Bobby Moore

Robert Frederick Chelsea “Bobby” Moore, OBE (12 April 1941 – 24 February 1993) was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, and was cited by Pelé as the greatest defender that he had ever played against.

He won a total of 108 caps for the England team, which at the time of his international retirement in 1973 was a national record. This record was later broken by 125-cap goalkeeper Peter Shilton. Moore’s total of 108 caps continued as a record for outfield players until 28 March 2009, when David Beckham gained his 109th cap. However, unlike Beckham, Moore played every minute of every one of his caps.

Born in Barking, Essex, Moore attended Westbury Primary School and Tom Hood School, Leyton.

He played for both schools.

Moore joined West Ham United as a player in 1956 and, after advancing through their youth set-up, he played his first game on 8 September 1958 against Manchester United. In putting on the number six shirt, he replaced his mentor Malcolm Allison, who was suffering from tuberculosis.

Allison never played another first team game for West Ham nor indeed any other First Division game, as Moore became a regular. A composed central defender, Moore was admired for his reading of the game and ability to anticipate opposition movements, thereby distancing himself from the image of the hard-tackling, high-jumping defender. Indeed, Moore’s ability to head the ball or keep up with the pace was average at best, but the way he read the game, marshalled his team and timed his tackles marked him out as world class.

Bobby Moore also played county cricket for the Essex youth team alongside fellow West Ham player Geoff Hurst.

In 1960, Moore earned a call up to the England Under-23 squad. His form and impact on West Ham as a whole earned him a late call-up to the full England squad by Walter Winterbottom and the Football Association selection committee in 1962, when final preparations were being made for the summer’s World Cup finals in Chile. Moore was uncapped as he flew to South America with the rest of the squad, but made his début on 20 May 1962 in England’s final pre-tournament friendly – a 4–0 win over Peru in Lima. Also débuting that day was Tottenham Hotspur defender Maurice Norman. Both proved so impressive that they stayed in the team for the whole of England’s participation in the World Cup, which ended in defeat by eventual winners Brazil in the quarter finals atViña del Mar.

On 29 May 1963, 22-year-old Moore captained his country for the first time in just his 12th appearance after the retirement of Johnny Haynes and an injury to his successor, Jimmy Armfield. He was the youngest man ever to captain England at the highest level. England defeated Czechoslovakia 4–2 in the game and Armfield returned to the role of captain afterwards, but new coach Alf Ramsey gave Moore the job permanently during a series of summer friendlies in 1964, organised because England had failed to reach the latter stages of the European Championships.

1964 turned out to be quite an eventful year for Moore. As well as gaining the England captaincy, he lifted the FA Cup as West Ham defeated Preston North End 3–2 in the final at Wembley, courtesy of a last-minute goal from Ronnie Boyce. On a personal level, Moore also was successfully treated for testicular cancer and was named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.

The FA Cup success would become the first of three successful Wembley finals in as many years for Moore. In 1965, he lifted the European Cup Winners Cup after West Ham defeated 1860 Munich 2–0 in the final with both goals coming from Alan Sealey. By now he was the first choice captain for England with 30 caps, and around whom Ramsey was building a team to prove correct his prediction that they would win the 1966 World Cup. 1966 had a mixed start for Moore, however – he scored his first England goal in a 1–1 draw with Poland, but then captained West Ham to the final of the League Cup – in its last season before its transfer to Wembley as a one-off final – which they lost 5–3 on aggregate to West Bromwich Albion. For Moore, who had scored in the first leg, and his West Ham team-mates Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, considerable consolation lay ahead. Moore scored his second and ultimately final England goal in a friendly againstNorway, two weeks before the World Cup would begin.

On the verge of his greatest triumph, details were released to the press in early 1966 that Moore wanted to leave West Ham. Moore had let his contract slip to termination, and only after the intervention of Sir Alf Ramsey and realisation he was technically ineligible to play, did he re-sign with West Ham to allow him to captain the England team of 1966. Ramsey had summoned West Ham manager Ron Greenwood to England’s hotel and told the two of them to resolve their differences and get a contract signed up. Moore was the leader of the World Cup winning side and established himself as a world-class player and sporting icon. With all their games at Wembley, England had got through their group with little trouble, they then beat Argentina in a controversial quarter final and a Eusébio-led Portugal team in the semis, a match also surrounded by controversy. West Germany awaited in the final.

According to Geoff Hurst’s autobiography, England full back George Cohen overheard Ramsey talking to his coaching staff about the possibility of dropping Moore for the final and deploying the more battle-hardened Norman Hunter in his place. However, eventually they settled on keeping the captain in the team. Moore had not been playing badly, nor had he given the impression that he had been distracted by his contract dispute prior to the competition. The only possible explanations were that the Germans had some rather fast attacking players, which could expose Moore’s own lack of pace, and that Hunter – who was of a similar age to Moore but only had four caps – was the club partner of Moore’s co-defender with England, Jack Charlton.

In the final, England went 0–1 down through Helmut Haller, but Moore’s awareness and quick-thinking helped England to a swift equaliser. He was fouled by Wolfgang Overath midway inside the German half and, rather than remonstrate or head back into defence, he picked himself up quickly while looking ahead and delivered an instant free kick on to Hurst’s head, in a movement practised at West Ham. Hurst scored.

The West Ham connection to England’s biggest day became stronger when Peters scored to take England 2–1 up, but the Germans equalised in the final minute of normal time through Wolfgang Weber – as Moore appealed unsuccessfully for a handball decision – to take the match into extra time.

Ramsey was convinced the Germans were exhausted, and after Hurst scored a controversial and heavily debated goal, the game looked over. With seconds remaining, and England under the pressure of another German attack, the ball broke to Moore on the edge of his own penalty area. Team-mates shouted at Moore to just get rid of the ball, but he calmly picked out the feet of Hurst40 yards (40 m) upfield, who scored to bring the score to 4-2.

Of many memorable images from that day, one is of Moore wiping his hands clean of mud and sweat on the velvet tablecloth before shaking the hand of Queen Elizabeth II as she presented him with the Jules Rimet trophy (World Cup).

Moore became a national icon as a consequence of England’s success, with him and the other two West Ham players taking the World Cup around the grounds which West Ham visited during the following domestic season. He was awarded the coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year title at the end of 1966, the first footballer to do so, and remaining the only one for a further 24 years. He was also decorated with the OBE in the New Year Honours List.

Moore’s image and popularity allowed him to start a number of business ventures, including a sports shop next to West Ham’s ground, Upton Park, and he also appeared with his wife Tina, along with Peters and his wife Kathy, in a television advertisement for the pub industry, urging people to “Look in at the local”.

He continued to play for West Ham and England, earning his 50th cap in a 5–1 win over Wales at the end of 1966 in a Home International match which also doubled up as a qualifier for the 1968 European Championships. England ultimately reached the semi-finals (the tournament was just a four-team event) where they played Yugoslavia in Florence and lost 1–0. England, as champions, did not have to qualify for the next World Cup, and Moore remained the first name on Ramsey’s team sheet, winning his 78th cap prior to the squad’s flight to South America for a short period of altitude-acclimatisation, before going on to the finals in Mexico.

The year 1970 was a bittersweet, mixed and eventful one for Moore. He was again named as captain for the 1970 World Cup but there was heavy disruption to preparations when an attempt was made to implicate Moore in the theft of a bracelet from a jeweller in Bogotá, Colombia, where England were involved in a warm-up game. A young assistant had claimed that Moore had removed the bracelet from the hotel shop without paying for it. While there was no doubt that Moore had been in the shop (having entered with Bobby Charlton to look for a gift for Charlton’s wife, Norma), no proof was offered to support the accusations. Moore was arrested and then released, he then travelled with the England team to play another match againstEcuador in Quito. He played, winning his 80th cap, and England were 2–0 victors, but when the team plane stopped back in Colombia on the return to Mexico, 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 to Mexico to rejoin the squad and prepare for the World Cup.

Moore went on 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 Jairzinho with such precision and cleanliness that it has been described as the perfect tackle. It continues to be shown frequently on television around the world. Brazil still won the game 1–0, but England progressed through the group. Moore swapped shirts with Pelé after the game. The shirt is now on display at the National Football Museum in Manchester, courtesy of the Priory Collection.

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

At the end of the year, Moore was voted runner-up (behind Gerd Muller of West Germany) for the 1970 European Footballer of the Year award

On 10 August 1970 Bobby Moore received an anonymous threat to kidnap his wife and hold her to a £10,000 ransom. This caused him to pull out of pre-season friendlies against Bristol City andBournemouth. However, his services to West Ham were rewarded with a testimonial match against Celtic at the end of 1970. However, although he was seen as an icon and a perfect influence on the game, Moore was not without his faults or controversies. On 7 January 1971, he and three West Ham team-mates, Jimmy Greaves, Brian Dear and Clyde Best, were all fined by West Ham manager Greenwood after going out drinking in a nightclub until the early hours of the morning prior to an FA Cup third round tie against Blackpool. The nightclub in Blackpool was owned by Moore’s friend, boxer Brian London. West Ham lost the tie 4–0. They were all fined a week’s wages. Blackpool were the bottom of Division one at the time, and narrowly missed relegation at the end of the season. Coincidentally, Moore was featured on TV as the subject on This Is Your Life the night before. Brian Glanville stated that it was not uncommon for Moore to drink heavily, but he was often seen training with West Ham the next day, working off the alcohol he had consumed the night before.

On 5 January 1971, when still only 29, he became the first active footballer to appear on the TV guest show This Is Your Life.

Moore surpassed West Ham’s appearances record in 1973 when he played for the club for the 509th time. Three days earlier, on Valentine’s Day 1973, he won his 100th cap for England in a comprehensive 5–0 win over Scotland at Hampden Park. By this stage, only Peters and Alan Ball from the 1966 squad were also still involved with the England team; the rest had either retired or dropped by Ramsey, even though a number of them were younger than Moore.

Later the same year, Moore was exposed defensively by Poland in a qualifier for the 1974 World Cup in Chorzów, deflecting a free kick past Peter Shilton to put the home side ahead, and then losing possession to Wlodzimierz Lubanski, who scored the second. His form had dipped enough for Ramsey to choose not to select him for the return game at Wembley, which England had to win to qualify. Any other result would send Poland through. Moore is understood to have asked Ramsey if this meant he was no longer required, to which Ramsey replied: “Of course not. I need you as my captain at the World Cup next year.” It never happened, as England could only draw 1–1. It signalled the end of Ramsey’s reign – he was sacked six months later – and Moore later told how he sat alongside Ramsey on the bench and kept urging him to make a substitution, only for Ramsey to freeze suddenly^[vague] when it came to decision-making. When Kevin Hectorfinally did come on for Martin Chivers after 85 minutes Moore could be seen on TV yanking down Hector’s tracksuit bottoms while Ramsey sat immobile. Moore, later, said to David Miller “you could feel the minutes escaping. I said to Alf we need someone to go through the middle. He just nodded. We couldn’t get Kevin out there quick enough. We almost threw him onto the pitch.”

Moore won his 108th and final cap in the next game, a 1–0 friendly defeat to Italy on 14 November 1973. He became England’s most capped player, beating Bobby Charlton’s record by two appearances, and equalled Billy Wright‘s record of 90 appearances as captain. Peter Shilton and David Beckham have since overtaken the caps record, but the joint captaincy record remains.

Moore retired from playing professionally in 1978, and had a short relatively unsuccessful spell in football management at Eastern AA in Hong Kong, Oxford City and Southend United.

Moore publicly supported Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 General Election.

He became manager of Southend United in 1984. In his first full season, 1984–85, Southend narrowly avoided having to apply for re-election to the Football League amidst severe financial difficulties. However, the side was gradually rebuilt and in the 1985–86 season Southend started well and were in the promotion race until the new year before eventually finishing 9th. His successor, David Webb built upon those foundations to win promotion the following year. Moore agreed to serve on the board of the club and held this role until his death.

His life after football was eventful and difficult, with poor business dealings and his marriage ending. Many saw Moore’s acceptance of a role as a columnist for the salacious tabloid newspaper, the Sunday Sport, as a sign of how low he had been forced to go. Moore’s supporters said that the Football Association could have given a role to Moore, as the only Englishman to captain a FIFA World Cup winning team. Moore himself kept a dignified silence.

Moore joined London radio station Capital Gold as a football analyst and commentator in 1990. Moore married 42-year-old Stephanie Parlane-Moore (her real maiden name) on 4 December 1991. He had a son and a daughter from his first marriage, to Christina (Tina) Dean. They were married on 30 June 1960, after a four-year relationship which had started when they were both 15, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1986 after 26 years.

In April 1991, Moore underwent an emergency operation for suspected colon cancer, though at the time it was just reported that he had undergone an “emergency stomach operation”.

On 14 February 1993, he publicly announced he was suffering from bowel and liver cancer; by this stage the cancer had spread. Three days later, he commentated on an England match against San Marino at Wembley, alongside his friend Jonathan Pearce. That was to be his final public appearance; seven days later on 24 February, at 6.36 am, he died at the age of 51.

He was the first member of the England World Cup winning side to die, the second being Alan Ball 14 years later. Moore was also outlived by the trainer of the side, Harold Shepherdson, who died in September 1995, and the manager of the side, Alf Ramsey, who died in April 1999.

Bobby Moore’s funeral was held on 2 March 1993 at Putney Vale Crematorium, and his ashes were buried in a plot with his father Robert Edward Moore (who died in 1978) and his mother Doris Joyce Moore, who had only died the previous year.

The first West Ham home game after his death was on 6 March 1993, against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Boleyn Ground was awash with floral tributes, scarfs and other football memorabilia from both West Ham fans and those of other clubs. Fellow 1966 World Cup winners, Geoff Hurst and Martin Petersplaced a floral replica of a West Ham shirt, showing Moore’s number, ‘6’, on the back, on the centre spot before the game. West Ham ‘rested’ the number six shirt with the regular number six, Ian Bishop, wearing number twelve. The game was won by West Ham 3–1 with goals by Steve Bull for Wolves and Trevor Morley, Julian Dicks and Matty Holmes for West Ham.

His former England team-mate, Jack Charlton, on a BBC documentary of Moore’s life in and outside of football,said of Moore’s death:

“Well, I only ever cried over two people, Billy Bremner and Bob… [long pause] He was a lovely man.”

On 28 June 1993 his memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey, attended by all the other members of the 1966 World Cup Team. He was only the second sportsman to be so honoured, the first being the West Indian cricketer Sir Frank Worrell.

“	For many years he delighted supporters of West Ham and was a formidable opponent in the eyes of those against whom he played. But it is for his appearances for England — ninety of them as captain — that he will be chiefly remembered, and supremely for his captaincy of the World Cup team of 1966

The Bobby Moore Fund is a charity in the United Kingdom, formed in 1993 by Stephanie Moore, and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) in memory of her late husband to raise money for research into bowel cancer and also public awareness of the disease. The Run for Moore races raise funds for this fund.

The funds were spent on high-quality bowel cancer research to be carried out by leading scientists across the UK. The money raised funded 17 Bobby Moore Research Fellowships, a new bowel cancer laboratory at St Mark’s Hospital in London (subsequently closed by CRUK on 1 October 2006) and 3 additional research projects.

In 1996, comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel used the line, “But I still see that tackle by Moore” in the lyrics to their song Three Lions, which the England team’s official song at the 1996 European Championships, which was adopted by fans rather than the tournament’s official song We’re In This Together by Simply Red. It referred to the famous incident with Jairzinho in 1970, and was re-created by Baddiel, Skinner and England left back Stuart Pearce for the video. It was written in the context of a list of great England moments of the past as proof that England could win a tournament again.

Moore was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as player.

The stand replacing the south bank at West Ham’s ground, the Boleyn Ground in Upton Park, was named the Bobby Moore Stand shortly after Moore’s death.

On 28 April 2003, Prince Andrew as president of the Football Association unveiled the World Cup Sculpture (also called The Champions) in a prominent place near the Boleyn Ground, at the junction of Barking Road and Green Street. It depicts Moore holding the Jules Rimet Trophy aloft, on the shoulders of Geoff Hurst and Ray Wilson, together with Martin Peters. The one and a half-size bronze was sculpted by Philip Jackson from a famous photograph taken just after the 1966 final at the old Wembley.

In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA‘s Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of England by The Football Association as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years.

On Friday 11 May 2007, the Bobby Moore Sculpture was unveiled by Sir Bobby Charlton outside the entrance of the newly reconstructedWembley Stadium as the “finishing touch” to the project, with the stadium officially opening on Saturday 19 May with the staging of the2007 FA Cup Final. The twice life-size bronze statue, also sculpted by Jackson, depicts Moore looking down Wembley Way.

In August 2008 West Ham United officially retired the number 6 shirt as a mark of respect 15 years after his death.

In September 2008, members of two West Ham United online forums (WHO and KUMB) pulled together to urge the club to sponsor The Bobby Moore Fund on their shirts. The request was made following the collapse of West Ham United’s main shirt sponsor, XL, the UK’s third largest holiday company. Although the club gained a new main sponsor in the form of SBOBET, the youth teams and children’s replica kit feature the logo of the Bobby Moore Fund.