Documentary explores the reign of Britain’s greatest football manager
|||Munya Vomo
When you are good at something, people who do not usually care about your interest, will notice. Think of Michael Jordan. Basketball is not as big in the rest the world as it is in the US and, perhaps, Europe. The same goes for Michael Jackson, who was essentially a pop star, but was known even countries where English was not spoken. If you are a legend, everybody will know it.
This is the level that Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United coach, reached by being the team’s coach for 26 years. Ferguson was even knighted, thanks to the fact that he had done so well as a football coach.
On BBC Brit Channel we will see the man’s rise to glory in the documentary Sir Alex Ferguson: Secrets of Success. We go back to when the Scotsman played as a forward for a number of Scottish clubs. He was even the top goal scorer in the 1965-66 season. He then looked into coaching, starting in Scotland, where he showed a lot of talent at East Stirlingshire and St Mirren.
He went on to lead Aberdeen, with whom he won three Scottish league championships, four Scottish Cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1983. This was all before Manchester United. After the death of Jock Stein, Ferguson coached the Scottish national team and took to them to the World Cup in 1986.
That’s the same year that he joined Manchester United and essentially changed the face of football for ever. He stayed there until he retired in 2013, winning 38 trophies which included two Uefa Champions Leagues, five FA Cups and 13 Premier League titles. In the year he retired, he won the season’s Premier League, ending his career on a high.
Supporting United became a religion all over the world, thanks to Ferguson’s reign. His cunning ability to know which players to place where and when, guaranteed him good results almost every time. He had a formula that worked most of the time – he would use the last minutes of a game to gain a win. It became affectionately known as “Fergie time” because so many teams lost to United in the last two or so minutes. Only he knew why that was a good time to strike and how to do it.
A number of players who trained under him have had their names etched in history, thanks to his leadership.
They include Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona and Wayne Rooney, to mention a few. We will hear them speak in Sir Alex Ferguson: Secrets of Success.
Whether you are into football or not, Ferguson’s story is one to check out.
Sir Alex Ferguson: Secrets of Success airs every Monday at 8pm on BBC Brit (DStv channel 120).
