Man Utd great Giggs new Wales manager

CARDIFF (United Kingdom): Former Manchester United great Ryan Giggs has been appointed as the new manager of Wales, the Football Association of Wales announced Monday.

The FAW confirmed Giggs’ appointment via its official Twitter feed with a short film of a Wales shirt having the name ‘Giggs’ pressed into it, with an accompanying caption of #CroesoGiggsy (Welcome Giggsy).

It will be Giggs’s first permanent managerial post and he succeeds fellow former Wales international Chris Coleman, who bowed out after the national side failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup finals in Russia and now manages English Championship side Sunderland.

“I am so proud to have been given the honour of managing the National Team,” said Giggs in a FAW statement.

“The challenges that we have ahead of us with the Nations League and qualification for UEFA EURO 2020 excite me a great deal.”

Giggs’ first fixture in charge of Wales will be in the 2018 China Cup against the hosts in Nanning on March 22.

This will be Giggs’s first full-time job as a manager, although he was in caretaker charge of United for four games at the end of the 2013/14 season after David Moyes was sacked.

Giggs, who won 64 Wales caps between 1991 and 2007, has been out of football for 18 months since leaving the coaching staff at Manchester United.

He spent two seasons as Louis van Gaal’s assistant coach, but he left Old Trafford in the summer of 2016 following Jose Mourinho’s appointment as manager. - AFP