Football Association of Wales name former legend Ryan Giggs as the new Welsh manager

FORMER Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs has been appointed as the new manager of the Welsh national team by the Football Association of Wales (Faw) with a mandate to qualify the team for the 2020 European championships.

Earlier today, Faw announced that it had signed a four-year contract with the former Manchester United and Wales winger.  Giggs will be taking on his first major managerial role, with his only experience so far having come in a four-game stint in interim charge of Manchester United after David Moyes was sacked.

Giggs, 44, said he will continue to speak to Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager as he takes on the role of Wales boss. He was capped 64 times by Wales in his 24-year professional career, scoring 12 goals in the process.

Filling the post that has been vacant for two months, Giggs takes over from Chris Coleman, who left the role in November to take over as manager of Championship side Sunderland. Coleman managed to lead Wales to Euro 2016, where his side reached the semi-finals but they failed to qualify for this summer's World Cup in Russia.

Giggs said: "I am so proud to have been given the honour of managing the national team. The challenges that we have ahead of us with the Nations League and qualification for Euro 2020 excite me a great deal.

"I can't wait to start working with the players as we prepare for those crucial games later in the year. I know that the criticism is going to come and the way to combat that is to win games and give it my all, which I'll do."

He added that knows he has to win over some Wales supporters after missing friendly games during his playing career. According to Giggs he will do exactly what he did when he was a player, which is be professional.