BOBBY MOORE, THE LEGEND OF WEST HAM UNITED FC

Bobby Moore

Champions League Day. The Grandma loves football and tomorrow is a special day for her because her two favourite teams are going to play one against the other. Napoli vs. Barcelona. The two cities she loves more and the most important ones in her life. It will be a great match full of emotion and memories.

To prepare this magic moment, The Grandma has been watching an amazing film, Escape to Victory, a 1981 American sports war film directed by John Huston and starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow and Pelé. The film is about Allied prisoners of war who are interned in a German prison camp during the Second World War who play an exhibition match of football against a German team.

The film received great attention upon its theatrical release, as it also starred professional footballers Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst, Mike Summerbee, Hallvar Thoresen, Werner Roth and Pelé. Numerous Ipswich Town players were also in the film, including John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner and Kevin O'Callaghan.

Bobby Moore, the English football player considered one of the best defenders of the history of football, is one of the main characters of this film. The Grandma wants to talk about him to remember him and his legacy 27 years after her premature death. Football is a sport for gentlemen and Bobby Moore was one of them.

More information: West Ham United

Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore (12 April 1941-24 February 1993) was an English professional footballer. He most notably played for West Ham United, captaining the club for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England national team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time, and was cited by Pelé as the greatest defender that he had ever played against.

Widely regarded as West Ham's greatest ever player, Moore played over 600 games for the club during a 16 year tenure, winning the FA Cup in 1963–64 and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1964–65. During his time at the club he won the FWA Footballer of the Year in 1964 and the West Ham Player Of The Year in 1961, 1963, 1968 and 1970. In August 2008, West Ham United officially retired his number 6 shirt, 15 years after his death.

Bobby Moore in Escape to Victory

Moore was made captain of England in 1964, at age 23, going on to lift the World Cup trophy in 1966. He won a total of 108 caps for his country, which at the time of his international retirement in 1973 was a national record. This record was later broken by Peter Shilton.

Moore's total of 108 caps continued as a record for an outfield player until 28 March 2009, when David Beckham gained his 109th cap. 

Moore is a member of the World Team of the 20th Century. A national team icon, a bronze statue of Moore is positioned at the entrance to Wembley Stadium.

A composed central defender, Moore was best known 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. Receiving the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1966, he was the first footballer to win the award and he remained the only one for a further 24 years.

Moore was given an OBE in the New Year Honours List. He was made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as a player and in the same year he was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.

More information: National Football Museum

Moore was born in Barking, Essex. He attended Westbury Primary School Barking, and Tom Hood School, Leytonstone, playing football for both schools.

In 1956, Moore joined West Ham United as a player 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.

Moore was sent off once over the course of his West Ham career, for a foul on Dave Wagstaffe in the final moment of a match against Manchester City in November 1961. The referee had simultaneously blown his whistle for the offence and for full time. As red cards were not issued at that time, the dismissal didn't become apparent until after the match.

England won the World Cup in Wembley, 1966

Moore also played 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 debut on 20 May 1962 in England's final pre-tournament friendly a 4–0 win over Peru in Lima. Also debuting 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 at Viña del Mar.

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.

More information: Bobby Moore Online

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 their quarter final and a Eusébio-led Portugal team in the semi-finals. West Germany awaited in the final.

More information: BT

In the final, England went 1–0 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.

Bobby Moore

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. Teammates shouted at Moore to just get rid of the ball, but he calmly picked out the feet of Hurst 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). The Guardian wrote Moore is the calmest person in the stadium as he leads the England players up to the Royal Box.

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 given an OBE in the New Year Honours List.

Moore surpassed West Ham's appearances record in 1973 when he played for the club for the 509th time.

Moore played his last game for West Ham in an FA Cup tie against Hereford United in January 1974. He was injured in the match.

On 14 March the same year, he was allowed to leave West Ham after more than 15 years, taking with him the club record for appearances, since overtaken by Billy Bonds, and the most international caps for an outfield player.

More information: GQ

Moore's first brush with cancer was in 1964, two years before the historic World Cup win. On 14 February 1993, he publicly announced he was suffering from cancer. 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.

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. A campaign, Make Bobby Proud was initiated in 2013 to fundraise. As of February 2013 the Bobby Moore Fund had raised £18.8m towards bowel cancer research.

More information: The Guardian

If you never concede a goal,

you're going to win more games than you lose.

Bobby Moore