SCHOLES JOINS THE 500 CLUB

Last updated : 22 October 2006 By Ed

The Times:

"He's a low-key personality," Ferguson said. "It's been well documented in the past that he's been happy to have his family life. It's important to him — he values that and his children, which is great.

"There are very few in the modern-day football world that are quite happy to settle for that. He lives in an era of people needing to be seen. He is one person — as Gary [Neville] and Ryan [Giggs] are for that matter — for whom that doesn't concern him. The profile or attention is not something he needs.

"It's probably being a bit unfair to Paul and Ryan, but there have been more high- profile players in our club over the years, but they're happy with that and that has maybe allowed them to retain a certain privacy that you would not normally afford to someone so successful.

"It's a great credit to the boy, to his endurance first of all — to play as long as that in first-team football, particularly with the demands and the expectations at this club — and to his ability and his desire."

Shortly before Neville played his 500th game for United in March, the defender admitted that there were "influential" figures at the club who thought that he would be lucky to make 50 appearances. "I spent most of my teenage years waiting for rejection," Neville said. That was never a concern for Scholes.

Blessed with a technical ability uncommon among British players, football came effortlessly to him. In addition to his 131 goals for United there have been 66 caps and 14 goals for England. No wonder Steve McClaren, the England head coach, is trying to drag him out of international retirement.

"He's always had something that we couldn't possibly coach and that is a marvellous football brain," Ferguson said. "He's always had that, even when he came to us at 14 years of age. The ability to sense the speed of a game, the openings in matches, there's nobody better than him at that. He's a gifted lad."