Jimmy Greaves

Chelsea

Greaves was born in Manor Park and grew up in Hainault, Essex . He was scouted by Chelsea's Jimmy Thompson, and in 1955 was signed on as an apprentice to become one of "Drake's Ducklings" (named after manager Ted Drake in response to Manchester United's "Busby Babes"). He soon made an impression at youth level, scoring 51 goals in the 1955–56 season and 122 goals in the 1956–57 season under the tutelage of youth team coach Dick Foss. Greaves scored in the 1958 FA Youth Cup final, but Chelsea lost the two-legged tie 7–6 on aggregate after Wolverhampton Wanderers turned round a four-goal deficit with a 6–1 win in the second leg. He turned professional in the summer of 1957, though spent eight weeks working at a steel company to supplement his income during the summer break.

Aged 17, Greaves scored on his First Division debut on 24 August 1957 against Tottenham Hotspur in a 1–1 draw at White Hart Lane. He was an instant success, as the News Chronicle reported that he "showed the ball control, confidence and positional strength of a seasoned campaigner" and compared his debut to the instant impact the young Duncan Edwards had as a teenager. The "Blues" played attacking football during the 1957–58 campaign, resulting in high-scoring matches, and Greaves ended the season as the club's top scorer with 22 goals in 37 appearances. Drake rested him for six weeks from mid-November as he did not wish the praise Greaves was receiving to go to his head; Greaves marked his…

Greaves made his debut for the England under-23 team in a 6–2 win over Bulgaria at Stamford Bridge on 25 September 1957; he scored two goals, and missed out on a hat-trick after failing to convert a penalty. Greaves won his first England cap on 17 May 1959 against Peru at the Estadio Nacional, scoring England's only goal in a 4–1 defeat. The tour of the American continents was not considered a success by the British media, as England also lost to Brazil and Mexico, but Greaves mostly escaped criticism in the press as he was still a teenager and showed promise with his performances. He scored consecutive hat-tricks on 8 October 1960 and 19 October, in victories at Northern Ireland and Luxembourg. On 15 April 1961, Greaves scored another hat-trick in a 9–3 victory over Scotland at Wembley and had a fourth goal disallowed for offside. He played in all four of England's games at the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile, scoring one goal in the 3–1 victory over Argentina before playing in the quarter-final defeat to Brazil. During the defeat to Brazil, a stray dog ran onto the pitch and evaded all of the players' efforts to catch it until Greaves got down on all fours to beckon the animal. The Brazilian player Garrincha thought the incident was so amusing that he took the dog home as a pet. On 20 November 1963, he scored four goals in an 8–3 win over Northern Ireland. The following year, on 3 October, he scored another hat-trick against the same team making him England's all-time top…

Greaves was a prolific goalscorer and cited his relaxed attitude as the reason for his assured composure and confidence. He also had great acceleration and pace, as well as great positional skills, excellent finishing, and ability to exploit opportunities inside the penalty area; he was also a fine dribbler.

Greaves became a columnist at The Sun newspaper in 1979. He continued to write his column until 2009, then began working as a columnist for The Sunday People. He worked as a pundit on Star Soccer from 1980 and later co-presented The Saturday Show before he was selected as a pundit for ITV's coverage of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. From there he worked on World of Sport and On the Ball, where he struck up a partnership with Ian St John. Greg Dyke also hired Greaves to work as a television reviewer and presenter on TV-am in what Dyke admitted was a way of "dumbing down" the programme to attract more viewers. From October 1985 to April 1992 he and St. John presented a popular Saturday lunchtime football programme called Saint and Greavsie. He went on to work as a team captain on Sporting Triangles, opposite Andy Gray and Emlyn Hughes. His television career came to an end as the Premier League was starting up, and he believed that his light-hearted approach to football was not considered serious enough for television bosses at the time. Despite this, he continued as a pundit at Central Television until 1998. He released his autobiography, Greavsie, in 2003. Greaves also wrote numerous books in partnership with his lifelong friend, the journalist and author Norman Giller.