London, Nov.15 : Manchester United coach-cum-manager Alex Ferguson has said that were not for his passion for football, he would have ended up being a toolmaker in Canada.

Speaking to reporters here after completing a half-century's involvement with the game, Ferguson, 66, was quoted by The Sun as saying: "I can't believe I have been in the game 50 years now. In those early years I was never quite sure where I was going to go. But that's life. I was 21, playing part-time football for Dunfermline and on the point of emigrating to Canada, where my father's family was to take up the tool-making trade."

"I had done my apprenticeship and, at that time, tool-making was a great trade in Canada and well paid. It was a great country. But then things changed. That is fate," added Ferguson, who has emerged as the most successful coach in European football.

ANI