Sixteen years ago today, an unheralded teenager replaced Denis Irwin in the closing stages of an ignominious 2-0 home defeat to Everton as Manchester United lurched towards the end of another season of unfulfilled promise in the league.
There had been whispers that the wiry left winger who had been plucked from
Yet as he prepares for his 700th first-team appearance for United tomorrow, Ryan Giggs can look back on a career that has left each and every one of his predecessors as Old Trafford's golden boy in the shade when it comes to success and longevity.
At 33, Giggs is now by some distance United's most decorated player with 14 major honours, plus a European Super Cup and Inter-Continental Cup thrown in for good measure, and he is set to break the 700 appearance barrier against Liverpool at Anfield with Sir Bobby Charlton's all-time United record of 759 games perhaps just 18 months away.
"He is an excellent player and a brilliant professional," admits Giggs's United team-mate Henrik Larsson. "He has been around for a long time and just seems to be able to maintain the highest standards. He takes his job very seriously and works hard to ensure that he is still going strong.
"I love how focused he is and although he might seem a little laid-back, he is one of the most determined footballers I have ever seen. Add that to his tremendous skills and you have a great player."
With his Old Trafford contract not due to expire until the end of next season, Giggs is unlikely to fade from the scene in the near future, despite his advancing years, but Ferguson's assistant, Carlos Queiroz, insists that the Welshman has already done enough to secure his position as one of United's greats.
Queiroz said: "He is one of the best players I have seen in my life and he is one of the few players who have a right to a place in the history of the game.
"You cannot be a special person in the world if you are a copy of something. You really become a star when, with your football, your art, your style, you create your own identity.
"So the best tribute we can pay to Ryan Giggs is not that he compares to George Best or anyone. It is to say that he won the right to be Ryan Giggs."