"I'd never seen that before and never did again!" - England teammate tells incredible story about Paul Scholes

Former England player Kieron Dyer has revealed what Paul Scholes did to receive a standing ovation in training.

Manchester United legend Scholes is regarded as one of the greatest midfielders in history, winning 11 Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues.

It's widely believed several England managers failed to get the best out of Scholes at international level.

He made 66 appearances for his country but retired in 2004, citing his family and United career as the reason.

Those seven years in a Three Lions shirt are still filled with brilliant stories.

Dyer was capped 33 times for his country and was part of the squad with Scholes on several occasions.

He believes Scholes was a better player than contemporaries Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, calling the decision to shift him to the left wing 'disrespectful'.

Dyer said in his 2018 book 'Old Too Soon, Smart Too Late: My Story' as serialised in the Daily Mail: "Paul Scholes was the best player I played with and people like Xavi and Zinedine Zidane counted him as their favourite player.

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"Other nations would have used him as their fulcrum but Sven Goran Eriksson's first-choice midfield was always David Beckham on the right, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard in the centre and Scholes on the left.

"So we wasted him by putting him on the left and banished him to the margins. It was disrespectful, one of the biggest crimes ever."

The former Newcastle man then recalled when Scholes was absolutely unplayable in a training game. It saw the diminutive maestro receive applause from the entire squad as he walked off the pitch.

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Dyer continued: "When you talk about Gerrard, Lampard and Scholes, Scholes was the best of the three and yet he was asked to give way. He was the absolute master of one touch in training.

"One day he scored three or four goals - and I'm not talking tap-ins. I'm talking 25-yarders-lodging-in-the-stanchion-type goals.

"When the session was over, the rest of the England players formed a guard of honour and clapped him off the pitch. I'd never seen that before and I never saw it again."

Topics: Paul Scholes, England, Manchester United

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a social editor for SPORTbible after moving from the writing team. Nearly scored past Stormzy at Old Trafford once.

@DanMarland_