Remember When...

....Sir Alex Ferguson had a testimonial fixture

Manchester United vs Rest Of The World XI, October 11th 1999 

Hello and welcome back to We All Follow United, a blog page dedicated to the history of the world's greatest football club, Manchester United. 

For today's post we're going to take a look at a special fixture that took place early in the 1999-2000 season when just short  of 55,000 people crammed into Old Trafford to honour one of the greatest managers in the club's history and celebrate the glorious thirteen year reign of Sir Alex Ferguson. 

Captains for the evening Jaap Stam and Peter Schmeichel exchange pleasantries before Sir Ales Ferguson's testimonial fixture. 

Eight days after receiving an almighty 5-0 pants-downing away at Chelsea, United's first team lined up against a stellar line-up making up the Rest Of The World XI boasting Champions League winners, World Cup winners and the returning Eric Cantona, making his first appearance back at Old Trafford since the Munich memorial fixture the previous summer.

Return Of The King: Eric Cantona played for both the Rest Of The World XI and the Manchester United legends. 

Despite the Italian based trio of Zinedene Zidane, Gabriel Batistuta and Fernando Couto pulling out, United's opposition on the evening (managed by Bayern Munich gaffer Ottmar Hitzfeld) still boasted star names in the shape of Cafu, Paul Gascoigne, Rio Ferdinand, Taribo West and the great Brazilian Careca. Peter Schmeichel returned to Old Trafford for the first time since his move to Sporting Lisbon to keep goal too.

It was the RoW XI who broke the deadlock in the tenth minute when Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli continued his torment of United that had begun eight days earlier by gratefully sweeping Cafu's cross beyond Raimond van der Gouw. The move had been orchestrated by former Ballon D'Or winner George Weah (who would later join Chelsea) when his pass found the evergreen Roma full-back to cross for former Champions League winner Vialli.

Despite the light-hearted tone of the evening, United pressed for an equaliser. Dwight Yorke went close before Teddy Sheringham prodded Phil Neville's cross inside Schmeichel's near post just a minute before half-time. Despite initially looking frustrated at being beaten, the smile quickly returned to Schmeichel's face when Sheringham excitedly jumped on his back to celebrate the goal.

Oh Teddy Teddy: Teddy Sheringham equalised for United in the dying minutes of the first half of Sir Alex Ferguson's testimonial. 

Early in the second period, the great Careca ghosted through United's defence to slide the ball beyond  Van der Gouw to restore the RoW's lead. United again pressed to level affairs and were only denied by some fine saves from substitute goalkeeper Pascal Olmeta, most notably to deny Paul Scholes' angled shot.

With around twenty minutes remaining, the RoW players left the field and made way for a cavalcade of past United heroes, many of whom dusted off their boots to pay tribute to their former gaffer. The legends who took to the pitch were as follows.

Peter Schmeicheln, Paul Parker, Clayton Blackmore, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Darren Ferguson, Mark Hughes, Lee Sharpe, Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona. David Beckham also made an appearance for the legends team as he was on the comeback trail from a groin injury. 

The legends showed that class is well and truly permanent, especially Mark Hughes who left his own indelible stamp on proceedings with two goals. The first was a spectacular effort when he lashed Lee Sharpe's cross home with a fine first-time shot from outside the penalty area. 'Sparky' made it 4-1 a short time later before Paul Scholes reduced United's deficit to 4-2 with a late strike.

Sparky Strikes Again: Mark Hughes replicated the form that endeared him to the United faithful with two goals to win the testimonial for the Rest Of The World/Legends XI. 

At the end of the game, Sir Alex soaked up the adulation of both the past and present players on the field as well as the amassed crowd as he paraded the Champions League trophy on the field after the final whistle had blown. It was a fitting way to mark all of Sir Alex's achievements up to that point as well as allowing the supporters to see some of their past heroes for one last time on the hallowed Old Trafford turf.

The Rest Of The World team were as follows (their club at the time in brackets).

Peter Schmeichel (Sporting Lisbon), Cafu (AS Roma0, Alessandro Pistone (Newcastle United), Wim Jonk (Sheffield Wednesday), Rio Ferdinand (West Ham United), Taribo West (Inter Milan), Paul Gascoigne (Middlesbrough), George Weah (AC Milan), Gianluca Vialli (Chelsea manager), Henrik Larsson (Celtic), Dario Marcolin (Lazio), Eric Cantona (retired), Careca (Sao Jose), David Weir (Everton), Guerino Gottardi (Lazio), Benito Carbone (Sheffield Wednesday), Pascal Olmeta (retired).

That brings our look back at Sir Alex Ferguson's testimonial to a close, I hope you have enjoyed the article and stoked some happy memories for you. If you were there and have any memories of the game that you would like to share then why not get in touch on Twitter where I can be found @BarkerGray2. 

Until next time, take care.