Alex Ferguson Sir Alex Ferguson Personal information Full name Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson Date of birth December 31 1941 (age 65) Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland Nickname Fergie, Sir Alex Playing position Striker (retired) Club information Current club Manchester United (manager) Senior clubs1 Years Club App (Gls)* 1958-19601960-19641964-19671967-19691969-19731973-1974 Queen's ParkSt. JohnstoneDunfermline AthleticRangersFalkirkAyr UnitedTotal 031 0(11)037 0(19)088 0(66)041 0(25)106 0(37)024 00(9)327 (167) Teams managed 19741974-19781978-19861986-present East StirlingshireSt. MirrenAberdeenManchester United 1 Senior club appearances and goalscounted for the domestic league only.* Appearances (Goals) Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson CBE (born 31 December 1941 in Govan, Glasgow) is a Scottish football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United F.C. He has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of English football and been in charge of Manchester United for more than 1,000 matches. With 20 years under his belt, he is the second-longest serving manager in the history of Manchester United after Sir Matt Busby.He has previously managed East Stirlingshire and St. Mirren, before a highly successful period as manager of Aberdeen. He was briefly the manager of Scotland, in a temporary capacity owing to the death of Jock Stein, before becoming the manager of Manchester United in 1986.At Manchester United, Sir Alex has become the most successful manager in the history of English football, having guided the team to eight league championships. In 1999, he became the first manager to lead an English team to the treble of league championship, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League. As well as being the only manager to win the FA Cup five times, he is also the only manager ever to guide a club to three successive league championships in the top flight in England (1998-1999, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001).One recurring theme of Sir Alex Ferguson's management of Manchester United has been his view that no player is bigger than the club. He has consistently taken a "my way or the highway" approach in his dealings with players and the pressure of this management tact has often been the cause of many notable players' departures. Over the years players such as Paul McGrath, Paul Ince, Andrei Kanchelskis, Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke, David Beckham, Gordon Strachan and more recently, Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy, have left the club after varying degrees of conflict with Ferguson. This disciplinary line that he takes with such highly-paid, high-profile players has been mentioned as a reason for the ongoing success of Manchester United.Playing careerFerguson grew up in Govan and supported Rangers. He began as an amateur at Queen's Park, making his debut at 16 as a striker. He described his first match as a "nightmare"[1] but scored Queen's Park's goal in a 2-1 defeat against Stranraer. As Queen's Park were an amateur team he also worked in the Clyde shipyards as an apprentice tool-worker, where he became an active trade union shop steward.Although he scored 20 goals in his 31 games for Queen's Park, he could not command a regular place in the side and moved to St. Johnstone in 1960. Although he continued to score regularly at St. Johnstone, he was still unable to command a regular place and regularly requested transfers. Although he was out of favour at the club, their failure to sign a forward led the manager to select Ferguson for a match against Rangers, in which he scored a hat trick in a surprise victory. Dunfermline signed him the following summer (1964), and Ferguson became a full-time professional footballer.The following season (1964-65), Dunfermline were strong challengers for the Scottish League and reached the Scottish Cup Final, but Ferguson was dropped for the final after a poor performance in a league game against St. Johnstone. Dunfermline lost the final 3-2 to Celtic, then failed to win the League by one point.In 1967, he joined Rangers for £65,000, then a record fee for a transfer between two Scottish clubs. He was blamed for a goal that they conceded in the 1969 Scottish cup final,[2] and was forced to play for the club's junior side instead of the first team.[3] According to his brother, Ferguson was so upset by the experience that he threw his losers' medal away.[4] His time at Rangers was also marred due to discrimination he suffered after his marriage to his wife Cathie, who was a Catholic.[5]The following October, Nottingham Forest wanted to sign Ferguson,[6] but his wife was not keen on moving to England at that time so he went to Falkirk instead. He was promoted to player-coach there, but when John Prentice became manager he removed Ferguson's coaching responsibilities. Ferguson responded by requesting a transfer and moved to Ayr United, where he finished his playing career.