Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Manchester United Soccer Stars Hope To Buy and Redevelop Synagogue

Manchester United soccer star Ryan Giggs and retired icon Gary Neville reportedly plan to buy a synagogue in Manchester as part of a sprawling redevelopment plan they are spearheading.

The longtime teammates want to buy the Manchester Reform Synagogue, which located in a prime location in the city’s dilapidated central business district, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

The synagogue purchase will be part of a deal to develop a abandoned police station and other properties which the budding real estate developers hope to turn into a multimillion dollar mixed commercial-residential complex.

The shul was built in the early 50’s, after its predecessor was destroyed in the Nazi blitz of 1941.

The plans call for the building to be torn down and replaced by a new ‘eco-friendly’ synagogue, along with apartments, shops and a spanking-new community center.

The synagogue’s president Danny Savage confirmed the discussions with Giggs and Neville, who are among Manchester sports royalty, but declined to give further details.

“Our uniqueness as the only city-center synagogue make it more inclusive a community, predominantly for the Jewish community. Our hope is that it will include meeting spaces, which have been given a lot of thought,” the president said, according to the Chronicle.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.