Ryan Giggs says Wales could soon be on the trophy trail

Ryan Giggs believes Wales are on the verge of a golden player era that could emulate his Manchester United side.

The winger was part of the United class of 1995 who were written off as being too young and inexperienced.

That year United went on to claim a double of league and FA Cup and Giggs believes Wales have similar potential.

"Wales have got a great chance over the next few years, there's a batch of young players coming through at the same time similar to United," he said.

"If you get five or six players coming through at the same time they give each other confidence, they're mates on and off the pitch.

"Hopefully that'll be the case and Wales will have a good mix of players coming through, and experienced and already established players."

Giggs had the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Phil and Gary Neville who broke into the United first team around the same time.

Wales have the likes of Chris Gunter, Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Ched Evans, players at Premier League clubs who are Under-21 qualified but are becoming established in John Toshack's senior Wales side.

About 12 or 13 I used to play a lot of rugby as well Ryan Giggs

Add to that the Wolves trio of Wayne Hennessey, Sam Vokes and Dave Edwards - currently topping the Championship - plus Lewin Nyatanga and Joe Ledley and Wales have the core of a team for the best part of a decade.

With Uefa deciding to expand the European Championship from 2016 to feature 24 teams instead of the current 16, Wales' chances of making a major finals for the first time since 1958 are looking much rosier.

"I would have loved to have played in a major championships," added Giggs, who retired from international football in June 2007 to help prolong his club career.

"You want to play against the best players, you want to play against the likes of Brazil and Argentina and I never had the chance to do that.

"I wouldn't have swapped my career for anyone's, because I've had such a great career, but that is the one disappointment that I didn't play in a major championships."

Giggs is United's all-time record appearance holder, beating Sir Bobby Charlton's 758-game feat when he came on as a substitute in last season's Champions League final in Moscow.

His penalty shoot-out kick against Chelsea helped United secure their third European title and Giggs' second to add to the last-gasp 1999 win over Bayern Munich.

Giggs has 10 championship titles, a Professional Footballers' Association team of the century place, and is joint record-holder for FA Cup trophy wins.

But the 34-year-old one-club man realises he is coming to the end of his illustrious playing career.

"I'm quite relaxed about it at the moment, I've got this year left on my contract," Giggs said.

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"If any of those things change then I'll have to consider when I retire, which obviously will be sooner rather than later."

Giggs has already started to take his Uefa coaching badges so his influence on football may still continue for many years to come.

It seems strange to think that football might have lost Giggs to a rival sport, as in his early teens he was making waves in rugby league.

Giggs' father, Danny Wilson, played rugby union for Cardiff RFC before switching codes to become a professional rugby league player with Swinton.

"About 12 or 13 I used to play a lot of rugby as well, if I'd carried on I would have had trials for Great Britain," Giggs said.

"I was enjoying playing rugby, but football was always my number one sport.

"At 13 or 14 I had to decide what I was going to do, I was signing for United at that time and obviously you couldn't play any other sport - especially rugby!

"But I used to go training with my dad and I was never intimidated by the size of people because of that.

"I think that helped me in my football. When I was 15 or 16 coming across playing against men and that definitely helped me physically."