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Ryan Giggs has backed Wayne Rooney to become a successful boss
Ryan Giggs has backed former Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney to be as successful a manager as he has been a player.
Rooney joined Derby County on an 18-month player-coach contract from MLS side DC United in January and was working closely with the club's first-team coaching staff before the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The 34-year-old has also stepped up his pursuit of coaching qualifications since joining the Championship side, but Giggs has revealed that England's record goalscorer's coaching ambitions began when he was still at Old Trafford, and stated he showed the necessary endeavour from the outset.
'I know Wayne was keen,' Giggs told The Athletic.
'When I was at United, towards the end, he was starting his badges. We would see him doing his practical sessions. I spent a lot of time (with Louis van Gaal) in the analysts' office, where we used to analyse the opposition.
'Wayne would come in quite a bit. He wanted to study, he wanted to work. And he's a football man. Football-wise, he knows what he's talking about.'
The former Man United winger maintained that he has seen that good players are not always good coaches.
But Giggs maintains that having played under some of the world's most distinguished coaches in Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho will only help Rooney forge his own path in his coaching career.
'Some people say, as I've found out, that being a good player doesn't always make (a good manager),' Giggs continued.
'But if you love the game, and you're prepared to put in the work, our advantage is having played at the top level. He has worked under Sir Alex. Then his international managers.
'He was there when Jose was there, and now another Dutch coach (Derby manager Phillip Cocu). So he will have had different ways of working, which can also help.'