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Alex Ferguson, Britain's longest-serving and most decorated soccer manager, will retire at the end of the season after 26 years and nearly 1,500 matches at the helm of Manchester United, he announced today.
The 71-year-old Scot ended intense speculation that he was about to call time on his career by confirming he would step aside after champions United's last game of the season at West Bromwich Albion on May 19.
His decision ends a glittering era at Old Trafford in which the club won 13 English league titles, two European Cups, five FA Cups and four League Cups as well as the FIFA Club World Cup.
Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and Everton's long-serving boss, David Moyes, a Scot like Ferguson, are the bookmakers' favorites to take over. (Counting Fergie’s 49 trophies)
Ferguson arrived in Manchester in 1986 after Ron Atkinson was sacked and, after a difficult start, began building an empire that shows no sign of crumbling with the club recapturing the English title from Manchester City this season.
"The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time," Ferguson, who has been in charge of 1,498 matches for the club, winning nearly 900 of them, said on United's site (www.manutd.com).
United said Ferguson, to undergo hip surgery during the off-season, would remain at the club as a director.
"It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so," added Glasgow-born Ferguson who had announced he would retire after the 2001-02 season before changing his mind.
"Going forward, I am delighted to take on the roles of both director and ambassador for the club," he said.
"With these activities, along with my many other interests, I am looking forward to the future."
Ferguson, who in 2010 surpassed Matt Busby as the longest-serving manager in United's history, had given no hint of his retirement in his programme notes for Sunday's home game against Chelsea, appearing to suggest he would continue his reign for the foreseeable future.
"Whether I will be here to oversee another decade of success remains to be seen but I certainly don't have any plans at the moment to walk away from what I believe will be something special and worth being around to see," he wrote.
'Massive shock'
The suddenness of his decision left some who served under him in a state of disbelief.
"I'm shocked, it's a bombshell," said former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, who was part of the 1998-99 team that won the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
Drove club's growth
Manchester United itself set out in plain language the importance of Alex Ferguson when the Premier League football club floated on the New York stock exchange last year.
"Any successor to our current manager may not be as successful," United said in the risk factors section of official documents that accompanied the $2.3-billion listing.
This theory will now be tested. "United has been transformed as a club under Ferguson," said Dan Jones, a partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.
"Financially, the last 26 years have coincided with a wider revolution in English football with massive investment in the game and the growth of the Premier League, particularly driven by domestic and global broadcast deals."
United shares fall
United shares fell 3.5 per cent to $18 in early trade, having climbed in recent months from last August's $14 launch price.
United, controlled by the American Glazer family, gave no word on who will step into Ferguson's shoes. David Moyes, a quietly spoken yet forceful Scotsman who has turned Everton into a Premier League force on limited resources, was the leading contender, according to bookmakers.
The charismatic Portuguese Jose Mourinho, who had been tipped to return to the Premier League with Chelsea from his post at Real Madrid, is another candidate.
United will want to avoid a replay of the early 1970s when the departure of manager Matt Busby, who took the team to their first European Cup triumph in 1968, was followed by a decline and brief relegation to the second tier.
Ferguson will retire on a high after leading the club to a record 20th English league title, the 13th time they have been champions since the Premier League was formed in 1992.
Under Ferguson, United have grown into a global brand that claims to have more than 650 million followers around the world.
Players such as David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo have come and gone, but Ferguson has been a constant presence on the touchline at Old Trafford for more than a quarter of a century, urging on his players and raging at perceived injustices.
Summer of change
With Chief Executive David Gill also stepping down this summer, it's suddenly all change at the club. Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward will take over many of Gill's duties and work with the new manager on player signings.
United already have long term sponsorship agreements in place with companies such as General Motors and insurer Aon.
The club is in the process of discussing a new agreement with long-term kit supplier Nike to replace a deal worth upwards of 25 million pounds ($38 million) per season.
"We believe that Manchester United is a first class institution with a 135-year history of excellence that has wisely been planning and preparing for the eventual retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson," stock market analyst Randal J. Konik of Jefferies said in a note.
Although the club's financial future is sound, the new manager will face pressure to deliver trophies rapidly.
Having made his mark managing Scottish team Aberdeen, Ferguson struggled to make an impact after joining United in 1986. He did not win a major trophy there until they lifted the FA Cup in 1990 but after that, the floodgates opened.
United had always enjoyed a big following across Britain, capturing the hearts of many neutrals as Busby rebuilt the club after the 1958 Munich air disaster in which eight players died.
United's growth as a business since the 1990s has coincided with a huge surge in interest in the Premier League at home and abroad. English football got itself lucrative new television deals, smartened up its stadiums and became fashionable again as it put the dark hooligan days of the 1980s behind it.
United's revenue has grown to 320 million pounds in 2011-12 from 25 million pounds in 1992-93, Deloitte said.
Some United fans have never forgiven the Glazers for loading the club up with debt when they bought the club for 790 million pounds in 2005.
They argue the deal made it harder to compete with clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City, funded respectively by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour.
Ferguson's man management and mastery of tactics helped United to remain at the top in the Premier League despite the deeper pockets of rivals.
The sponsorship model it underpinned also meant the club could keep wages at under 50 percent of revenue, low for a notoriously spendthrift industry.
