Sir Alex Ferguson reveals the moment he broke his ribs celebrating

Martin Macdonald

• 19 Dec 2025 10:01 CST
• 4 min read

Nieuws

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed the moment that he actually broke his ribs because he was celebrating too much.

A legendary football manager, he is one of the most iconic coaches British football has ever seen.

Throughout his illustrious career, he won three Scottish Premier Division titles, four Scottish Cups, one League Cup, and the European Cup Winners’ Cup with Aberdeen and 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, one European Cup Winners’ Cup and two Champions League titles with Manchester United…among many more honours.

His managerial career lasted from 1974 to 2013 and, naturally, there were many eye-catching moments, particularly in his time with the Red Devils.

Most notably, his United side scored two goals in injury time through Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to win the 1999 Champions League against Bayern Munich in truly dramatic fashion. It was the craziest, most emotional end to a Champions League season in history.

And yet, the broken rib moment that Ferguson mentions, actually took place in the horse racing world.

We reckon Sir Alex enjoyed that! ⚽️

His homebred SPIRIT DANCER wins the #BahrainTrophy! 🇧🇭 pic.twitter.com/XTfBuTdvcA

— World Horse Racing (@WHR) November 17, 2023

Fergie part-owns the horse Spirit Dancer, who has two Bahrain Trophies under its belt.

When asked by Press Box PR which of the two wins was the best, he replied:

"I broke my ribs in excitement [celebrating the first win]! I was in agony, I was. There’s nothing you can do when you have broken your ribs, I broke two of them."

On the two Bahrain wins, he commented:

"It was brilliant. It made the decision to bring him here so important. I bred the horse too, which was even more important [to me].

"Unfortunately, he got a couple of chips in his knee in the run at Hong Kong last year. Between us, we will give him plenty of time to operate properly again. He did well, won seven races and won a fair bit of money for us and justified me going into a stud. That has been really important."

Ferguson: It could be 10 years before Man Utd win the league

Ferguson was also asked about the current state of former club Man Utd, who haven't won the Premier League since he was last in the dugout.

The team is currently managed by Ruben Amorim, who has improved things slightly from a disastrous 2024/25 campaign but whose tenure is yet to really catch fire.

“He [Amorim] is a good personality. It is not easy. I remember looking back on my own time there, starting off when Liverpool were the bee’s knees. They were a fantastic club winning the European Cup four times and all that, but then it took them 31 years to win the league again,” he explained.

“We are now in the same situation. It could be ten years, could be 11 years, because of that cycle. It has to be thought out carefully and we have to make sure the recruitment is going to be better than what it was.”

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