Top facts about Jimmy Greaves, a legend with a strong will

James Peter Greaves MBE was a former forward in the English professional football league.

He is England's fourth-highest international goal scorer with 44 goals, Tottenham Hotspur's all-time leading goal scorer with 266 goals, the highest goal scorer in English top-flight history with 357 goals, and the player with the most hat-tricks. In six seasons, he was the highest scorer in the First Division. He was a member of the Football Hall of Fame in England.

Greaves started his professional career with

in 1957, and he appeared in the FA Youth Cup final the following year. Until being sold to Italian team A.C. Milan for £80,000 in April 1961, he scored 124 First Division goals in just four seasons.

His time in Italy was not fun, and in December 1961, he returned to

with Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £99,999. He won the FA Cup in 1961–62 and 1966–67, the Charity Shield in 1962 and 1967, and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1962–63 while with Spurs; he never won a league title, although he did help Spurs finish second in 1962–63.

In March 1970, he moved to West Ham United on a player exchange and retired the following year.

Despite his alcoholism, he returned to playing after a four-year retirement at a non-league club. He played for Brentwood, Chelmsford City, Barnet, and Woodford Town during a five-year period before retiring permanently in 1980. Enough of the introduction, let us get to the main parts of the top facts about Jimmy Greaves.

Exploring the Secrets and top facts about Jimmy Greaves, a legend with a strong will

Between 1959 and 1967, Greaves scored 13 goals in 12 England under-23 internationals and 44 goals in 57 full England internationals. He participated in the 1962 and 1966 FIFA World Cups, but was injured in the 1966 World Cup group stage and lost his spot in the first team to Geoff Hurst, who held Greaves out of the first team in the final.

England won the World Cup, but Greaves did not receive his trophy until 2009 when FIFA changed its rules. He was also a member of the UEFA Euro 1968 squad that ended third, despite not playing a single minute in the final.

The information above was provided just to give you a little insight into how of a great man he was. However, he destroyed all that he had built by developing a bad habit called alcoholism. But then again, his strong will forced him to quit drinking and come back to football once again. And finally,

Jimmy Greaves death

was the end of this legendary player's story.

Let us get down to the details.

Jimmy Greaves information

In this part of the top facts about Jimmy Greaves, we will skim through his most basic information. This step is highly recommended if you are new to football or if you have no information about Jimmy Greaves.

Personal information

• Full name:

  James Peter Greaves

• Date of birth:

  20 February 1940

• Date of death:

  19 September 2021

• Aged:

  81

• Star Sign:

  Pisces

• Star sign features:

  Intuitive, sensitive, devoted, compassionate, inspired, forgiving

• Nationality:

  English

• Place of birth:

  Manor Park, London, England

• Marital status:

  Married

• Religion:

  Christianity

Football information

• Position:

  Striker

• Last team:

  Woodford Town

• Total appearances:

  735

• Club appearances:

  666 

• National appearances:

  69 caps

• Total goals:

  504 goals

• Foot:

  Right

Physical stats and appearance

• Height:

  1.73 m

• Weight:

  66 kg

• Hair color:

  White

• Skin color:

  White

• Facial hair:

  Mustache

Now that you have general information about who Jimmy Greaves was, we deem it necessary to move on to the next parts of the

top facts about Jimmy Greaves

, including his transfer market information and his personal life.

Jimmy Greaves Transfermarkt

We usually divide this part into 3 parts, general statistics, market value, and transfer history, but the top facts about Jimmy Greaves article is an exception. There are no market value records, thus we are forced to summarize it all up into one section.

Unlike many other players, Jimmy had a long list of achievements, to the point that transfermarkt.com couldn’t fit all of his trophies into his profile page. 6 times top scorer of first division which is not an ordinary achievement. One time world cup champion and 2 times FA Cup winner are the accomplishments that are visible on his profile page.

Most of his transfers have disclosed fees but only one of them has a recorded fee of 125 thousand euros. And this was his transfer from

to Tottenham.

His statistics on this website aren’t as accurate as the other sources and the reason might be that this website gathered the information of the games which were played after July 1, 1980, and he started playing in 1955.

This was all that was available on the mentioned website about Jimmy. But for now, we will have to take a quick look at his club career so we can wrap up anything related to his football career in the next part of top facts about Jimmy Greaves, thus we can get to his personal life with a great knowledge of Jimmy.

Jimmy Greaves club career

Due to a great history of transfers and match records, we have limited this part of top facts about Jimmy Greaves to only his club career to make it as brief as possible.

Greaves grew up in Hainault after being born in Manor Park. Chelsea's Jimmy Thompson spotted him playing football as a schoolboy, and he was brought up as an apprentice in 1955 to become one of "Drake's Ducklings" (named after manager Ted Drake in reference to Manchester United's "Busby Babes"). At a young age, he made an impact.

Greaves made his First Division debut against

in a 1–1 draw at White Hart Lane when he was 17 years old. Greaves netted five goals in the third match of the 1958–59 season, a 6–2 victory over league champions Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Greaves was contracted by A.C. Milan of the Italian Serie A for £80,000 in June 1961 and was offered a three-year deal worth £140 per week with a £15,000 signing bonus. He grew dissatisfied with the prospect of leaving London and attempted to terminate the contract before it was finalized, but "Rossoneri" boss Giuseppe Viani declined.

Bill Nicholson signed Greaves for Tottenham Hotspur for £99,999 in December 1961, after lengthy talks. The unusual fee was meant to relieve Greaves of the burden of becoming the first £100,000 player in British football.

Greaves joined West Ham United as part of Martin Peters' move to White Hart Lane in March 1970. Greaves' final season in the Premier League saw him set a new Premier League goal-scoring record of 357 goals. With his 9 goals for A.C. Milan, he had scored 366 goals in the top five European leagues, a record that he held until

surpassed it in 2017.

Jimmy Greaves personal life

Greaves took out a £1,000 bank loan with his brother-in-law to launch a packaging company while playing for Tottenham Hotspur.

This firm had a turnover of over £1 million at the close of his playing days. He was involved in a variety of businesses, including a travel agency. Greaves competed in the 1970 World Cup Rally from London to Mexico. The mentioned player finished sixth out of 96 competitors in his first rally, alongside co-driver Tony Fall, in a Ford Escort.

The Englishman, along with fellow 1966 World Cup squad member Ron Flowers, were awarded an MBE in the 2021 New Year Honors list for their contributions to football. HM, the Queen honored the pair as the last remaining England players from the 1966 Tournament.

Now it’s time for the unfortunate events for

top facts about Jimmy Greaves

.

Greaves had surgery on a neck artery in February 2012 after suffering a minor stroke. Since making a complete recovery, he suffered a major stroke in May 2015, rendering him speechless. He was admitted to intensive care and was supposed to recover slowly, according to physicians.

A month later, he was released from the hospital, his condition having "significantly changed," according to his friend and agent, Terry Baker. He began slowly recovering from his stroke in February 2016, using a wheelchair despite being advised he would never walk again.

Jimmy Greaves alcoholism

Alcoholic drinks are the arch-nemesis of an athlete, and in this case, we have dedicated a whole section of

top facts about Jimmy Greaves

's article to this matter.

He was corrupted by liquor, bankrupted, and divorced by his wife Irene. He was staying in a one-bedroom apartment in Wanstead, east London, by the end of the 1970s, selling women's jumpers to make ends meet.

The unfortunate lad eventually admitted that he had reached rock bottom and that he needed to strike back. He said, "I realized I had to stop drinking long before I stopped." "That wasn't something that happened overnight." Warley's mental home is a mile up the road from here, where I spent five months in my last year of drinking in 1977.

It was the one place where I spent more time than anywhere else. It wasn't a straightforward task."

Jimmy stopped drinking in February 1978 and said he hasn't touched a drop of alcohol yet. "One day, I thought, 'That's it,' and I just walked away from it, and thankfully, I've remained out of it to this day."

Is there ever a moment when I just want a drink? Of course, there are, just like anyone else; that doesn't make you any normal. You wake up like anyone else and wish to go out and drink a few jars, but you know you won't be able to." He was identified as a non-drinking alcoholic.

Jimmy Greaves family

Here is a rare fact which we have featured in the top facts about Jimmy Greaves just for you!

Greaves married Irene Barden on March 26, 1958, at Romford registry office, and the couple went through a divorce process after his alcoholism, but it was never finalized, and they reunited after three months apart.

On September 7, 2017, Jimmy and Irene renewed their vows in Danbury, Essex. Lynn, Mitzi, Danny (a professional footballer with Southend United), and Andrew are their four daughters. Jimmy Greaves Jr, their other son, died before reaching his first birthday. Until Jimmy Greaves death, the sadness of his son's death was still alive in his heart.

Jimmy Greaves in other fields

Greaves began writing for The Sun newspaper as a columnist in 1979. He continued to write his column until 2009 when he went to work for The Sunday People as a reporter. From 1980 to 1982, he served as a pundit on Star Soccer and then co-hosted The Saturday Show before being chosen as a pundit for ITV's coverage of the FIFA World Cup.

He went on to work on World of Sport and On the Ball, where he met Ian St John and formed a relationship. Greg Dyke also recruited Greaves to serve as a TV critic and host on TV-am, which Dyke agreed was a way of "dumbing down" the show in order to draw more viewers.

From October 1985 to April 1992, he and St. John hosted Saint and Greavsie, a popular Saturday lunchtime football show. On Sporting Triangles, he worked as a team captain alongside Andy Gray and Emlyn Hughes.

His broadcasting career came to an end just as the Premier League was getting underway, and he felt that his lighthearted approach to sport was not taken seriously enough by television executives at the time. Despite this, he remained a Central Television pundit until 1998.

It may seem a little odd that we don’t have a Jimmy Greaves biography and only the top facts about Jimmy Greaves. Well, His biography or I should say, autobiography, exists on the market.

Greavsie, his autobiography, was published in 2003. Greaves had also collaborated on a number of books with his childhood friend, journalist, and author Norman Giller.

Jimmy Greaves net worth

As it was mentioned before Jimmy’s life took a dark turn suddenly and he lost all that he had amassed but his net worth before his death was estimated to be around 100 thousand dollars but before these events, it was almost 11 million dollars. Now, this gives you an idea of how much he had lost, but then again, he managed to come out of this dark deep hole of addiction to liquor and started a new life.

Jimmy Greaves death

The sad news of Jimmy’s death struck like a lightning. This England legend died at his own home in Danbury on 19 September 2021, at 81 years of age.

Greaves's position in football history will "never be forgotten," according to England manager

, who emphasized how appreciation for the former Chelsea, Milan, Tottenham, and West Ham forward's exceptional skill has and continues to unify football fans.

Southgate also stated that the game would be in deep sadness after this incident and that the fans will have a hard time coping with the death of a footballer who is eligible to be in any list which contains England’s finest players.

Jimmy was not only loved by Englishmen but also by people from all around the world who love football. This love will forever stay in the hearts of the fans and football lovers. Rest in peace Jimmy Greaves.

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