Amoo Jesutobi notes the stature of footballing legend Bobby Moore.
When West Ham United play Tottenham Hotspur at Upton Park tonight, there will be a minute’s silence in memory of Bobby Moore, the Hammers and England captain who died of cancer 20 years ago, on 24th February 1993.
Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore was born in 1941 in Barking, Essex. He played schoolboy football for Westbury Primary and Tom Hood, Leyton, before signing for the West Ham youth team aged 14. Moore’s first, first-team game was against Manchester United in September 1958. He stayed with the Claret and Blues for a further 16 years, 10 of these as captain, followed by a three-year stint at Fulham where he ended his English playing career.
Moore was a central defender, but his renown stems neither from high-kicking nor hard tackling; indeed he was nicknamed ‘clean shorts’ because he preferred to stay off the grass. Instead, Moore was a world class play-maker, able to read the game in advance – according to Celtic manager Jock Stein, ‘20 minutes before everyone else’. The Brazilian superstar Pele simply said that Moore was the best defender he had ever encountered.
Moore’s strategic vision was an essential component in England’s successful World Cup campaign of 1966 – the only time football’s biggest trophy has come home to England. But Moore nearly didn’t make the team. Looking for a move from West Ham, he had let his contract go to termination at the end of the 1965-66 season, and England manager Alf Ramsey had to bang heads together (Moore’s and Hammers’ manager Ron Greenwood’s) to sign a new contract and so ensure that the England team captain would be eligible to play in the World Cup.
The rest is the stuff of legend. England beat West Germany in the final after extra time, and Moore went on to be the most capped England player (108 caps when he retired from international football in 1973: his tally was later topped by Peter Shilton [125], and by David Beckham’s 109 appearances).
With a stand named after him at the Boleyn Ground, Upton Park, a sculpture outside the ground at the junction of Barking Road and Green Street, and another statue at the recently rebuilt Wembley Stadium, the late Bobby Moore remains a fixture in the footballing life of East London and England.