There have been plenty of England captains who have never been lucky enough to win a major trophy. The fact that Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup is, therefore, a matter of great pride not only for him, but also for the club where he spent the majority of his career. The defender is considered to be the best player that ever lined up for West Ham United, playing more than 600 times for the Hammers across 16 years there. Although he also won the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup whilst with West Ham, there is little doubt that his World Cup success was his greatest achievement.
The Early Years of Moore
You might be surprised to learn that West Ham legend Bobby Moore actually has an association with a different London club, but he does thanks to his name. Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore was born on the 12th of April 1941 in the borough of Barking, Essex. The son of Robert E. Moore and Doris Moore, he was educated at Westbury Primary School and then Tom Hood School in Leytonstone. He played football for both of his schools, also playing for Barking as a youngster. It was in 1956 that Moore joined the youth setup of West Ham United, making his way to the first team in the years that followed.
Bobby Moore made his debut for West Ham United 6️⃣0️⃣ years ago today… The rest is history. pic.twitter.com/Nxe3s7yb2W
— West Ham United (@WestHam) September 8, 2018
His West Ham United senior debut came against Manchester United on the eighth of September 1958 when he replaced Malcolm Allison, who was suffering from tuberculosis. At the same time, he was also making appearances for the England youth setup, reaching the final of the UEFA Youth Tournament in the same year that the team won the British Amateur Youth Championship. In 1959, he played in the FA Youth Cup final for West Ham alongside Geoff Hurst, losing 2-1 on aggregate to Blackburn Rovers. This loss was mitigated slightly for the pair by success in the Southern Junior Floodlit Cup.
Earning an England Call-Up
In 1960, Bobby Moore was given a call-up to play with the England Under-23 squad, where he impressed. At the same time, he was also playing well for West Ham United, having such an impact on his domestic team that he was added to the senior England setup by Walter Winterbottom and the selection committee of the Football Association in 1962. That was a point at which the Three Lions were undergoing preparations for the World Cup finals in Chile, heading to South America as an uncapped player before making his debut in a friendly against Peru on the 20th of May 1962.
🗓 #OnThisDay in 1962, a 21-year-old Hammer named Bobby Moore made his first World Cup finals appearance for England against Hungary 🏴
England would go on to be knocked out in the quarter-finals that year. Four years later they would make history 🏆 pic.twitter.com/DhogpailvE
— West Ham United (@WestHam) May 31, 2021
Such was the nature of Moore’s performance, he kept his place in the England team throughout the tournament, which was ended by eventual winners Brazil at the quarter-final stage. On the 29th of May the following year, Moore was handed the England captaincy for the first time after Johnny Haynes had retired and his successor, Jimmy Armfield, was injured. That made Moore the youngest person ever to captain the national side, wearing the armband as the Three Lions defeated Czechoslovakia 4-2. Although Armfield took back over the captaincy afterwards, Alf Ramsey made Moore the captain permanently in 1964.
Winning Trophies
If Moore wanted a sign of the kind of success that he was going to enjoy in the future, 1964 might well have been the year that provided it. Having been named the permanent England captain, his domestic status began to reflect his international achievement when West Ham United made it to the final of the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium. They defeated Preston North End 3-2, thanks to a last-minute winner from Ronnie Boyce, which is part of the reason why he was named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year, all whilst being successfully treated for testicular cancer.
The FA Cup win wasn’t the only time that Moore would appear in a major final at Wembley, nor the only time that he would lift a trophy in the famous old stadium. In 1965, West Ham United made it to the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, where the London side faced 1860 Munich. They won 2-0, thanks to a brace scored by Alan Sealey, whilst he also earned his 30th cap for England. Ramsey was preparing to take the Three Lions to the World Cup, which was being hosted by England in 1966, a year that started in mixed fashion for Moore.
Winning the World Cup
The start of the year saw the defender score his first goal for England at Goodison Park, coming in a 1-1 draw with Poland. Two months on from that, however, he was the captain for West Ham in the League Cup final, which they ended up losing 5-3 on aggregate to West Bromwich Albion. The World Cup was looming, however, so a friendly against Norway was on the cards for Moore and his West Ham teammates, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst. In it, Moore scored his second, and what would prove to be his final, goal for the Three Lions.
Early in 1966, on the eve of his greatest accomplishment, it was leaked to the press that he wanted to leave West Ham United. He had let his contract slip to termination, only for Sir Alf Ramsey to step in and point out that he was ineligible to play for England unless he re-signed for the Hammers. He did just that, captaining the England team into the World Cup, making it through the group stage relatively unscathed before defeating Argentina in the quarter-finals and Portugal in the semi-finals, which set up a famous match against West Germany in the final at Wembley.
Having gone 1-0 down, it was the quick-thinking of Moore that helped the Three Lions get back on level pegging. Having been fouled inside the German half, Moore took an instant free-kick onto the head of Hurst, who scored in a routine the pair had done numerous times for their club side. Peters made it 2-1 before West Germany equalised in the final minute of normal time. England took a 3-2 lead, then with moments left of the game and the West Germans attacking, Moore got the ball and played a ball through to Hurst 40 yards away. Hurst scored, to seal the game 4-2.
The Post-West Ham Years
In the wake of the World Cup, Bobby Moore became something of a national icon, with he and the other West Ham players taking the World Cup trophy around the grounds that the Hammers were playing in in their First Division matches. As a result, he started a number of business ventures, all whilst continuing to play for both West Ham and England. Although preparations for the 1970 World Cup were disrupted for Moore when he was accused of the theft of a bracelet from a jewellery shop in Bogotá, he was an important part of the team that progressed to the quarter-finals before losing to West Germany.
THE iconic picture of Bobby Moore – embracing Pele at the 1970 @FIFAWorldCup finals in Mexico #RIPBobby pic.twitter.com/jP38yiHT8Q
— West Ham United (@WestHam) February 24, 2016
In the end, Moore played 544 league games for West Ham, joining fellow Londoners Fulham, who were in the Second Division, for £25,000 in the March of 1974. He remained there for three years, playing his final professional game in England against Blackburn Rovers before heading off to play for two teams in the North American Soccer League: San Antonio Thunder and Seattle Sounders. In the April of 1978, Moore signed with Danish team Herning Fremad in order to promote the transition of Danish football to become professional, retiring fully in the mid-1980s.
Illness & Passing
Moore briefly tried his hand at management, taking up a coaching role at Crystal Palace before becoming the manager of Oxford United in the Isthmian League. That helped to boost the club’s profile, after which he moved to Hong Kong in the August of 1982 in order to manage Eastern. He left the club in the March of the following year, becoming Southend United manager in 1984, laying the foundations for his successor, David Webb. He then served on the board, remaining in this role until his death. Having first been diagnosed with cancer in 1964, he underwent colorectal cancer surgery in 1991.
Two years later, he confirmed that he was suffering from that as well as liver cancer, which had spread. Eventually, he died on the 24th of February 1993, just a week after attending a dinner after the England versus San Marino game. He was the first member of the England World Cup winning team to pass away, with his funeral being held at Putney Vale crematorium on the second of March. West Ham United’s Boleyn Ground was soon covered in floral tributes, as well as West Ham and England shirts. In 1993, the Bobby Moore Fund was set up as a charity to raise money for research into bowel cancer.