£1m a week Messi v £8 a week Jackson
ALIST of great footballers in the world might include Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Pele.
George Best must surely have a chance of being in the top 10.
All made a fortune from the game.
Messi is said to earn almost a million pounds a week.
But one who never gets a mention is former Huddersfield Town player Alex Jackson who, in his glory years of the 1920s, was regarded by many as the best in the world, and who earned just the maximum wage allowed of £8 a week.
I knew nothing about him until a reader sent me details about the career of an obviously charismatic player. Jackson was signed by Town from Aberdeen for a club record fee of £5,000.
He was an unconventional right winger and was a member of the 1925-26 League winning team.
He was also in the Scottish side that beat England 5-1 at Wembley in 1928.
He was the tallest of the five Scottish forwards at 5ft 7ins.
The night before the game, the Scottish team drank with supporters until 10pm in the bar of their London hotel.
Before they eventually retired, captain Jimmy
McMullan told his players:
“Go to your beds and pray for rain.”
It poured down, making the Wembley pitch heavy and suited to the lightweight Scottish forwards.
Jackson scored a hat-trick and the visitors were named the
Wembley Wizards. Jackson’s world reputation was made.
Jackson moved to Chelsea for a £9,500 fee but was still on only £8 a week. He later played for Nice.
During the Second World War he fought with the 8th Army in North Africa and was wounded in Libya.
After recuperation, Major Jackson joined the Pioneer Corps and extended his stay in Africa after the war ended in 1945.
He died there in 1946 when the truck he was driving crashed. He was 41.
The former Town star, who had been described by journalists and admirers as the greatest footballer in the world, is buried in Fayid War Cemetery in Egypt.