[quote="Chris Charles No1 Fan"]
you will probably find that a lot of people are bemused because it is supposed to be sportsman of the year, NOT what he has done for the last 20 years.
Tough one this. Whilst I would probably normally agree with you on this I think there needs to be some amount of flexibility. Giggs has year after year excelled in his field. Both Owen and Beckham won SPOTY for far less than Giggs has achieved. Beckham for (admittedly. almost single-handedly) getting England into the 2002 WC and Owen for his impact at the 98 WC and his full debut season.
Just a few stats that Giggsy has racked up during 2009.
100th PL goal
700th PL appearance
11th League title
PFA Player of the Year
Writers Player of the Year
150th club goal
A scorer for the 14th consecutive season in the Champions League (equal with Raul)
The stats above IMO fully justify the award.
Like I said previously, Haye (as much as I like his potential) has won 1 fight in a poor Heavyweight decision. If he unifies the division next year I will vote for him myself!! Button obviously has talent but I do think F1 is decided more on the car than the driver (
sits back and awaits tongue-lashing from F1 "experts" 
)McCoy & Taylor fully deserve the award at some point of their careers too. Taylor is phenonenal and try telling a guy that trains 6/7/8 hours a day that he isn't a sportsman. McCoy ditto. Dominated his sport for well over a decade and only needs to win the Grand National to say he has pretty much done it all.
This is how I see it and, yes, having followed Giggsy's career since he was Ryan Wilson playing for Salford Boys I may have a slight bias towards him.
Anyway, end of essay, I could go on all night and throw stat after stat at you but I think we'll probably have to agree to disagree on this one!!! It's all healthy debate ATEOTD.
