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Colin Bell
| Category: | Male Player |
| Year Inducted: | 2005 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of The Football Hall of Fame, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
Colin Bell, the footballer nicknamed after a famous race horse because of his extraordinary stamina, provided the energy and drive behind Manchester City's rise to prominence in the late 1960s.
Bell played 48 times for England, making him Manchester City's most-capped player, and he was established as an automatic choice as a successor to Bobby Charlton in midfield; but his ambition to win 100 caps for his country was ruined by injury.
Over a period of three seasons, starting in 1967-68, Bell collected four major club honours. By 1970 Manchester City laid claim, with some justification, to being the best team in England.
‘A world-class player,' said Malcolm Allison, the manager who signed Bell from Bury for a fee of £45,000 in 1966. ‘The City team had a beautiful balance of strength and skill, and Colin was the key piece in the jigsaw.
‘He was so versatile in central midfield: he defended well, could break from deep positions, and he scored goals. He ran all day and had a real footballer's brain.' Allison was first to nickname Bell ‘Nijinsky', after the thoroughbred Derby winner.
In 1967-68 Manchester City won the championship for the first time in 31 years. Mike Doyle, the team captain, highlighted Bell's performance in their penultimate fixture, a 3-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur, as critical. ‘Colin was everywhere that day. It was one of the finest displays I've ever seen,' Doyle said.
As a result, it all came down to the final day of the season. City had to beat Newcastle to guarantee the title. They did so, dramatically, with a 4-3 victory at St James' Park. Bell scored 14 goals from midfield that season.
After winning the FA Cup in 1969, beating Leicester City 1-0 in the final, the team added the European Cup-winners' Cup the following season. The defeat of Gornik Zabrze, of Poland, in Vienna completed a memorable ‘double': in March they lifted the League Cup by overcoming West Bromwich Albion 2-1 at Wembley.
Then, suddenly, during the 1975-76 season, it all came to an end. In a League Cup tie against Manchester United, Bell suffered a serious knee injury. ‘Basically, one tackle effectively ended my career,' he said. His absence from the England team was a major factor in the failure to qualify for the 1978 World Cup, Kevin Keegan argued.
Bell fought doggedly to regain full fitness. Finally, on December 26, 1977, he made his first comeback. At a packed and emotional Maine Road, Bell came on as a second half substitute against Newcastle United in a First Division fixture to a tumultuous welcome. City won the game 4-0. Even then, Bell knew that all was not right: the knee was still troubling him and a vital yard of pace had gone for good. Finally, in 1979, Bell conceded defeat and announced his retirement.
‘But for the injury I believe I could have reached 100 caps,' Bell said. ‘I had it in me to play at international level for another five or six years.'
In 2001 Bell won more than half the votes in an official poll to determine the club's best-ever player, and two years later, following City's move to the City of Manchester Stadium, the 14,000-seat west stand was renamed the Colin Bell Stand.