Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson

Born in Govan, Glasgow in 1941, Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager of Manchester United in May 2013 following a period of over 26 years at the helm. Over the course of a management career that lasted 39 years, he won 49 major trophies, making him the most successful manager in the history of British football.

He made his name with Aberdeen, who became the first club to consistently break the Old Firm dominance of the Scottish game, winning 9 domestic trophies over a 6 year period. But it was victory over Real Madrid in the European Cup-Winners Cup Final in 1983 that brought him to national attention.

Following his move to Manchester United in 1986, he set about restructuring the club and his first trophy in 1990 opened the floodgates. In 2001 he became the first manager to win three championships in a row since the league began in 1888, a feat he repeated in 2009.

Admired for placing his emphasis on attacking football, with homegrown talent at the heart of his teams, he bowed out as league champion following his 1,500th game in charge of Manchester United.

In 2012, Harvard Business School wrote the case study “Sir Alex Ferguson: Managing Manchester United” before appointing him as a Fellow to the Executive Education Programme.

Following his retirement in 2013 he took up the positions of both Director and Global Ambassador with Manchester United and was also appointed Coaching Ambassador by UEFA. In the same year he released “My Autobiography”​ which became the UK’s quickest selling non-fiction book since records began. This work was a follow-up to his first best-selling memoir, “Managing My Life”, which appeared in 1999.

His Number One bestselling book ‘Leading’, written with Sir Michael Moritz, details the key skills and philosophies he used to deliver success both on and off the field. It will be released in paperback on 19th May.