By CHRIS WHEELER Last updated at 22:20pm on 17th November 2006Rhodri Giggs chuckles mischievously at the suggestion he would ever pretend to be his brother to attract the ladies.
"Maybe," he says. "Or I got my mates to do it. It worked most of the time as well!"
Not these days, of course. Not with a fiancee and a baby to look after. But there is no mistaking the family resemblance. Those piercing dark eyes, the angular features and thick stubble.
Rhodri, 29, even plays on the wing wearing the red shirt of United. FC United of Manchester, that is, the protest club formed by supporters disillusioned over Malcolm Glazer's controversial takeover.
On Saturday afternoon, before 32-year-old Ryan attempts to keep Sir Alex Ferguson's team flying high at the top of the Premiership at Sheffield United in a 5.15 kick-off, his younger brother will be hoping to nudge the other United one step nearer the new Wembley when they travel to local rivals Salford City in the FA Vase.
Up to 7,000 fans are expected for the meeting between clubs who play in the North West Counties League, eight rungs below United on the football ladder. "That's what sold me," says Giggs, who joined in the summer from Mossley. "I just think it's great playing non-league football in front of that many people.
"But I don't think we'll ever rival United. It's like chalk and cheese. I feel daft just talking about it. The only thing we've got in common is the shirt and the name."
As hard as he tries to distance himself from the politics of it all, there is no escaping Ferguson's disdain.
"I saw him at a sportsman's dinner at United two months ago and he looked straight through me," says Rhodri. "Maybe he didn't recognise me, but I think he did. He's got a bee in his bonnet about FC United."
On the pitch, as in life, Rhodri occupies the opposite flank to Ryan.
A right winger, he began his career as an apprentice at Torquay in 1993 - the season after his brother helped United end their 26-year wait for the title - and took two years out of the game after he was released before resurfacing in Scotland, Wales and finally back in non-league football near the family home in Manchester.
Then there is the chequered personal past. While Ryan has remained the ultimate professional, dedicated to one club and his career, Rhodri's troubles came to a head when he was jailed for nine months in 2001 for his part in a fight with a group of Manchester City fans outside a nightclub.
"I was targeted in the club because of my name," he says. "I left to get away but they followed us. I'm not going to start anything but I'm not going to walk away either. It was a big shock when I got sent down because my solicitor said I'd get probation. I don't think the judge took my name into account, even though he was a director of Liverpool!"
Giggs spent a month in Manchester's Strangeways before he was moved to the same open prison in Kirkham where Jan Molby, Mickey Thomas and Simon Garner served out their sentences, working as a bin orderly and playing for the football team.
"We only had home games!" he laughs. "I did my ligaments playing volleyball and had to get a taxi to the hospital at 10 at night. Leaving prison to go to hospital on my own. Crazy! But I only had about a week or two left.
"People were friendly in jail. There were one or two unpleasant ones, but out of 1,500 inmates that's not bad. And most of them were Scousers as well. In fact they were the most fun to be with.
"Ryan didn't come to see me and obviously he couldn't write because people would have read the letters. But he rang me a few times to see how I was getting on."
There have been other scrapes, but not all of them were his fault. Like the incident two years ago when he parted company with a Porsche Carrera after four masked men carjacked him in the city's Moss Side.
He refuses to blame the problems on his parents' break-up. Former rugby league player Danny Wilson returned to Cardiff following his split with Lynne Giggs when the boys were young, and although Rhodri has not spoken to his dad in six years, he knows Ryan has met up with him while on international duty with Wales.
Having a mixed race father has created issues for both sons.
"I see myself as more black than white," says Rhodri. "I was a bit darker when I was younger. My friends from school think I'm black but I don't really knock about with them any more. The lads I know now don't really know I'm black. My black friends think I'm black and my white friends think I'm white."
Above all, he's a Red and there is no disguising the pride he feels at seeing Ryan weave his way into Old Trafford folklore.
"I just love to watch him. Maybe he plays the game the way I've always wanted to. My favourite moment was the FA Cup semi-final goal against Arsenal in 1999. If you look at the video of United's Treble season, at the end of the Arsenal game and the camera goes to Ryan, I'm on the pitch.
"A steward tried to stop me but I just ran past him and was the first person to jump on Ryan. He told me to get off because his leg was killing him!
"I've been so lucky to be a part of it in a little way. They're good memories.
"I've had to stand up for him a few times as well. If I sit in the south stand at Old Trafford, I'm going to end up fighting with someone. They wouldn't know about football if one hit them on the head.
"Last season at Wigan, every time Ryan got the ball this guy was moaning until he set up a goal. I just snapped and told him to shut up. Usually I bite my lip, but he was getting a bit too lairy."
Rhodri is mellowing and fatherhood has helped. He is settling into life with his fiancee Natasha, her five-year-old son and their baby Louis, who has almost outgrown the swinging chair his uncle bought him.
While Ryan earns £80,000 a week at Old Trafford and has just moved into his new multi-million pound home near their mother in Worsley, Giggs Jnr is more than happy making use of his Class II HGV driver's licence and helping FC United on the long haul up the non-league ladder.
"The comparisons have never really bothered me," he says. "I know that if I really knuckled down and had a bit of luck along the way I might have been able to do what Ryan has done, but I never had that dedication.
"Maybe I'll dream about scoring the winner against Salford but that's about it."
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