August 24 – Greavsie Scores on Chelsea Debut
Sven-Goran Eriksson’s decision to take Theo Walcott to the World Cup last summer was widely criticised, not least because he admitted he had never actually seen the youngster play.
Walcott’s inclusion was however indicative of the paucity of strikers available to England, a position which they have never struggled to fill in the past. Indeed, such were the riches available to Sir Alf Ramsey he was able to leave today’s subject on the bench and still win the world cup.
On this day exactly half a century ago in 1957 lethal front-man Jimmy Greaves made his debut as a tender 17 year-old for Chelsea, getting on the score sheet in the process against Tottenham – the club he was to serve with such distinction some years later.
Greavsie went on to play for AC Milan, Spurs and West Ham, scoring on his debut for each club, as well as his under-21 and full England debuts.
Jimmy was a goal-scoring machine and still holds many records for both club and country. In 604 club games he netted an incredible 422 goals.
Perhaps even more impressive is Jimmy’s record for England which reads played 57, scored 44, meaning he is still the third highest England scorer behind Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker. He also scored six hattricks for England which is also still a record.
It was while playing for the Three Lions in the 1962 World Cup in Chile that one of the more bizarre episodes in Greavsie’s career occurred. During the match with Brazil a stray dog ran on to the pitch and managed to evade all the efforts of the players to catch the animal until Jimmy got down on all fours and coaxed the dog towards him. Once close enough he grabbed it and handed it to a steward, but not before the dog had time to leave a parting gift and urinated all over Greavsie.
Jimmy was not amused but Brazillian legend Garrincha thought the incident was so funny he decided to keep the dog as a pet. He did stop laughing in time to score twice to beat England 3-1 and then go on and win the World Cup though.
Here’s Greavsie himself recreating the incident with comedy football jokers Baddiel and Skinner:
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