Jimmy Greaves was part of the England squad that won the World Cup in 1966 (Image: Getty)
Jimmy Greaves will be looking down on England in North America this summer as they strive to emulate his side’s heroics from the 1966 World Cup. The goalscoring icon enjoyed a stellar career, though he was always the first to admit that life beyond the pitch presented serious difficulties. Greaves, who died in 2021 aged 81, was part of the World Cup-winning squad and started the tournament as England’s frontline striker.
Yet after suffering a shin injury that needed 14 stitches during the final group match against France, he made way for Geoff Hurst, who struck the decisive goal in the quarter-final victory over Argentina. Even after Greaves recovered full fitness, manager Alf Ramsey stuck with Hurst, a choice that proved entirely justified as he fired home a hat-trick in the final against Germany. It was a devastating blow for Greaves, but it failed to tarnish a stunning career that yielded 402 goals across 617 appearances, with his peak years spent at Chelsea and Tottenham.
For all his extraordinary talent, football wages in his day bore no resemblance to the modern era. Greaves faced genuine financial struggles and ended up selling clothes from his one-bedroom flat just to make ends meet.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2003, he said: “Let’s make no bones about it, I wish I was playing today. Some of the players get half a dozen goals a year and earn a fortune.
“I look back at my Chelsea days when you had to fight to get £8 a week in the winter and £7 a week in the summer, and now there are players who haven’t even played in the first team on £40,000 a week.”
During the twilight years of his career, the forward also wrestled with alcoholism, which took a devastating toll on his time at West Ham, Brentwood and Chelmsford City.
He admitted: “I lost the 70s completely, they passed me by. I was drunk from 1972 to 1977. I woke up one morning and realised that it was a different world. I’d been living in it, but I hadn’t been aware of it.”
As the decade drew to a close, Greaves had been declared bankrupt and his marriage to wife Irene had broken down.
Greaves (left) resorted to selling his clothes from his one-bedroom flat (Image: The FA via Getty Images)
His difficulties ultimately forced him to confront his inner demons, as he acknowledged: “I realised that I had to stop drinking long before I stopped. It wasn’t an overnight thing.
“A mile up the road from here is Warley mental home, where I spent five months of my last year of drinking in 1977. I spent more time in there than I spent anywhere else. It wasn’t easy.
“One day I said, ‘That’s it’ and I just walked away from it, and fortunately, to this day, I’ve stayed clear of it.
“Are there times when I really want to have a drink? Of course there are, same as everybody else; it doesn’t dehumanise you. You get down the same as everybody else and you’d like to go out and have a few jars, but you know that you can’t do that.”
Greaves built a thriving career in the media as both a newspaper columnist and television pundit, most famously on the cherished Saint and Greavsie programme, which aired on ITV from 1985 to 1992.
However, he openly acknowledged that the monetary rewards were never especially significant. He said: “Playing football gave me a good living and television also gave me a good living, but if you say, ‘Have I got any money?’, the answer’s no. I’ve just never earned enough to pack it away.”
Get the latest World Cup news straight to your inbox by signing up to our Make Football Great Again newsletter now!