My Sporting Hero

I tend not to talk about the time I got a placement at BBC Sport since I felt a little guilty that everyone else was either doing Journalism or Sport at Uni and I was doing Games. But here's how I got in:

1 - Got selected to attend an event with about 200 other people (out of thousands who applied)
2 - Wrote a little piece on My Sporting Hero
3 - Got the placement

So, here's the piece I wrote:

After being given this task of writing about My Sporting Hero, I struggled deciding who to pick. Then I remembered that, about a week before, Paul Scholes sat next to me on the bus eating a Cornish Pasty from Greggs. OK, it wasn’t Paul Scholes but instead merely just some random man from Salford who happened to be hungry and heading to Media City at 9.15am, but it could quite easily have been the man himself.

With the tabloids and gossip magazines pouncing on every little detail of people’s lives, it is quite remarkable that the only time Paul Scholes gets written about is when he accidentally-on-purpose tackles someone in a football match and earns himself a card of either the yellow or red variety. But in his defence, footballers are too soft these days and go down too easily. Just look at Cristiano Ronaldo who will fall over and start crying if you touch his hair, but when he crashes a Ferrari he’s perfectly unharmed.

Scholes’ ability to keep out of stories about him sleeping around, shooting interns with air rifles and throwing dwarves is what I admire about him. Mainly because he doesn’t do any of that. He’s happily married with three kids just like the average man of his age should be. He doesn’t feel the need to cheat on his wife. He doesn’t need to bring an air rifle to a football ground (but then again who does?) And dwarf throwing? Let’s not talk about that.

Of course, his life on the pitch is also admirable. He spent his entire career at Manchester United scoring 150 goals in total for them, with a further 14 for the times he spent playing for England. Over 17 years that works out at 9 goals a year and, while on PES I can usually manage that in one match, that is quite impressive for a midfielder. And over his 676 appearances for United and 66 for England that works out as a goal once every 4 and a half matches. In my opinion that is a great achievement and while it may not give him any record, he does hold a few.

Paul Scholes is the third most booked player in Premier League history. OK, so maybe not a good record, but it’s still a record. In addition to that he is the number one most booked player in the Champions League. OK, not another good record. But yet he is still respected, not only by me, but by his fellow players across many teams, managers, coaches, and the pundits like Alan Hansen who I can no longer take seriously on Match of the Day since I keep anticipating him to say “I’m going to nip down to Morrisons. Would you like any crisps, Gary?”

Even in his “retirement” he is a figure to look up to as he helps to train younger footballers with the experience he has gained over the past 20 years. Hopefully his wisdom and experience will rub-off amongst these new players and a sport being ruined by money and greed can return to a sport of great games and great players.