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Jimmy Greaves
| Category: | Male Player |
| Year Inducted: | 2002 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
By his own admission, Jimmy Greaves posed little threat in the air, lacked the physical strength to unsettle defenders and his shooting was hardly explosive. Yet none of that stopped him becoming the greatest goalscorer of his era.
‘I was born with an instinctive, natural gift for sticking the ball in the net, and I wasn't interested in doing much else,' Greaves once said. The majority of his 357 goals in 514 League games were scored from close range, usually with his left foot.
No forward of modern era has dominated his trade with such extraordinary consistency: six times during his career Greaves finished leading goalscorer in the First Division – first with Chelsea and then Spurs.
‘I don't consciously scheme goals, nor take up pre-determined positions,' he once said, explaining his method in front of goal. ‘I don't have a thunderous shot, nor have I spent hours working out shooting angles. I just get in as close as I can and let rip.'
Bill Nicholson once famously said that ‘Jimmy could pass to the stanchions'. One newspaper likened his deft scoring style to ‘closing the door on a Rolls-Royce'.
Greaves scored 44 goals, including a record six-hat-tricks, in 57 appearances for England . But for all his achievements in international football between 1959 and 1967, Greaves is perhaps remembered most for the one match he didn't play: the World Cup final in 1966.
An automatic choice going in, Greaves was the only England player to suffer serious injury during the tournament – a badly gashed shin in the group game against France .
When England carried on winning, Alf Ramsey famously left him out. With no substitutes allowed, Ramsey named an unchanged side; Greaves was fit, but there was always the fear that the wound might reopen.
‘I felt sorry for myself and sick that I was out,' Greaves wrote later. ‘But I was not, and have never been, in any way bitter against Alf. He did his job and England won the trophy.'
As a teenager, Greaves was a sensation at Chelsea, his first club, scoring 132 times in 169 games, prompting AC Milan to spend £80,000 for his transfer in 1961. Not even the massed defences in Italy could stop him: despite a loathing for the negative tactics he encountered, Greaves notched nine goals in 12 games.
Unhappy and homesick, Greaves wanted out almost from day one. Nicholson acted swiftly, paying Milan a fee of £99,999 in November 1961.
His presence added a cutting edge to Tottenham, the Double winners the previous season. Dave Mackay, Johnny White and Danny Blanchflower ‘were talented enough to read my off-the-cuff runs and instinctive play and skilful enough to make the right pass', Greaves said.
In 22 games that season, he scored 21 goals, helping the club defend the FA Cup. Two more honours – the European Cup-winners' Cup in 1963 and the FA Cup four years later – were won, before Greaves left to play out his career at the top level with West Ham.
‘You can't mark him,' Joe Mercer, the Manchester City manager, said. ‘All of a sudden, when the chance arises, Jimmy is gone. He had left his shadow standing.'