinters just aim to get through it in one piece, without using up more energy than necessary. The main way to tell the success of a sprinter is by number of stage wins or by the green jersey (which he only missed out on because he got harshly (imo) penalised on one stage)
wiggins on the other hand is more of an all-rounder, and being better suited at the hilly bits meant he finished higher up the standings than cav.

ateotd though i think jedward should've won...

people are always going to vote for their own sport....so its hardly illogical that Man U fans voted for Ryan Giggs, and there's more Man U fans than cycling fans

If Adrian Morley was in the running I bet there would have been a big campaign on here to ring up and vote for him, we would all have voted Morley regardless of whether we really thought he deserved it or not

spot on, i am afraid that due to the massive amount of utd fans in the country, he was always going to win whatever we all think.
Remember Utd fans are like rats, you are always less than 100 yards away from one (thanks Jason Manford for that one)

Apart from in central Manchester or Salford that is...

He played for England schoolboys because (You'll never believe this) he went to school in (wait for it) England!

Giggs won it,who cares move on please.

That's a myth propogated by jealous rivals.

Part myth - part truth.

There are plenty of Man Utd fans in Manchester & Salford, certainly as many as there are City fans.

However, of the 70,000 plus who watch live at Old Trafford, a good half are 'tourists' who travel from far and wide to watch them.....This is where the whole non-Mancunian thing stems from. (By the way, this is researched fact and a similar thing applies to Liverpool, thus the accusation that Everton are the true 'people's club' of the City of Liverpool...)

It's a myth I'm quite happy to perpetuate, one thing I can assure you I am most certainly not is jealous of Manchester United though.

Glad to hear it. I guess from your statement that you are neither a Liverpool or Manchester City supporter then?

nope - as much as I care about tossball I'm a Newcastle fan but would much rather watch a sport not played by overpaid primadonnas & run by people who would rather make a fast million profit than actually put anything back into the game.

Real football is played at a grassroots level these days, anything with the words "fully professional" in it can be ignored as out of touch & irrelevant IMO.

But yet Everton also have quite a lot of "tourists" who watch their games.......David Moyes has admitted that himself in an interview.

Maybe, but not as many as Liverpool & United.....There was a survey conducted not so long ago which had Liverpool and Man Utd as the highest percentage of long distance supporters for home matches, and Everton & Newcastle with the highest percetage of hometown followers (obviously the survey was done before Newcastle were relegated).