Football world champion, record scorer, womanizer, alcoholic, TV expert: he led an eventful life - now England idol Jimmy Greaves has passed away.
London - He was one of the greats, considered one of the best strikers of all time.
Now Jimmy Greaves is dead. The 1996 world champion died on Sunday (September 19, 2021) at the age of 81 - his former club Tottenham Hotspur announced.
Greaves was an absolute football idol in the sixties and is still the Spurs record scorer today.
In England he had a status that in this country can possibly even be compared with Gerd Müller.
Between 1961 and 1970 Greaves scored 266 goals in 379 games for the Spurs, including 220 in 321 league games.
In the 1962/63 season he scored 37 league goals in one season - a club record for the North Londoners to this day.
In the national team, Greaves had scored 44 times in 57 games, also an outstanding rate.
Jimmy Greaves is dead: English football legend dies at the age of 81
Greaves was part of the English national team in 1966, which later became world champions in the legendary final against Germany with the help of the Wembley goal.
Bitter for the Londoner: He was only used in the group stage.
He had lost his regular place due to an injury at the beginning of the tournament to Geoff Hurst, who scored three goals in the final against the BRD selection to win 4-2.
The Spurs wrote on Sunday among other things: "The best striker this country has ever seen" and "There won't be another player like him in football".
After his playing career, Greaves was one of the most popular television experts in England for years.
Jimmy Greaves: Tottenham Hotspur mourns striker legend
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The career of the later heartthrob began in the youth of Chelsea.
He scored in his first game as a professional - against the Spurs of all places.
In the 1960/61 season he set a record for Chelsea with 41 league goals in one season.
He then moved to Italy for AC Milan, but returned to London after six months and signed with Tottenham, where he became a club legend.
But Greaves' career also had its dark sides: he was already a heavy alcoholic in his active days, splashed vodka in oranges, which he then ate in the cabin. So he masked his addiction. This trend was later followed by many professionals from the island. The biography of the super striker, published in 1978, begins with the following sentences: “I am Jimmy Greaves. I am a professional footballer. I'm an alcoholic. "
(Akl / dpa)