| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | James Peter Greaves | ||
| Date of birth | 20 February 1940 | ||
| Place of birth | East Ham, England | ||
| Playing position | Striker (retired) | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1957–1961 | Chelsea | 157 | (124) |
| 1961 | Milan | 12 | (9) |
| 1961–1970 | Tottenham Hotspur | 321 | (220) |
| 1970–1971 | West Ham United | 38 | (13) |
| 1975–1976 | Brentwood | ||
| 1976–1977 | Chelmsford City | ||
| 1977–1979 | Barnet | 56 | (16) |
| 1979–1980 | Woodford Town | ||
| National team | |||
| 1959–1968 | England | 57 | (44) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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James Peter 'Jimmy' Greaves (born 20 February 1940 in East Ham, England) is an English former football player, England's third highest international goalscorer, the highest goalscorer in the history of Tottenham Hotspur football club, the highest goalscorer in the history of English top flight football and more recently a television pundit - famous for his trademark catchphrase it's a funny old game. He is considered to be one of the finest goalscorers of his generation.
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Greaves scored on his debut for Chelsea in 1957. He finished as top League goalscorer twice whilst at Chelsea, in 1959 and 1961, and his 41 league goals in the 1960-61 season remains a club record. However, they did not win any major trophies while he was playing for them.
In 1960 he became the youngest player to score 100 league goals in English football, at the age of 20 years 290 days, and at 23 was the same age as Dixie Dean when he scored his 200th.
He briefly joined the Italian side A.C. Milan in 1961, after reportedly turning down a huge offer from Newcastle United and scored 9 goals in 12 games, but he failed to settle and left after only a few months. Bill Nicholson then signed him for Tottenham Hotspur for £99,999. The unusual fee was intended to relieve Greaves of the pressure of being the first £100,000 player.
Greaves played at Spurs from 1961 to 1970, scoring a club record of 266 goals in 379 matches, including 220 goals in the First Division. Greaves finished as top League goalscorer in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1969. His record of finishing top goalscorer in six seasons has never been matched.
With Spurs, Greaves won the FA Cup in 1962 and 1967, scoring against Burnley in the former final. He also won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1963 - scoring twice in the 5-1 defeat of Atlético Madrid, ensuring that Spurs became the first British club to win a European trophy. Today he is considered one of the best players in the history of Tottenham Hotspur.
Greaves won his first England cap on May 17, 1959 against Peru, scoring England's only goal in a 4-1 defeat. He went on to play 57 times and score 44 goals, five fewer than Bobby Charlton but at a much higher rate. He remains third in the all-time list of England goalscorers, behind Charlton and Gary Lineker. From 1964, when he scored a hat-trick against Northern Ireland to take his goal tally to 35, until 1968 when he was overhauled by Charlton, he held the overall England goalscoring record. Greaves also holds the record for most hat-tricks for England - six in all. At the 1961 British Home Championship, Greaves scored seven goals in three games as England won the title. In that 1960-61 season, he scored 13 goals in internationals, a record for an England player in any season which included England's 1,000th goal in official senior matches, against Wales at Wembley on 23 November 1960.
In the 1962 World Cup finals match against Brazil in Chile, a stray dog ran on to the pitch and evaded all of the players' efforts to catch it until Greaves got down on all fours to beckon the animal. He was successful in catching the dog, but it proceeded to urinate all over Greaves' England shirt. The Brazilian player Garrincha thought the incident was so amusing that he took the dog home as a pet.
Greaves was the first-choice striker for the England team during the 1966 World Cup but suffered a leg injury during a game against France and had to be replaced. His replacement, Geoff Hurst, scored the winner in the quarter final against Argentina and kept his place all the way to the final, scoring a hat-trick as England won the tournament.
Only the 11 players on the pitch at the end of the 4-2 win over West Germany received medals. Following a Football Association led campaign to persuade FIFA to award medals to all the winners’ squad members, Greaves was presented with his medal by Gordon Brown at a ceremony at 10 Downing Street on 10 June 2009.[1]
One of football's most famous photographs shows the elation on the England bench as the final whistle was blown, except for Greaves, in his suit and tie, looking astonished at what had happened. Greaves maintained that he felt nothing but delight at England's win and celebrated as much as the other non-playing members of the squad.{fact}} He also said that he never felt he had a divine right to be in the side once he regained his fitness. However, his reaction at the time of England's success became well-documented - he packed his bags and headed on holiday with his wife while the rest of the squad attended an official banquet.
Greaves played only three more times for England after the 1966 World Cup, scoring a single goal. His final cap came against Austria in May 1967.
In 1970, Greaves (valued at £54,000) joined West Ham United in part exchange in the deal that took Martin Peters to White Hart Lane. He scored on his debut, as he had for every team he played for, including England at full and under 23 level, with two goals against Manchester City on March 21. Two months later, on May 28, he finished sixth in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally with co-driver Tony Fall. He retired in 1971 having played 516 Football League games and scored 357 goals, an all-time record for the top flight.
Greaves made a comeback with Brentwood in December 1975, aged 35. This was successful enough that he signed for Chelmsford City in the Southern League for the 1976-77 season. Although his club was relegated from the Premier Division at the end of that season, Greaves had done enough to earn a move to ambitious Barnet. On November 26, 1977, he made his first appearance in the FA Cup since January 1971 in Barnet's first round home defeat to Peterborough United. Playing from midfield in 1977-78, Greaves netted 25 goals (13 in the Southern League) and was their player of the season. He returned to the FA Cup the following season only to be sent off, for removing his shirt, against Woking. After a 1978-79 season that yielded 3 league goals, Jimmy Greaves was released by manager Barry Fry. He then went on to make several appearances for semi-professional side Woodford Town before retiring.
In the mid-1970s Greaves battled a well-documented alcohol problem, finally quitting drinking in February 1978. He became a popular television presenter and football pundit, striking up a partnership with Ian St. John. Together they hosted a popular Saturday lunchtime football show called Saint and Greavsie from 1985 until the programme was axed in 1992.
Greaves also worked frequently for TV-am as a TV critic and was a resident team captain on ITV sports quiz Sporting Triangles as well as co-hosting the Saturday morning children's television show, The Saturday Show. He briefly had his own talk show and has been a columnist for The Sun newspaper for many years. He also answered readers letters in Shoot magazine in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2002 Greaves was made an Inaugural Inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame. He released his autobiography, Greavsie, in 2003 and works as an after-dinner speaker. Greaves has written 18 books in partnership with his life-long friend, the journalist and author Norman Giller.
Married to Irene since 1958, he has 10 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Jimmy and Irene have four children, Lynn, Mitzi, Danny (who was a professional footballer with Southend United), and Andrew.
Greaves said, with regards to the 2010 general election: "I'll vote Conservative, as I always have, but with no great enthusiasm as I'm not convinced by David Cameron. The country really needs another Margaret Thatcher to sort out a huge financial mess and growing trade union power. I'm certain, though, that Britain is sick and tired of Labour."[2]
In April 2005, 44 years after his brief spell at AC Milan, he called for their Milan rivals Inter to be banned from European competitions for three years due to rioting by their fans during the European Cup quarter-final between AC Milan and Inter at the San Siro. However, Inter ultimately avoided exclusion from European competitions by UEFA.[3]
| Club | Season | Domestic League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Chelsea | 1957-58 | 35 | 22 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 22 |
| 1958-59 | 42 | 32 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 47 | 37 | |
| 1959-60 | 40 | 29 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 30 | |
| 1960-61 | 40 | 41 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 43 | |
| Total | 157 | 124 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 169 | 132 | |
| Milan | 1961-62 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 9 |
| Total | 12 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 9 | |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 1961-62 | 22 | 21 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 30 |
| 1962-63 | 41 | 37 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 21 | 49 | 44 | |
| 1963-64 | 41 | 35 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 36 | |
| 1964-65 | 41 | 29 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 35 | |
| 1965-66 | 29 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 16 | |
| 1966-67 | 38 | 25 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 47 | 31 | |
| 1967-68 | 39 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 01 | 48 | 29 | |
| 1968-69 | 42 | 27 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 36 | |
| 1969-70 | 28 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 11 | |
| Total | 321 | 220 | 36 | 32 | 8 | 5 | 14 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 381 | 268 | |
| West Ham United | 1969-70 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 |
| 1970-71 | 32 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 9 | |
| Total | 38 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 13 | |
| Career Totals | 528 | 366 | 44 | 35 | 11 | 7 | 17 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 602 | 422 | |
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