Alan Ball Jr.

Birth and early career at Blackpool

Ball was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, the son of (James) Alan Ball, a former professional football player and manager and later a publican, and his wife, Violet, née Duckworth. Ball started his footballing career whilst still a schoolboy, playing for Ashton United, the team his father managed, amongst the hurly burly of the Lancashire Combination. He fell out with his headmaster over missing games for his Farnworth Grammar School team due to him training/trialling at Wolverhampton Wanderers. He left Farnworth Grammar with no qualifications. After he left school, Wolves decided not to take Ball on. The midfielder then started training with Bolton Wanderers but they too decided not to give him a professional deal, as manager Bill Ridding said he was too small. Blackpool signed him after Ball's father called in a favour with the coach, an old friend with whom he used to play. Ball was given a trial in September 1961 and was immediately signed up as an apprentice. He turned professional in May 1962, making his Football League debut on 18 August 1962 against Liverpool at Anfield in a 2–1 victory. At age 17 years and 98 days, he became Blackpool's youngest League debutant. On 21 November 1964, Ball scored his first hat-trick as a professional, in a 3–3 draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Everton

Ball's performances in the 1966 World Cup winning England team attracted the attention of a number of clubs bigger than Blackpool.…

1966 World Cup

Despite being in a struggling Blackpool team, Ball's industry, stamina and distribution were noticed by England manager Alf Ramsey, who gave him his international debut on 9 May 1965 in a 1–1 draw with Yugoslavia in Belgrade, three days before his twentieth birthday. Ramsey was preparing for the World Cup a year later, which England was to host, and was developing a system whereby England could deploy midfielders with a defensive and industrious bent, something which was not wholly guaranteed from conventional wide men. As a result, Ball became a useful tool for Ramsey to use – able to play conventionally wide or in the centre but still in possession of the energy to help out his defence when required. Ball was the youngest member of the squad of 22 selected by Ramsey for the tournament, aged only 21. Though England as a team emerged collectively heroic from the tournament, Ball was one of many players regarded as an individual success, especially as he was one of the more inexperienced charges with no proven record at the very highest level. Indeed, he, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters emerged with enormous credit and eternal acclaim from the competition – and all of them were still only in single figures for caps won by the time they were named in the team for the final against West Germany. In front of a crowd of 98,000 at Wembley Stadium, Ball played what is considered to be one of his better games, with an assist to a controversial goal in the 101st…

Considered one of the greatest players to have played for Everton, Ball was a complete and combative midfielder with good technique who possessed high levels of stamina, accurate passing abilities, and was capable of providing scoring chances for his teammates as well as scoring some spectacular goals himself. Primarily an attacking box-to-box midfielder who drove forward towards the opponents' goal, Ball would also help out the defenders of his team when they were in a pinch. Ken Rogers noted that Ball's fiery mentality was the key to his success as a footballer. Ball also stood out for being a motivator, with Johnny Morrissey noting that whenever Ball played one-twos with any of his teammates, they would be motivated to play.

Portsmouth

Ball resumed his managerial career in May 1984 with Portsmouth and was a huge success. They just missed out on promotion to the First Division in his first two seasons as manager, and he finally guided them to the top flight in 1987. However, they were relegated after just one season back among the elite, and Ball was sacked in January 1989 for failing to mount a serious promotion challenge and because of a serious personality clash with Portsmouth's then chairman Jim Gregory.

Stoke City

The following month he joined Colchester United as assistant to Jock Wallace and in October 1989 took up a similar post under Mick Mills at Stoke City. However, Mills was sacked two weeks later and Ball was promoted to the manager's seat. He came to the conclusion that the squad he had inherited was simply not good enough and out went Chris Kamara, Dave Bamber, Leigh Palin, Carl Saunders, Gary Hackett and Nicky Morgan. Into the side came Tony Ellis, Lee Sandford, Tony Kelly, Dave Kevan, Paul Barnes and Noel Blake. It was a big gamble by Ball to change so much of the squad so quickly, and it did not pay off. Stoke stayed rooted to the bottom of the table and was relegated to the Third Division for the first time in 63 years. Ball's next objective was to gain an instant return to the Second Division, which looked an achievable goal as after 12 matches in 1990–91 they were one of the favourites for promotion. But Stoke's form fell off and with some embarrassing…