Born to Alexander Beaton Ferguson, a plater's helper in the shipbuilding industry, and his wife, Elizabeth (nee Hardie), Alex Chapman Ferguson was born at his grandmother's home on Shieldhall Road in Govan on 31 December 1941, but grew up in a tenement at 667 Govan Road (which has since been demolished), where he lived with his parents as well as his younger brother Martin. Ferguson attended Broomloan Road Primary School and later Govan High School. He began his football career with Harmony Row Boys Club in Govan, before progressing to Drumchapel Amateurs, a youth club with a strong reputation for producing senior footballers.

Although the team had a slow start to the 2008-09 season, United won the Premier League with a game to spare, making Ferguson the first manager in the history of English football to win the Premier League three times consecutively, on two separate occasions. Ferguson had now won 11 league titles at Manchester United, and the 2008-09 season title success put them level with Liverpool as league champions on a record 18 occasions in total. They also won the League Cup on penalties after a goalless Wembley draw with Tottenham.  They contested the 2009 Champions League final against Barcelona on 27 May 2009 but lost 2-0.  In 2009-10, Ferguson added another League Cup to his honours list as United defeated Aston Villa 2-1 in the Wembley final on 28 February 2010. However, his dreams of a third European Cup were ended a few weeks later when United were edged out of the competition in the quarter-finals by Bayern Munich on away goals. And their hopes of a record 19th league title were ended on the last day of the season when Chelsea beat them to the Premier League title, crushing Wigan Athletic 8-0 and rendering United's 4-0 win over Stoke City meaningless.  He ended the season by winning his 12th and Manchester United's 19th league title and thus overtaking Liverpool's record of 18. Manchester United faced Barcelona again on 28 May 2011 in the 2011 Champions League final, their third in four years, but United lost 3-1. Analyst Alan Hansen stated that he believed Ferguson was "the key component" in United's success that season, so key in fact that "[he] would have claimed the crown with any of the other top sides had he been in charge of them". With Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes all retiring in 2011, Ferguson spent big by signing defender Phil Jones from Blackburn and winger Ashley Young from Aston Villa for around PS17 million each, and goalkeeper David de Gea from Atletico Madrid for around PS19 million.  On 2 September 2012, Ferguson managed his 1,000th league game with United against Southampton. United won the game 3-2 thanks to a hat-trick from Robin van Persie. Two weeks later, he won his 100th game in the Champions League with a 1-0 win over Galatasaray at Old Trafford.

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