Paul Scholes: The Legend's Legend

My toughest opponent? Scholes of Manchester. He is the complete midfielder. Scholes is undoubtedly the best midfielder of his generation.

Zinedine Zidane

In the last 15 to 20 years the best central midfielder that I have seen — the most complete — is Scholes. I have spoken with Xabi Alonso about this many times. Scholes is a spectacular player who has everything. He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesn’t give possession away. If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more.

Xavi

Good enough to play for Brazil. I love to watch Scholes, to see him pass, the boy with the red hair and the red shirt.

Socrates

Out of everyone at Manchester United, I would pick out Scholes – he is the best midfielder of his generation. I would have loved to have played alongside him.

Pep Guardiola

I tell anyone who asks me – Scholes is the best English player.

Laurent Blanc

I have no hesitation in putting a name to the embodiment of all that I think is best about football. It’s Paul Scholes. Players like Denis Law and George Best who I enjoyed so much as team-mates and now, finally, players I have watched closely in the Alex Ferguson era. And in so many ways Scholes is my favourite. I love his nous and conviction that he will find a way to win, to make the killer pass or produce the decisive volley.

Sir Bobby Charlton

Paul Scholes would have been one of my first choices for putting together a great team – that goes to show how highly I have always rated him. He would have been one of the first players I’d have bought, given the chance.

Marcello Lippi

The player in the Premiership I admire most? Easy – Scholes.

Patrick Vieira

He is the one whose level I aspire to. He is the best player in the Premier League.

Cesc Fabregas

I wouldn’t swap Paul Scholes for anybody. He is quite simply the most complete footballer I have ever played with. He is the best.

Gary Neville

We won’t ever see another one like Paul Scholes. He is a legend and a real benchmark. He is not interested in the modern-day footballer’s life off the pitch, but he is a world-class player on it. He has probably never really got the true recognition he deserved outside of Manchester United because he never did the media. He didn’t do interviews and never put himself out for things like that. I cannot believe he has never been nominated for World, European or domestic individual honours because in his prime he was scoring 20 goals a season from midfield. It is astonishing he has never won a personal award, but given the choice of winning something and then having to get up and do the speech, I think he would rather not have won them!

Darren Fletcher

If you ask footballers to pick out the player they most admire, so many of them will pick Paul Scholes. He can tackle, and his passing and shooting is of the highest level. He’s the most consistent and naturally gifted player we’ve had for a long, long time.

Alan Shearer

Gary Neville was having a piss one day 45 yards away by a fence, Scholes got the ball and whacked him right in the arse...

Sir Alex Ferguson