Fans fought for years to get him a World Cup medal. So why is Jimmy Greaves now selling it?
HE was the forgotten hero of 1966. One of England’s greatest players, Jimmy Greaves missed out on a World Cup winner’s medal because injury stopped him from being on the pitch in the final matches.
A long campaign by fans led to him finally being honoured in 2009. But those who fought to see him recognised are likely to be less than impressed by the fact he is now cashing in.
Greaves has put the medal up for auction next week at Sotheby’s. The former footballer, now a 74-year-old great-grandfather, is expecting to bank up to £50,000 for the 18 carat gold award.
Greaves had previously said it was ‘terrific’ to have finally received the medal, adding: ‘It was devastating for me that I didn’t play in the final. I always believed that we would win the World Cup and I’d be part of it, but I wasn’t.’
In May, the player-turned-TV pundit, who has battled alcoholism, sold the country house he shared with wife Irene. Yesterday it also emerged that Mrs Greaves, who turns 75 tomorrow, has a county court judgment against her for an outstanding £185.
The judgment, from August, gives her address as the £100,000 home where the pair’s daughter Lynn lives in Sudbury, Suffolk, suggesting they have now moved in with the 56-year-old. The couple have four children – Lynn, Mitzi, Andy and Danny.
Greaves scored 44 goals in a 57-match England career and was the most prolific striker of his generation, playing a crucial role in the earlier stages of the 1966 World Cup. But he was injured in the third game and replaced by Geoff Hurst, who kept his place for the final even though Greaves had recovered. Hurst – now Sir Geoff – famously went on to score a hat-trick in the 4-2 victory against West Germany at Wembley.
Until the 1978 tournament, only those who played in the final game won a medal. Greaves was badly affected by the snub – and by the death of his four-month- old son, Jimmy Jnr, in 1961 from pneumonia – and later became an alcoholic. However, he eventually stopped drinking and reinvented himself as a sports pundit, newspaper columnist and after-dinner speaker.
Astonished at the injustice Greaves and other England squad players faced, fans campaigned for the ‘forgotten heroes’ of 1966 to be given medals retrospectively.
The campaign eventually paid off, and in June 2009, Greaves and the others were presented with medals at Downing Street by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said: ‘Justice has finally been done.’ Greaves smiled broadly as posed with his medal, saying: ‘What do I think? Yes, terrific, unexpected. Obviously, it is something FIFA or the good old FA feel has been, while not a wrong, something that needs to be put right. We are all part of the history of the World Cup.’
Friends said Greaves had not pushed to be given the award and has spent much of his life trying to play down the significance of missing out on the final. They said he ‘doesn’t give a monkey’s’ about memorabilia and medals and, having retired from punditry, ‘could probably do with the money’.
Greaves played at a time when financial rewards for footballers were nothing like they are today. The World Cup winning team received a combined bonus from the FA of just £22,000.
Yesterday, Greaves declined to comment on why he was selling his medal. Former neighbours in Suf- folk said he had sold his detached country house in May after living there for just two years. Records show the house was bought in 2012 for £499,995 and then sold again this May for £499,950.
The medal – which comes in the original wooden case and with ‘a signed letter of authenticity from Jimmy Greaves’ – is being auctioned as part of a sale of sporting memorabilia at Sotheby’s in London on Monday and Tuesday.