KING OF THE CITY
Maine Road hero will be remembered for his sublime talent
COLIN BELL was born in County Durham, started his career with Bury and ended it alongside George Best at the San Jose Earthquakes in sunny California.
Yet it is in the sky blue shirt of City that he will be forever remembered and the tributes which flowed last night spoke of a talent for the ages.
Bell was known as ‘ The King of the Kippax’ and Nijinsky – titles bestowed during a career effectively cut short by a terrible knee injury before his 30th birthday.
The former was self- explanatory: adulation from the standing City fans at their old Maine Road base. The latter referred not as some thought to the ballet dancer, but to the famous racehorse for his stamina.
Either of those names would have been appropriate.
Bell made 492 appearances for City during a 13- year stay, scoring 152 goals. He was also capped 48 times by England. Yet he was one of those players which plucked at something else inside football fans. One who excited. A player for whom numbers never quite did justice.
Bell was born in 1946 and brought up in Hesleden, a North East mining town. He was raised by his father after his mother died when he was just a child. He recalled in his autobiography, subtitled ‘ Reluctant Hero’, “running around my village with a tennis ball at my feet”.
Early honed close control was evident throughout a career which saw him graduate from Horden
Colliery Welfare to then- Second Division Bury after unsuccessful trials with Newcastle, Sunderland and Arsenal. Bell moved to City from Bury for £ 45,000 in 1966 after long- time admirer Malcolm Allison finally persuaded his board to part with the cash.
Promotion from the old Second Division followed. Then a first league title since 1937 two years later, an FA Cup in 1969, League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup trophies in 1970. Money well spent. The first England cap came in 1968 and Bell was a member of the squad at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, even if he was remembered largely for replacing Bobby Charlton in the quarter- final defeat by West Germany.
Ironically, given there will be a minute’s silence at tonigh tonight’s game against United, B Bell’s ll’ career was effectively cut short in a League Cup derby.
Aged 34, he made a brief comeback in California some five years later alongside Best but it lasted just five games.
In 2004 he was was given a fitting tribute by City when the main stand at the Etihad was renamed in his honour.
And he was awarded an MBE for services to the community.
Bell, 74, who passed away yesterday, left an indelible mark on
City.