Paul Scholes names the best footballer he played alongside

Paul Scholes has named the best footballer he played alongside, and it can't have been an easy task.

Scholes played alongside many world class players during his 20 years in the United first-team. From Eric Cantona to Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo to Ruud van Nistelrooy, but Scholes holds one player above them all - Ryan Giggs. "I played with some brilliant players – so many brilliant players – but Ryan was the one that could lift everything," Scholes told Republik of Mancunia.

"You'd just give him the ball, especially on big European nights here, he used to beat five or six men, used to get the crowd going. "The longevity of his career, as well, was special, not just his quality but to take it to twenty odd years playing in centre midfield… At that level, yeah. He was brilliant. He was unbelievable, a freak!"

Scholes also spoke about United's failure to sign Ronaldinho in 2003. Ronaldinho left Paris Saint-Germain for Barcelona. United were in the hunt for the Brazilian, but the move collapsed and Alex Ferguson would later blame the club's former chief executive.

"There was a problem with his brother, who was his agent, but Peter Kenyon, who was chief executive then, didn't get the job done."

Scholes admits he would have liked to play alongside Ronaldinho, and said that the United players did their best to kick him when the two sides played a pre-season friendly that summer. "I think Ronaldinho was very close at one time. I think if that'd have happened, I'd liked to have played with him. He was brilliant," Scholes said.

"I remember that year, we were on the preseason tour and it looked like he was going to sign for us and he ended up signing for Barcelona, and we were playing Barcelona on the preseason tour. "Because he didn't sign for us, everyone wanted to boot him and kick him, but you couldn't get near him. Brilliant player, would loved to have seen him [at United] but, didn't happen."

Images from that friendly suggest Scholes is right, and United players, well, Nicky Butt, did try kick Ronaldinho.