Greatest World Cup players of all time no. 8 Bobby Moore

Bobby Moore

Born Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore on 12th April 1941, Bobby Moore was the England captain that lifted the World Cup in 1966. for all the great images from English football, Beckham scoring against Greece in 2001, Terry Butcher bloodied and bandaged up against Sweden in 1989 or Gascoigne crying against the Germans at Italia 90, the most enduring and most seen image is the one on the left, the sight of Bobby Moore, England captain, holding the trophy up high as the team he captained hoist him on their shoulders. No image or sight can rival this as the most important in English football history.

Moore was brought up on Wedderburn Road in Barking, Essex, playing football for local school sides. He signed for West Ham as a player in 1956 at the age of 15 as soon as he left school. quickly advancing through the youth system, he played his first game for West Ham on 8th September 1958 against Manchester United. Quickly becoming a first team regular, Moore was greatly admired for the way he was able to read the game and how he was able to anticipate opposition movements, not being a traditional hard-tackling defender, his finesse shone through from an early age. It was this finesse that has led Pele to call him the fairest defender he has ever played against.

In 1962, his form and impact on West Ham's defensive performances as a whole earned him a late call-up to the England squad by Walter Winterbottom and the Football Association committee (between them, the manager and the committee selected the squads in those days) to be included in the squad for the World Cup finals in Chile. Moore still hadn't made his debut for England as he boarded the plane to South America with the rest of the squad, though he did in a pre tournament friendly in a 4-0 win over Peru, impressing enough to stay in the team for the whole tournament (eventual winners Brazil beat England in the semi finals).

On 29th May 1963, the then 22 year old Moore captained the England national team for the first time in just his 12th appearance, he is England's youngest ever captain (in that game, England defeated Czechoslovakia 4-2).

1964 turned out to be an eventful year for Moore, he lifted the FA cup for is club West Ham United after defeating Preston North End 3-2 in the final at Wembley though on a personal level, he was successfully treated for testicular cancer AND was also named Football Writers Association Footballer of the year. (no player has ever endured a season of such highs and lows), though, for Moore, this FA cup success would be the first of three successful Wembley finals in as many years for Moore, the following year West Ham won the European Cup Winners Cup after beating 1860 Munich 2-0.

Though on the verge of his greatest triumph, details were released that Bobby Moore wanted to leave West Ham to join London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, his contract had expired and he didn't want to re-sign for West Ham, his heat was set on a move north west. Only after the intervention of Sir Alf Ramsey (then England manager) did he re-sign for West Ham as he was told differences with his contract would mean not only would he lose the captaincy, also that he wouldn't play at all!

With a hastily arranged contract sorted out with West Ham, Moore was able to lead to lead his country to it's crowning glory as he'd established himself as a magnificent player, gentleman and sporting icon. With all their games at Wembley, England had little trouble getting through a group consisting of Uruguay, Mexico and France. They then beat Argentina in a tempestuous quarter final (Sir Alf Ramsey not letting the players swap shirts after their match due to the dirty way they played, branding them 'animals') http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4AakJRRgq0 and through a Eusebio led Portuguese side in the semi finals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsQ8IFHyN6s .

The final was against a side that England had faced twice in two recent wars, Germany (though West Germany after the Berlin wall had been erected).

Remarkably, at least according to Geoff Hurst's autobiography, England full back George Cohen overheard manager Alf Ramsey talking to the coaching staff about the possibility of dropping Moore for the World Cup final to utilise the more battle-hardened Norman Hunter. If this is true or not is unknown but Bobby Moore started the match in his usual position and as captain (it remains a strange scenario, rendered almost unthinkable with hindsight). Moore had been in good form and the only feasible theory would be that the Germans had some fast attacking players which could maybe expose Bobby Moore's lack of pace and that Hunter was the club partner at Leeds United with fellow centre back Jack Charlton.

In the final, 98,000 people crammed inside Wembley stadium to watch , Bobby Moore won the toss and elected to kick off. England went 0-1 down after 12 minutes, Siegfried Held crossed into the England box and Ray Wilson misheaded the ball to Helmut Haller who controlled and shot across the gaol to give the Germans the lead, Jack Charlton and Gordon Banks unable to stop the ball going in. In the 19th minute, Wolfgang Overath conceded a free kick which Moore himself floated into the West German box with pinpoint accuracy to Geoff Hurst who had ran free and was unmarked with no-one around him and headed England level.

The second half started evenly, both teams not wanting to make a mistake and it was England that made the breakthrough on 77 minutes. Winning a corner, Alan Ball delivered the ball to Geoff Hurst who took his shot from outside the box whose shot was deflected into the path of Martin Peters to easily score past German keeper Hans Tilkowski. The Germans pressed for an equaliser in the closing moments, and in the last minute, the referee awarded them a free-kick. Lothar Emmerich took the free-kick which was deflected by the England wall, and across the goal to Wolfgang Weber to level the scores at 2-2 and force the match into extra time. The German equaliser was controversial since the ball had appeared to strike the hand of Karl-Heinze Schnellinger whilst travelling through the penalty area.

With the final going into extra time, both teams looked tired and depleted and having pep talks from their respective managers before kicking off again. In the 11th minute of extra time, Alan Ball broke down the right wing, crossed into the box where Geoff Hurst who controlled and swivelled to make space to shot from close range. The ball hit the underside of the cross bar and bounced down, apparently on or just over the bar, and was then cleared by the Germans. The Swiss referee Goltfried Dienst was uncertain if it had been a goal and consulted his linesmen (Tofik Bakhramov from Russia), after non-verbal communication (as they had no common language), German supporters cite the possible bias of the Soviet linesman, especially as USSR had been defeated in the semi-finals by West Germany and legend has it that when on his deathbed, asked how he could be sure the third goal had crossed the line, he was alleged to have replied 'Stalingrad' (in reference to Germany invading in World War II. In Germany, to this day, a shot that hits the bar and bounces down onto the line is called a 'Wembley-tor' (Wembley goal).

One minute before the end of the game, with England leading 4-2, the West Germans sent their defenders forward in a desperate attempt to score another last-minute equaliser. Winning the ball, Booby Moore picked out the unmarked Geoff Hurst with a long pass which Hurst carried forward while some spectators began streaming onto the field and Hurst scored moments later (claiming he wanted to just kick the ball as hard as he could to send the ball into the Wembley stands in order to kill time, it flew into the top left corner to seal a 4-2 win and to this day, Geoff Hurst is the only player to ever score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. The final goal gave rise to one of the most famous sayings in British sporting history when BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme said 'and here comes Hurst. He's got........some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over. It is now! It's four' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twYFgixkqJE

That Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick overshadowed the fact that a centre back provided two assists for goals, Bobby Moore's performance was masterful. Of the many timeless images from that day, one is of Moore gallantly wiping his hands clean of mud and sweat on his shorts and shirt before shaking the hand of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as she presented him with the World Cup trophy.

The final is the most watched event ever on British television, attracting 32.60 million viewers.

Bobby Moore became a national icon as a consequence of England's success, with him and two other West Ham players taking the World Cup around the grounds which West Ham visited the following domestic season. He was awarded the coveted BBC Sports Personality Of The Year at the end of 1966, the first ever footballer to do so. He was also awarded an OBE in the New Years Honours list.

1970 was a bittersweet year for Moore. He was again named as captain for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico but in a tour before the tournament in south America, Moore was implicated in the theft of a bracelet from a jeweller in Bogota, Colombia. A young assistant claimed Moore removed the bracelet from the hotel shop without paying for it. There was no doubt Moore was in the shop, he had gone in with Bobby Charlton to look for a gift for Charlton's wife, the accusation wasn't proved. Moore was arrested and then released, he then travelled with the England team to play another match in Quito, Ecuador. He played, winning his 80th cap in a 2-0 win, but the plane stopped back in Colombia on as the team were headed to Mexico for the finals. Moore was detained and placed under four days of house arrest. Diplomatic pressure, plus the obvious weakness of the evidence eventually saw the case dropped entirely and an exonerated Moore returned made his way to Mexico to rejoin the squad.

Moore shrugged off the pressure and stress to play a leading role in England's progress through their group. In the second game against favourites Brazil, there was a defining moment for Moore when he tackled the great Jairzinho with such precision and cleanliness that many cite as a tackle that no-one else will ever improve on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMTL9Dm-nYo . Brazil still won the game 1-0 but England still progressed through the group. Moore swapped shirts with Pele after the game, the shirt is now on display in the Priory Collection.

Defeat after extra time against West Germany saw England bow out of the tournament in the last eight, and it would be 12 years before England were to return to a World Cup finals again.

Moore won his 108th and final cap for England in a 0-1 friendly defeat to Italy on November 14th 1973. At the time becoming Englands most capped player of all time (only Peter Shilton and David Beckham have played more games since) and still holds the joint record with Billy Wright for 90 appearances as captain.

Sadly, Moore died on 24 February 1993 at the age of 51, though his legacy lives on, The Bobby Moore Fund has been set up to raise money for research into bowel cancer (which he died of), raising millions for this good cause. The stand replacing the south bank at West Ham's Boleyn Ground in Upton Park was named the Bobby Moore stand shortly after his death. There is also a bronze statue of Bobby Moore erected outside the main entrance of the new Wembley stadium which opened in May 2007, having seen it, it really is a beautiful monument to England's greatest footballing captain.

After his death, in an interview with England's 1966 manager Sir Alf Ramsey, he said,

"My captain, my leader, my right-hand man. He was the spirit and the heartbeat of the team. A cool, calculating footballer i could trust with my life. He was the supreme professional, the best i ever worked with. Without him, England would not of won the world cup"

Germany's Franz Beckenbauer is generally considered the greatest defender of all time, when asked about this he said "Bobby Moore was a real gentleman and a true friend, Bobby Moore was the best defender in the history of the game" and Pele was quoted as saying after Moore's death "He was my friend as well as the greatest defender i ever played against, the world has lost one of it's greatest football players and an honourable gentleman", also noting he only agreed to appear in the 1981 film Escape To Victory if Bobby Moore appeared as well.

World Cup honours:-

1966 World Cup winner