Jimmy Greaves
Centre-Forward · Tottenham Hotspur · England
About Jimmy Greaves
Jimmy Greaves is the greatest natural goalscorer England has produced — scoring 357 First Division goals at a rate that has never been approached, with 44 international goals in 57 appearances. He missed the 1966 World Cup final through injury — replaced by Geoff Hurst whose hat-trick is remembered instead. He scored on his debut for every club he played for. He was the First Division's top scorer six times. He died in September 2021.
Jimmy Greaves's story
The Rate
Jimmy Greaves scored 357 goals in 516 First Division appearances — a rate of 0.86 per game that no striker in the history of the English top flight has ever matched. He was the First Division's top scorer in six different seasons. He scored on his debut for every club he played for: Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham, and the England national team. His instinct for goal — the timing of movement, the composure in front of goal — has never been equalled in English football.
1966
Jimmy Greaves scored 6 goals at the 1962 World Cup. At the 1966 World Cup, he injured his shin in the group stage. Alf Ramsey replaced him with Geoff Hurst. England won the World Cup. Hurst scored a hat-trick in the final. Greaves — the man who had scored 44 international goals, the man for whom the number 9 shirt was defined — received a winner's medal but watched the final from the stands. It remains one of football's most painful individual stories.
£99,999
When Tottenham signed Greaves from AC Milan in December 1961, manager Bill Nicholson paid £99,999 — refusing to make him the first £100,000 player in English football, concerned that the fee would burden Greaves with pressure. The fee is remembered as football's most deliberate undervaluation — Nicholson's attempt to protect his player from expectation that he never needed protecting from.
Did you know?
- ⚽ He scored 357 First Division goals in 516 appearances — a rate of 0.86 per game that no striker in English top-flight history has matched — and was top scorer in six different seasons.
- 💔 He missed the 1966 World Cup final through injury — replaced by Geoff Hurst whose hat-trick is the most famous in football history — despite having scored 44 international goals and being England's finest striker.
- 👨👩👧👦 Married Irene and had four children. He was open about his battle with alcoholism after retirement and later suffered a stroke in 2015. He settled in Essex and died in September 2021.
- 🎯 He scored on his debut for Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham Hotspur, and England — the most consistent debut scoring record of any English player, reflecting an instinct that functioned independently of team and context.
- 💰 Tottenham paid £99,999 for him — Bill Nicholson refusing to make him the first £100,000 player, concerned the fee would burden his star striker with unwanted expectation.
- 🏆 He helped Tottenham become the first British team to win a European trophy — the Cup Winners' Cup in 1963 — as part of the great Tottenham Double-winning squad of the early 1960s.
- 📊 He scored 44 goals in 57 international appearances for England — the national record at the time — making him statistically the finest international striker England has produced.
- 🏴 The debate about whether Greaves or Hurst deserved the 1966 World Cup final place — Hurst having scored the hat-trick, Greaves having scored 44 international goals — is English football's most discussed selection decision in history.
- 🤝 His later career as a television football presenter — on Saint & Greavsie alongside Ian St John — made him one of English football's most beloved media personalities, maintaining the popularity his career had established.
Honours
- FA Cup: Tottenham (1962)
- UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: Tottenham (1963) — the first British team to win a European trophy
- First Division Top Scorer x6: The most top-scorer awards by any player in the history of the English First Division
- All-Time First Division Top Scorer: 357 goals — never surpassed in the First Division era
- Missed 1966 World Cup Final: Injured and replaced by Geoff Hurst — one of football's great personal tragedies
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