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Roger Hunt
| Category: | Male Player |
| Year Inducted: | 2006 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
From his position alongside Alf Ramsey on the bench, Harold Shepherdson was struck by the reaction of the England players when Roger Hunt scored his second goal against France at Wembley in 1966.
‘Instead of the usual dignified congratulations when a man scores,' the England trainer recalled later, ‘the players ran over and mobbed Roger in celebration.'
Inside the stadium the sense of relief, Shepherdson noted, was palpable. In scoring his third goal in as many group games, Hunt guaranteed England's progress to the knock-out stage of the World Cup.
Such exuberant behaviour, then a rare sight in football, was proof of Hunt's popularity and the professional respect he commanded in the England dressing-room.
Disappointed with England's attitude and performance in beating France 2-0, Alf Ramsey accused the team of complacency at a hastily-convened meeting that evening. He made one exception, though. ‘Roger always has the right attitude,' was the gist of Ramsey's message to the squad. ‘He always plays well.'
Up to that point, Hunt had scored a remarkable rate of almost a goal a game. ‘And even if he didn't score,' Martin Peters observed later, ‘we all knew that Roger would run his socks off for the good of the team.'
The Liverpool goalscorer had found form at exactly the right time. From squad regular, he'd made himself an automatic choice in a matter of weeks that spring and early summer. Now, during the group stage, he was arguably England's best player.
‘Most of the football writers back then didn't grasp his importance to the side, but, believe me, the England players did under-estimate his contribution,' Nobby Stiles has said.
In Hunt's case, that meant playing a different role to the one he performed at club level. At Liverpool, Hunt was regarded as a specialist goalscorer. ‘It was his job to get on the end of things in the penalty area,' team-mate Ian Callaghan explained. ‘Bill Shankly didn't want him chasing about all over the place, wasting energy.' To get the ball to him, Liverpool employed two specialist wingers in Callaghan and Peter Thompson.
His emergence at Anfield was a vital factor in the rise of Liverpool under Shankly. Twice, in 1963-64 and 1965-66, the title was won, and each time Hunt was leading goalscorer.
‘We wanted him to concentrate on goalscoring, in the same way Jimmy Greaves did at Tottenham,' Shankly explained later. ‘Mind you, Roger didn't just slide them in quietly, like Jimmy. He blasted them in.'
Ramsey, of course, opted to play without specialist wingers in the latter stages of the World Cup in 1966. Therefore, he wanted someone up front who was prepared to work tirelessly off the ball. By proving his willingness to follow orders, Hunt had lifted himself up in the England pecking order, from fringe squad member to automatic choice, in a matter of weeks leading up to the tournament. Initially handed the number 21 shirt, Hunt was the only attacker to start every game at the World Cup.
Though subsequently nicknamed ‘Sir Roger' by his Liverpool and England team-mates and the Kop, the demands of the World Cup seemed to drain Hunt both physically and psychologically. The following season he struggled for form with Liverpool and, in 1967, he was dropped from the England team by Ramsey, albeit briefly.
Even though his overall scoring rate, for both club and country, slowed markedly in the second half of the decade, he remained an England regular until January 1969, when he finally decided he'd had enough of the public and media criticism.
Hunt had been selected 34 times by Ramsey, and he scored 18 goals; more significantly, perhaps, in the seven years since his debut, England had lost only two games in which he played.
In April 1972, following his transfer to Bolton Wanderers, Hunt's former England team-mates showed their appreciation by turning up in force - with 56,000 Liverpool fans - for his testimonial at Anfield. It was more than two years since his last game for Liverpool, having scored a club record 245 League goals in the decade since his debut in 1959.
Hunt had made himself indispensable to Ramsey in 1966 by sacrificing his own interests and instincts as goalscorer for the good of the team. ‘I was always glad to see Roger beside me in the England team,' Bobby Charlton said at the time. ‘You could make huge plans around him, and he was greatly missed when he wasn't there.'