G is for Gifted

BRITISH FOOTBALL LEGENDS: An A-Z Guide

Are great footballers born or are they made? The peerless skills of my next three legends would certainly appear to have been God-given. My three G-men are Jimmy Greaves, Ryan Giggs and Johnny Giles.

Jimmy Greaves

Jimmy Greaves was a natural goal scorer, an inside forward and opportunist extraordinaire, who thrilled fans with his deadly accuracy. Although being one of the best strikers of all time, he also gained a reputation for being 'lazy' in that he tended to 'disappear' during games, only to pop up from nowhere and score. One of Spurs' manager Bill Nicholson's famous quotes went: "All Greaves did this afternoon was score four goals!"

Jimmy was born in Poplar, East London in February 1940 and, after playing for various boys' sides, began a meteoric rise to the top of the game. Signed for Chelsea in 1957 aged 17, he became the first player to score 100 goals before the age of 21. In 1961, he left Stamford Bridge for AC Milan, a high-profile move that saw him hit a creditable nine goals in ten appearances. But the experience was an unhappy one. After only four months, Jimmy returned to London to join 'double' winners Tottenham Hotspur for £99,999.

On his first appearance for Spurs against Blackpool on 16th December 1961, Jimmy scored a hat-trick in the 5-2 victory. One of his goals, a bicycle-kick, was regarded by many who saw it as the best goal they had ever witnessed! In his first season for Tottenham, he scored 21 goals from 22 league appearances, finishing as top scorer and helping Tottenham retain the FA Cup, scoring in a 3-1 victory at Wembley against high-flying Burnley. He also contributed hugely to a European Cup run which saw Spurs controversially eliminated in the semi-final by Benfica.

The following season saw Jimmy hit an incredible 37 league goals - an all-time Spurs record! The next saw him net 35. If fact, he was the First Division's top scorer six times between 1958-1969 and was the only player ever to head the list for three consecutive years. He also had a remarkable record of scoring on his debuts with England, England Under-23's, Chelsea, AC Milan, Spurs and West Ham. He scored two goals in the 1963 European Cup Winner's Cup Final in a 5-1 thrashing of Atletico Madrid, when Spurs became the first English side to lift a European trophy. He won another FA Cup winners' medal with Tottenham in the 1967, courtesy of a 2-1 win over Chelsea, before moving on to West Ham.

He ultimately finished with a career scoring record of 357 goals in 514 matches! But for all his success at both club and international level (scoring 44 goals in 57 England appearances) there were dark struggles to overcome, too. The fitness problems that hampered his 1966 World Cup campaign meant that, during English football's finest hour, Jimmy cast a forlorn figure on the sidelines. And moving to West Ham at the start of the 1970s, Jimmy's career became plagued by drink. But however bad his alcoholism was, Jimmy proved too strong a character to be pulled under by his addiction. He pulled through and reinvented himself as a celebrated football pundit in print and on TV.

Ryan Giggs

Ryan turned professional in November 1990, signing for Manchester United just after his 17th birthday. A natural left-sided attacker, his stunning displays of running at defenders, great crossing and high quality finishing have been the hallmark of a still-unfolding career.

Ryan has scored many memorable and important goals for Manchester United, including the remarkable solo effort in an FA Cup semi-final replay against Arsenal in April 1999. With the game heading for a penalty shoot-out, Giggs ran directly at the Arsenal defence, burst past four players, before unleashing a fierce shot into the roof of the net, giving David Seaman no chance. Many critics rate it as the greatest cup goal of all time!
Alex Ferguson has said of him: "When he plays at the level he is capable of there are few who can touch him in the world. Few have his pace and penetration when he has the ball at his feet and he is also vital to us when we haven't got the ball because, despite being a fantastic individual talent, he also works hard for the team."

With United, Giggs has won every domestic trophy: a League Cup in 1992, seven League Championships plus three FA Cup winners' medals. Add to that the European Cup in 1999, and you've got quite a club career! Internationally, at the age of 17 years and 321 days, Ryan became the youngest man to play for Wales. Ryan won the PFA Young Player Award in 1992 and 1993.

Johnny Giles

He was the complete midfielder and it was said that he could place a football on a sixpence from 50 yards with either foot. He was a master of the passing art and, at Leeds United alongside Billy Bremner, he crafted a partnership which became the envy of football.
Born in Eire in November 1940, he joined Manchester United in November 1957 as a right-winger, winning his first cap aged 18 years and 361 days - the youngest Éire international at the time. He won an FA Cup winners' medal in 1963, before a surprise £33,000 transfer the following August to Second Division Leeds. Converted to playing as a midfield general, his career took off and Leeds's glory years began in earnest.

They won two League Championships, two European Fairs Cups, the FA Cup and the League Cup with Giles pulling the strings. Johnny was an immensely talented player - but he wouldn't have survived long in the game in the 1960s if he hadn't had a tough side. He picked up quite a few of his goals from the penalty spot, but his dominance of the midfield made many goals for a whole series of strikers at Leeds.
After appearing in the European Cup Final in 1975, he joined West Bromwich Albion as player-manager. He steered Albion back to Division One, but left in May 1977. Altogether, Johnny's international career spanned 19 years and 60 caps, covering a spell when he managed the Irish side between 1973 and 1980.