Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson
will be the main personality that will be discussed in this paper. As an exact
name, Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson is a former Manchester United football
player that has turned into manager during his retirement. He is a prominent
manager and handler of Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. During his position
as a manager, he managed to gain a reputation as having one of the most
successful football clubs and gaining the identity as respected and most
admired managers in history. He also managed several football clubs such as
Aberdeen, St. Mirren, East Stirlinghsire, and Scotland. He also is one of the
longest serving football managers having been responsible for providing his
expertise in football for more than 29 years, which is almost half of his age
in the football career. He won several awards as the best manager in various
football cups such as European Cup and wining the Manager of the Year award.
As a manager, he
has at least won 13 Premier League as well as winning two UEFA Champions
League titles. This totaled the amount of 38 trophies as a manager. Relating
with his management career, he initially managed East Stirlingshire in 1974.
From 1974 to 1978, he managed St. Mirren. Ferguson started to manage Aberdeen
from 1978 to 1985. He then moved to manage Scotland from 1985 to 1986. And
finally, he was appointed to manage Manchester United, which is the most
significant management career of his life from 1986 to 2013. On May 8, 2013, he
announced his retirement and changed his career to be a mentor as well as to
live a normal life from the football career. He also attended numerous
international games all over the world to promote his managing skills to
improve British football.
Alexander Chapman
Ferguson was born on December 31, 1941 during the height of the Second World
War in Glasgow, Scotland. There was not much being discussed about his early
life because numerous historians were mostly focused on his football career.
However, he was born to Elizabeth Ferguson and Alexander Beaton Ferguson, who were both helpers in the shipbuilding industry during the height of the World
War II. He came into the world while being born at Shieldhall Road, Govan,
which is his grandmother’s home that is now demolished in order to build
another significant structure. He lived with his parents until he was invited
to play football. Ferguson attended his primary school in Broomland Road
Primary School. He then advanced his high school years in Govan High School.
His interest in sports gave him a bright spot to be invited to his school’s
soccer team and then joined various events that have improved his skills in
playing football.
At the age of 16, Alex
Ferguson was invited as an amateur playing striker with Queen’s Park. His
initial playing game with Stranraer was considered as a nightmare as he was
experiencing his first ever playing career in football. He felt that he was not
still accepted and did not feel the warmth of the team’s assimilation to put
him into a regular position despite scoring 20 goals in 31 games that he played
with Queen’s Park team. In 1960, he moved to St. Johnstone team. After having a
failed drafting position, he planned to emigrate to Canada. But then he made a
surprise win due to his goal that led him become a professional football player
for Dunfermline in the summer of 1964.
Between 1964 and
1965 Dunfermline became a strong contender during the Scottish League football.
However, he became a poor performer, making Dunfermline to lose the final match
against Celtic. During the Scottish League, Ferguson became the top scorer of
the league with 45 goals in 51 games for Dunfermline. He joined Rangers with a
hefty amount of 65,000 pounds but was blamed when the team lost by a single
goal during the 1969 Scottish cup final. During his team up with the Rangers,
he was allegedly experiencing discrimination against his teammates due to his
position as an amateur. In October of 1969, he went to Falkirk in order to
become a player, only to be also promoted as a coach until John Prentice retired
because he was the coach. Ferguson realized that his playing career was nearing the end and he wanted his coaching career to continue signing with Ayr
United in 1974.
In June 1974,
Ferguson was eventually appointed as the new manager of East Stirlingshire
football club. It was a part time offer where he was being paid at least 40
pounds per week. He was initially being recognized as a strict disciplinarian
due to his authoritative leadership strategy to his players. In October of the
same year, he was invited to the St. Mirren club. He later moved to the club
after taking advice from Jock Stein. During his career in St.
Mirren, he did his service between 1974 and 1978. St Mirren is the only
club that have dismissed Ferguson.
In the late 1970’s Aberdeen signed Ferguson as a manager.
As a young manager, he suffered gaining trust among the players because there were several players who were older than him. Due to his stressed relationships
with his staff, Ferguson still managed to gain respect and patience until they
won during the 1979-1980 season the Scottish football cup. He started
gaining international exposures for the club such as European League. He moved
to Manchester United on November 6, 1986. He helped the club to dominate the
British football by gaining several winnings despite from its ranking to
be the second to the bottom. In the late stages in the 90’s decade up to the
first decade of the 21st century, he reached his peak as a coach for
having several wins for the Manchester United team. It was a priceless
achievement, which made him think that it was the time to retire and give other
generations the chance to give their skills and expertise.
After his
retirement on the 8th of May in 2013, Ferguson stated that he can
still be visible in the football career by acting as the director as well as
acting as an ambassador. In January of 2014, he was appointed by the UEFA
committee as the coaching ambassador, which made him to be honored to be
offered with a position that is a rare to be given to any personalities in the
football career. In April of the same year, Ferguson took up a
teaching profession in Harvard University under the college of Business Entertainment,
Media, and Sports. He currently lives in Cheshire with Cathy Ferguson, which is
his current spouse.
References
Campbell,
Alastair (2010). sort’”. Daily Mirror (London).
