Bobby Moore was the greatest Briton ever, not just a sportsman but a leader, a gentleman and someone who never gave up. He captained us to our greatest ever sporting victory, leading out a team with some of the greatest sportsmen that this country has ever produced such as Charlton, Banks and Hurst. I believe that Moore was one of the greatest ever leaders that this country has ever turned out.
Not the winner of a bloody war, but he led out his men in to different battles to that of Churchill or Loyd George. He was on the front line preventing goals from going in himself, not commanding troops from an office in London.He was leading his nation at the age of only twenty-one showing a great amount of maturity at a very young age. Not only a captain of his club Moore led out both West Ham United and Fulham F.
C. two of the leading clubs of that time. There cannot have been a more loyal footballer than Moore. He played nearly six hundred and fifty games for West Ham and is regarded by all of the fans as their greatest ever player.
He moved on to Fulham later in his career and showed them just as much loyalty playing one hundred and fifty games for them.But probably one of his greatest exhibitions of loyalty was shown to his fellow England footballers when in the world cup of 1970 in Mexico he showed great strength of character when he was falsely accused of stealing a bracelet from a Mexican jeweller. Moore was put under house arrest but he fought back to captain the England team in the world cup in which they did very well in only losing to the legendary Brazil team.
Moore could have just given up and let his teammates down but he didn’t showing great loyalty to them through the whole thing. Genius, Bobby Moore was a footballing genius.Probably the greatest ever defender the world has ever known. He was well known for his tackling ability his most famous tackle was probably in the 1970 World cup when England faced Brazil. This tackle was dubbed the ‘pickpocket’, Moore was facing up to the famous Brazilian Jairzhino he had jockeyed him from the half way line all the way to the English penalty area.
Moore suddenly darted out his right leg and whipped the ball away from the skilful Brazilian, remaining on his feet he controlled the ball and set up an English counter attack Moore demonstrated this tackle many times for club and country.Moore always tried to stay on his feet whenever possible as he said, “you can’t tackle when you are on your backside. ” This was Moore’s greatest criticism of modern day defenders that they would go to ground too easily. Bobby Charlton who played with Moore at England said that he was always relieved when the opposition had the ball and Bobby was around as he was sure that it wouldn’t be long before Moore made a tackle and won the ball back.Bobby’s footballing ability did not just rest with tackling he was one of the best passers of the ball in his generation. He had the ability to distribute the ball perfectly with forty yard balls from anywhere on the pitch. Moore began his West Ham career in 1956 as a sixteen year old and made his first league match for them against Manchester United. His greatest domestic victory for them was in 1964 when he captained them to victory at Wembley in the F.
A. Cup final against Preston North End.For his exploits in the cup and league that year Bobby Moore was awarded the accolade of Footballer of the year. Winning the F. A. Cup qualified West Ham for Europe and the European Cup winner’s cup.
This turned out to be Moore’s greatest victory with West Ham. The climax to their European campaign was when they defeated 1860 Munich to lift the trophy in 1965. Moore’s greatest hour was of course the 1966 world cup finals in his home country of England. England easily passed through the group stages topping a group containing Uruguay, Mexico and France.The team then went on to the quarterfinal where they defeated Argentina and than the semis where they defeated the Portuguese two goals to one. The next and last stage for the English players was to defeat the mighty West Germans if they wanted to emerge with a world cup winner’s medal. This was a game watched by 27 million people on television and over 100,000 live in Wembley stadium England were 2-1 up in the closing minutes of the 90 but the Germans scored to force the game in to extra time. In that extra time Hurst scored his second goal of the game to put England 3-1 up.
But in the dying seconds of extra time Moore did something that summed him up perfectly he received the ball just inside his own half and instead of whacking it clear he paused spotted Hurst and played a perfect forty yard ball to him to set up his hat-trick the only one in a world cup final. The year of 1966 sums up why Bobby Moore was the greatest Briton ever but I am not the only one to have acknowledged his greatness. His fellow world cup players voted him the 1966 World cup Player of players, the British public voted him the BBC sports personality of the year and the state awarded him the O.B. E.
This is a list of awards along with his world cup winners medal would for fill any of the dreams of any budding footballer anywhere. On February 24th 1993 the greatest Briton died of cancer of the colon. Thousands of people came to the gates of West Ham’s the Boleyn ground to lay flowers and tributes to their and my favourite footballer and greatest Briton.
After Bobby’s death his widow Stephanie worked hard and dedicated her life to setting up a cancer charity in his memory to raise awareness and improve techniques for dealing with colon cancer.Probably one of the worlds greatest ever footballers the Brazilian wizard Pele had this to say about Moore “He was my friend as well as the greatest defender I have ever played against. The world has lost one of its greatest football players and an honourable gentleman. ” and another tribute from another great player Franz Beckenbauer of Germany “Bobby Moore was a real gentleman and a true friend. In conclusion Bobby Moore had the leadership of Churchill, the bravery of Nelson, the genius of Darwin and he was as loved as Diana.
So the choice is easy the only candidate for the greatest ever Briton is Bobby Moore.
