Manchester United star Ryan Giggs was crowned 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year in Sunday’s award ceremony.  The Welsh winger, 36, is the most decorated player in English football with a record 11th Premier League winners’ medal secured this year.   Formula 1 champion Jenson Button was second with world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis securing third spot.   “This is a shock as you can tell by the speech I’ve prepared,” joked Giggs when collecting his award.   “I grew up watching this programme. To see the people that have won it and to be here is unbelievable.”   A surprised Giggs is the first footballer to claim the prestigious trophy since England midfielder David Beckham in 2001, with Michael Owen (1998), Paul Gascoigne (1990) and Bobby Moore (1966) the only other football winners.

With the public choosing their favourite from the shortlist of 10 by phone on the night, Giggs received 29.4% of the vote (151,842 votes) ahead of Button (18.74% – 96,770) and Ennis (15.58% – 80,469) with a total of 516,473 votes cast.  This year has seen Giggs win the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year award for the first time in April and the Wales Sports Personality of the Year award, and in a United shirt he has made his 800th appearance, scored his 150th goal and helping them reach the Champions League final.

The Cardiff-born star added: “I am playing for the greatest manager that has ever lived and I’m playing for the greatest club. Perhaps I’ve become more appreciated as I have got older.  ”It’s unusual for a 36-year-old to be playing with a team like Manchester United for 20 years but I am enjoying it and long may it continue.”   After Ferguson revealed on Friday that his veteran playmaker had been offered a new contract for next season, Giggs said: “It was the first I had heard of it the other day so I was quite pleased. Hopefully there will be another year after that.”

Jonathan Pearce, football commentator on the BBC says in his BBC blog, “That great colossus of Irish rugby Keith Wood and I both roared and jumped to our feet when Ryan Giggs was named as BBC Sports Personality of 2009.  Unashamedly, I had wanted him to win the award. As a United fan, big Keith has followed Giggs from the stands. I do not support the club of his choice but I have always been an admirer of United’s rich tradition of developing marvellous young talent and over the last 18 years Giggs has been a constant marvel to me.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw him play live in the flesh. It was 28 September 1991 and my radio co-commentator at White Hart Lane that day, former Arsenal and Spurs manager Terry Neill, excitedly chatted about the 17-year old United kid we were going to watch.  He’d sensationally scored on his full debut the previous season and was the latest name to be branded as ‘the new Georgie Best’.  He was never going to fill those boots but he’s never needed to and it’s significant that the media no longer labels an emerging United kid as the next Bestie. One day they’ll be describing a fledgling Old Trafford talent as the ‘new Giggs’. He is a United legend in his own right – up there with the greatest of them all.

Tags: bbc sports personality, man utd, ryan giggs, wales football