Ryan Giggs claims Premier League players deserve their £100,000-a-week pay packets.
In an interview with ITV News at Ten, due to be broadcast tonight, the Welsh star said players were right to take advantage of the money on offer in what he says is "the best league in the world."
“There is plenty of money in the game but the majority of the players deserve that," he said.
"There are a number of players that perhaps 20 years ago wouldn’t have got paid the money that they’re getting now, but that’s the way football is now.
The average player is getting a lot of money – if that’s right, I don’t know. But good luck to them – the money is in the game, why not earn it while they’ve got the chance?
"But 20 years ago that wouldn’t have happened. It was probably only the top, top players, the elite players who would be earning good money.”
“Footballers make the front pages and the back pages – it’s big news, they’re like pop stars. The game has gone massive, the game has gone huge and a lot of things are for the good
.
"The fitness of players is better than it’s ever been. The Premier League is the best league in the world, the most watched league in the world.”
For all his riches, however, the United veteran has been humbled by his recent visit to Sierra Leone with Unicef to raise HIV awareness.
“You see what true bravery is," he said. "You hear all the time that a footballer is brave going into a tackle or going up for a header. That’s not bravery.
"What I’ve seen today – a 21-year-old lad who was telling me that he’s positive for HIV and what he wants to do about it, that he wants to educate other people, that he wants to help stop it happening to other young men and to other young women – that’s bravery.”
Giggs - whose grandparents are from Sierra Leone - believes privileged Premier League stars have a duty to put their fame to good use.
He added: “The highest cases of new HIV are amongst young people. Young people watch football, young people support Manchester United, so maybe some of the people who I’ve come across who don’t believe in HIV or don’t want to listen to their teachers – maybe they’ll listen to me because maybe they think that I’m a hero or they’ve seen me on the TV so they’re thinking ‘he must be telling the truth’.
“They’re scared of [HIV], scared of what they don’t know, and that’s partly why I’m here to try and educate, to try and raise awareness, but they face many problems believing that [HIV] doesn’t exist.”