Goal.com's Top 10 English Players: Bobby Moore (2)

Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" MOORE

Born:    12 April 1941, Barking, East London

England:    108 caps, 2 goals

Clubs:    West Ham United, Fulham, San Antonio Thunder, Seattle Sounders

The most iconic image in English football is of Bobby Moore holding aloft the World Cup on 30 July 1966. It was a perfect moment in the sporting history of the country, and Moore – composed, immaculate and stylish – was its perfect hero. Indeed, his manager, Alf Ramsey, said of Bobby in the aftermath of that triumph, "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 never have won the World Cup."

Ramsey’s use of the word ‘cool’ captured the essence of Bobby Moore. On the pitch or off it, he always looked the part: an unruffled natural leader who exuded calm authority and never seemed under pressure. That dignified exterior disguised a burning ambition to prove and improve himself – a quality that made him an inspirational captain who scaled the peaks of greatness.

There were deficiencies in Moore’s game: he was never the best header of a ball, lacked pace and, despite playing on the left of central defence, was predominantly right-footed. Yet application and speed of thought ensured that his strengths emphatically and consistently overcame the weaknesses. He transformed himself from moderately talented youngster to indispensable member of the senior West Ham and England sides, taking in his stride with impressive maturity the captaincy of first club and then country.

Born in Barking, East London, at 16 he was signed by local side West Ham United as an apprentice on £7 a week. At that time the coaching of the Hammers’ youngsters was the responsibility of a few senior professionals, notably Noel Cantwell and Malcolm Allison, which proved fortuitous for Moore, whose hunger to learn about tactics and technique was insatiable.

Allison told him to focus on the ‘next pass’, even when the ball was 100 yards away. "Always keep a picture in your mind where everyone is. That way, when you get the ball you don't have to think what to do with it," was the advice – and it defined Moore’s game to such an extent that he was suspected of possessing extra-sensory footballing perception.

Indeed, Jock Stein, the legendary Celtic and Scotland manager, said of Moore, "There should be a law against him. He knows what's happening 20 minutes before everyone else." That ability to anticipate accounted for Moore’s exceptional positional sense and the timing and precision of his tackling.

Ironically, Moore’ breakthrough at West Ham came at the expense of Allison, who was overlooked after recovering from tuberculosis. Bobby was handed his debut against Manchester United in September 1958 and scarcely looked back, going on to make the number 6 shirt his own at Upton Park for the next 15 seasons.

Having been picked for England youth and Under-23 teams by Ron Greenwood, who in 1961 became his club manager, Moore was selected for the senior squad that travelled to South America for the 1962 World Cup. He made his debut in the final pre-tournament friendly, a 4-0 win over Peru, and retained his place throughout England's progress to the quarter-finals where they lost to eventual winners Brazil.

In May 1963, the 22-year-old Moore became the youngest man ever to captain England – in only his 12th appearance. The following summer, new manager Alf Ramsey handed Moore the armband on a permanent basis.

That summer of 1964 was momentous for Moore, who lifted the FA Cup for West Ham after a thrilling 3-2 Wembley victory over Preston North End, the day after receiving the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award. But in a dark foreboding of what would later befall him, he was also treated for testicular cancer, unbeknown to the public.

Lifting European silver in 1965

In 1965 he was again hoisting silverware at Wembley as the Hammers defeated TSV Munich 1860 2-0 in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final. All that remained for a unique and glorious Wembley treble for Moore was to lift the World Cup 12 months later.

Remarkably, on the eve of the tournament, Ramsey learned that Moore would be technically ineligible to participate unless he immediately signed a new contract with West Ham. A couple of months earlier he had skippered them to the League Cup final, which they lost 5-3 on aggregate to West Bromwich Albion, but was now in dispute with the club. He wanted £10 a week more in wages, and his contract was due to expire on 30 June. Ramsey summoned Greenwood to the England team’s hotel and told him and Moore they had one minute to sort it out. Moore signed a one-month contract that satisfied FIFA’s rules and duly led his country into battle.

England progressed to the final, but Moore spent the morning of the showpiece event with West Germany consoling his good friend Jimmy Greaves, who’d learned he would miss the final. Moore’s team-mate Geoff Hurst had got the nod. On what proved to be a great day for West Ham as well as England, Moore’s awareness saw him direct a quickly-taken free-kick onto Hurst’s head for an England equaliser. Club-mate Martin Peters made it 2-1 before Wolfgang Weber netted a last-gasp equaliser to force extra-time.

CAREER HIGHLIGHT   Winning the World Cup in 1966

Hurst then scored the most controversial goal in World Cup history before, with seconds remaining and the desperate Germans applying pressure, Moore took possession on the edge of his own penalty area. Team-mates urged him just to hammer it into touch, but Moore, coolness personified, played the perfect 40-yard ball for Hurst to run on to and lash home.

On his way to receive the World Cup from Queen Elizabeth, Bobby famously wiped his hands on the velvet drape of the Royal Box so as not to soil Her Majesty’s white gloves. Then the celebrations began.

The 25-year-old captain became a national icon, and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year at the end of 1966, collecting the OBE in the New Year Honours List. The FA gave the players a £22,000 bonus for becoming world champions; Moore insisted it be split equally among every member of the 22-man squad, whether they’d played or not.

He remained a fixture in the England side over the next four years, and was the first name in Ramsey’s squad to defend the World Cup in Mexico in 1970. In Colombia ahead of the tournament, Moore’s coolness under pressure was put to the test when he was falsely accused of stealing a bracelet from a Bogota hotel’s jewellery shop.  Moore was arrested then released, earned his 80th cap in a 2-0 win over Ecuador in Quito, but was promptly detained and placed under house arrest for four days when the team plane stopped in Colombia again en-route to Mexico. Lack of evidence saw the charge dropped and Bobby exonerated, free to lead his team again.

In the group game against Brazil, he executed a tackle against Jairzinho so clean and  well-timed that it is still revered as an example of ball-winning perfection. At the end of that game, Pele, who called Moore the greatest – and fairest – defender he ever played against, sought him out to swap shirts, their show of mutual respect creating another iconic World Cup image.

However, England’s quest ended in quarter-final despair against Germany, and shortly afterwards there was more anxiety for Moore when he was informed that his wife Tina would be kidnapped and held to ransom; happily the threat came to nothing.

But back at West Ham (where Greaves had joined him in March as a makeweight in the deal that saw Peters join Spurs), Moore was increasingly restless, frustrated with Greenwood’s failure to mastermind a credible League title challenge.

Nevertheless, he set a club record with his 509th West Ham appearance in February 1973, and won his 100th England cap the same month. But later that year, after England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, he made his final appearance for his country. Two months after that, he played his last game for the Hammers before joining Fulham in March 1974. 

In a double irony, he played against West Ham for Fulham in the 1975 FA Cup final (his last Wembley appearance as a player); and against England for Team USA (alongside Pele) in the 1976 Bicentennial Cup tournament. His last League game for Fulham came in May 1977, and he played for two teams in the North American Soccer League - San Antonio Thunder (1976) and Seattle Sounders (1978).

Billy Bonds went on to surpass Moore’s appearance record for the Hammers, while Bobby’s landmark of 108 England caps (90 of them as captain, a record shared with Billy Wright) was eventually overtaken by Peter Shilton and then David Beckham,

Moore had brief, undistinguished spells in football management at Eastern AA in Hong Kong, Oxford City and Southend United, and endured some failed business deals and the end of his marriage. Many felt that the FA should have found a role for its only World Cup winning captain, though Moore, typically, made no fuss.

He joined London radio station Capital Gold as a football analyst and commentator in 1990, underwent an “emergency stomach operation” in 1991 and later that year married Stephanie Parlane-Moore. On February 14, 1993, he publicly announced that he was suffering from bowel cancer. Three days later, he commentated on England’s match against San Marino at Wembley. It proved to be his final public appearance, as the following week, on 24 February, he died, aged just 51.

Before kick-off at West Ham’s next home game, his fellow World Cup winners, Hurst and Peters, laid a floral replica of Moore’s number 6 West Ham shirt on the centre circle.

Moore was only the second sportsman to be posthumously honoured by a memorial service at Westminster Abbey, attended by all the other members of the 1966 England team. The charity Cancer Research UK set up the Bobby Moore Fund to raise money for bowel cancer research in his memory, and a bust of Moore was erected in the foyer of the stand bearing his name at the Boleyn Ground. There is also a statue nearby depicting Moore the World Cup winner, while the new Wembley Stadium boasts a statue of him looking down Wembley Way. It was unveiled in May 2007 by Sir Bobby Charlton.

The ‘Colossus of Wembley’ is a fitting monument to a player of whom his friend Franz Beckenbauer said, "Bobby was my football idol. I looked up to him. I was so proud to have played against him." Becknbauer rated Moore “the best defender in the history of the game". Undoubtedly the cultured England captain, who could read a game so well, was the ultimate in class acts.
 
HONOURS

World Cup winner – 1966
European Cup Winners’ Cup winner – 1965
FA Cup winner – 1964
FWA Footballer of the Year - 1964
Awarded the OBE – 1967
Inaugural inductee to English Football’s Hall of Fame – 2002
Selected as the ‘Golden Player of England’ by the FA, their most outstanding player of the last 50 years, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee - 2003,

DID YOU KNOW… That Bobby Moore was also a fine cricketer, and played cricket for the Essex youth team alongside fellow West Ham and England star Geoff Hurst?

Graham Lister, Goal.com