Sir Alex Ferguson named the only English player who was as good as Cristiano Ronaldo

Sir Alex Ferguson is widely regarded as the greatest football manager who ever lived and is responsible for Manchester United’s two-decade period of dominance.

Arriving at Old Trafford in 1986 with a reputation forged at Aberdeen, the Scotsman went on to redefine what it meant to manage a football club at the highest level.

Over 26 extraordinary years, he delivered 38 trophies to Manchester United – among them 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League crowns, five FA Cups and four League Cups – including the iconic 1999 treble that cemented his place in history.

To achieve all of that, Ferguson of course needed great players, and he worked with some of the best in the world across three decades.

From Bryan Robson’s warrior leadership to the mercurial genius of Eric Cantona, the player who perhaps first made United believe they could conquer everything, Sir Alex made a living out of coaxing the best out of elite talents while fostering a no man bigger than the team mentality.

There was the telepathic partnership of Roy Keane and Ince in midfield, the instinctual brilliance of Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke and the sheer unstoppable force of Wayne Rooney.

Peter Schmeichel was arguably the finest goalkeeper England ever saw while Rio Ferdinand redefined the modern centre-back – the list goes on.

Yet Ferguson himself believes only four of the players he coached at United could truly be considered ‘world class’.

One was unsurprisingly Cristiano Ronaldo, while Cantona also made the list and Ryan Giggs was included having spent nearly 30 years of his life at Old Trafford, but just one English player made the cut.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s special praise for Paul Scholes

Indeed, speaking in his 2015 book, Ferguson named Paul Scholes as one of the four ‘world class’ players he coached at United.

Scholes is widely considered one of the greatest midfielders in Preimer League history and he spent a career earning Ferguson’s approval with understated brilliance.

Two league titles became five, then ten, then eleven. He won the Champions League twice, lifted the FA Cup three times, and was still pulling the strings in United’s midfield deep into his late thirties. In total he made over 700 appearances for the club he supported as a boy, scoring more than 150 goals – a remarkable return for a player whose job was ostensibly to sit and control.

He did it all without the noise. No move abroad chasing the money, no manufactured headlines, no autobiography serialised in a tabloid. Scholes simply turned up, week after week, and was better than almost everyone else on the pitch.

Zinedine called him the greatest midfielder of his generation. Xavi said he was the player he most admired. But Fergie’s praise may just mean the most of all.