My Greatest Ever England XI - Sir Geoff

Tuesday, 30 September, 2003

The legend picks his ultimate England team...

The only man ever to score a World Cup Final hat-trick picks his team as TheFA.com continues to search for the ultimate all-time England line-up...

Sir Geoff Hurst appreciates the importance of building the future of football. As Director of McDonalds he helps promote youth coaching throughout England.

One of their most important projects, supported by The FA, is a scheme to create 10,000 newly-qualified football coaches in Britain - 80 per cent of them in England.

The past is also vital of course - football tradition is held dear to millions of supporters and no historic achievement is better known than Hurst's hat-trick against West Germany in the 1966 World Cup.

Of course, his playing career was more than just those 120 minutes at Wembley. He averaged a goal every two games in 49 internationals and was part of a West Ham side that also included his great friend Bobby Moore.

Moore is in Hurst's greatest England XI of course, as are fellow 1966 boys Gordon Banks, Ray Wilson and Jimmy Greaves - who ironically was replaced by Hurst from the quarter-finals onwards.

"Jimmy and I were the front two in the World Cup warm-up games but I wasn't playing very well so I was left out of the opening match against Uruguay and Jimmy played with Roger Hunt," recalls Hurst.

"Then Jimmy got injured and I got my chance. Our manager Sir Alf Ramsey is also in my all-time team. He was an excellent right-back in his time."

Hurst says his team is full of stars who could have played in any era.

"Alan Shearer is excellent in the modern game but he would have been strong enough to cope with the fierce tackling from behind and physical stuff that we got in our day," he says.

SIR GEOFF HURST'S ULTIMATE ENGLAND XI

Goalkeeper - Gordon Banks (1963-72)
73 caps, 0 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "He was the best goalkeeper in the world during the '66 World Cup. Actually he was the greatest goalkeeper of all-time from any country."

Right back - Alf Ramsey (1949-54)
32 caps, 3 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "Was an excellent player before he became a legendary England manager. He was very a composed defender with excellent positional sense. Very disciplined."

Central defender - Bobby Moore (1962-73)
108 caps, 2 goal
Hurst's Verdict: "A really good friend as well as a team-mate. Bobby died 10 years ago of course and in that time the World Cup winning side seem to have become more recognised and popular than ever, it is just a shame Bobby has missed out on that."

Central defender - Tony Adams (1987-2001)
66 caps, 5 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "A leader of men. An excellent captain who could motivate those around him. No frills about him but good old-fashioned stopper from the modern game."

Left back - Ray Wilson (1960-68)
63 caps, 0 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "It's nice to have defenders who can defend and Ray was one of those. He was very quick and good in the air for his size. Another of my '66 mates."

Midfield - Duncan Edwards (1955-57)
18 caps, 5 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "I remember seeing clips of him when I was a teenager. Bobby Charlton says Duncan was the best player he's ever seen and that is good enough for me."

Midfielder - Bobby Charlton (1958-70)
106 caps, 49 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "The biggest name abroad whenever we went away with England. He is the one everyone had heard of - and they still talk about him now! Got our World Cup campaign really starting with two long-range shots that he was famous for."

Midfield - Bryan Robson (1980-91)
90 caps, 26 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "Sir Alf Ramsey would love to have had Robbo in his team. He was his sort of player and played the role Sir Alf liked , a terrific player who could work hard in midfield and get forward as well."

Winger - Tom Finney (1947-59)
76 caps, 30 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "Tremendously skilful but versatile as well. Useful to the side as he could switch from wide-left to wide-right and was pretty useful at centre-forward as well whenever the opportunity came up."

Striker - Jimmy Greaves (1959-67)
57 caps, 44 goals
Hurst's Verdict: "An all-time great goalscorer. He and I were meant to be the front pairing at the World Cup, but I played poorly in the warm-up games and then he was injured. He could score goals alongside anybody and we had a pretty good record together."

Striker - Alan Shearer (1992-2000)
63 caps, 30 goals
Hurst's Verdict: Some players would flourish in any era and Shearer is one of them. He would have coped with everything the old-style game would throw at him but he was skilful and aware enough to succeed in the modern game. Any top-class international forward needs to score a goal every two games and he did."

TOTAL VOTES SO FAR (after 7 nominations)

7 votes - Bobby Moore
6 votes - Bobby Charlton, Tom Finney, Bryan Robson
5 votes - Duncan Edwards, Stanley Matthews
4 votes - Gordon Banks, Jimmy Greaves
3 votes - Alan Shearer, Peter Shilton, Ray Wilson, Billy Wright
2 - Jimmy Armfield, George Cohen, Paul Gascoigne, Johnny Haynes, Gary Lineker, Kenny Sansom
1 - Tony Adams, David Beckham, Roger Byrne, Neil Franklin, Geoff Hurst, Kevin Keegan, Michael Owen, Stuart Pearce, Alf Ramsey, Des Walker

My Greatest Ever England XI - Sir Geoff

The legend picks his ultimate England team...

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