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Nobby Stiles (r.) Celebrates the World Cup victory with coach Sir Alf Ramsey and his captain Bobby Moore
Photo: Keystone / Getty Images
You shouldn't dwell on the outside, that's not proper, but at Nobby Stiles you can't get past it.
The fact that he was only 1.68 meters short.
That he was so short-sighted that he had to wear contact lenses on the pitch as a teenager.
And above all, that he was missing the upper row of teeth because he had lost his teeth after a duel on the pitch at a young age.
When he wanted to impress his opponents in particular, Stiles would leave the bit in the dressing room and then look particularly intimidating on the field.
This little poisonous man from Manchester United, who was bustling around in defensive midfield, was the horror of the strikers in the sixties.
Having to play against Nobby Stiles was a real test of courage.
One of those guys who knew no mercy on the pitch, but didn't necessarily play unfairly.
Berti Vogts was one of those on the German side, but even Borussia Mönchengladbach's terrier could have learned something from Stiles in terms of uncompromising and tough.
It is these players who take the hearts of the audience by storm.
Stiles was loved.
Eusebio cursed him
He made his masterpiece in the semi-finals of the 1966 World Cup, the World Cup in his own country in the home of football, the assignment to coach Sir Alf Ramsey was therefore clear, it had to be the title, nothing else.
But before the final, the Portuguese stood in the way of the English with their child prodigy Eusebio.
A case for Special Agent Nobby Stiles.
The then 24-year-old did not step off Eusebio's tiptoe for 90 minutes, he worked on him according to all the rules of defensive art, the Portuguese, until then the outstanding player of the tournament, was completely unnerved in the end.
He scored a penalty goal, but nothing else: England won 2-1 and stood in the final, the final against Germany that was to become a Wembley legend.
If you think of the 1966 world champions, you think of Geoff Hurst, the goalscorer, of the filigree Bobby Moore, of his alter ego Bobby Charlton.
Stiles was her adjutant, not too bad for anything, someone has to do the dirty work.
Stiles took care of them and became his head coach's favorite.
Sir Alf Ramsey, who was stingy with words of praise wherever he could: he had the compliment ready for Stiles that he was a real Englishman.
Stiles didn't need teeth to bite hard.
The trophy and the prosthesis in hand
After the 4: 2 over Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer and Co, when England was at the goal, this little, pardon, ugly Nobby Stiles danced across the lawn with the World Cup trophy in one hand and his denture in the other danced and the whole UK felt close to him and danced with him.
Baddiel, Skinner and Lightning Seeds wrote "We can dance Nobby's Dance, we can dance it in France" more than 20 years later in the famous World Cup song "Three Lions".
Football is coming home.
Stiles made only 28 internationals, none of the great English World Cup team had fewer appearances than him at the end of his career.
Stiles basically only danced one summer for England, he was only a substitute at the European Championship in 1968, in 1970 he was nominated again for the World Cup in Mexico, but remained without any effort and had to watch the German team he had taught fear four years earlier, threw the defending champion out of the tournament in the quarter-finals.
His international career was over.
For eleven years from 1960 onwards, Stiles held out his bones for his heart club Manchester United, he won the European Cup in 1968 with him, against Benfica Lisbon, again with Eusebio.
Nobby Stiles was his bane.
United basically remained loyal to Stiles all his life, even if he tried it as a player at Preston North End and Middlesbrough FC.
The Red Devils owed him much more than eleven successful professional years.
Much later, as a junior coach, he helped cut the young jewels David Beckham, Paul Scholes, the Neville brothers and Ryan Giggs into diamonds before they brought United to new fame.
Depression bothered him
Stiles had already had difficult years behind him, in the eighties he suffered from depression, which was one of the reasons why his attempts to gain a foothold as head coach failed quickly.
The tough guy Nobby Stiles was actually a sensitive character, prone to moods.
Working with the young United talents, who later hit the football world as the 1999 class, gave him the ground back under his feet.
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In 2008 he was honored for his services to England's football
Photo: Martin Rickett / imago images / PA Images
In recent years he had hardly been seen in public, for almost ten years he had suffered from dementia, before he was highly decorated, awarded the Order of the British Empire.
The merits did not make him rich, while others such as Moore and Charlton brought their fame over time, Stiles remained the one who took the servant's entrance from the 66th world champions.
Nobby Stiles died on Friday at the age of 78, and his Wembley dance is now a British cultural asset.
England have never been world champions since then.
The Three Lions had guys like him after that, they had a Tony Adams, a John Terry, a Stuart Pearce, but they never had a Nobby Stiles again.
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