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Remembering Nobby Stiles: Tough and uncompromising but the nation’s 1966 dancing hero was one of us

Stiles (right) played in all six of England's games at the 1966 World Cup - GETTY IMAGES
Stiles (right) played in all six of England's games at the 1966 World Cup - GETTY IMAGES

And then there were four. With the death of Nobby Stiles at the age of 78, only George Cohen, Bobby Charlton, Roger Hunt and Geoff Hurst of the 1966 World Cup winning side are still around. But however dwindling their number, the evocations of that glorious sporting moment remain embedded in the collective memory. None more than the sight of Stiles, his socks round his ankles, doing a celebratory jig along the Wembley touchline, the Jules Rimet trophy in one hand, his dentures in the other.

Stiles’s knees-up was the perfect reflection of how the nation felt at that moment: unadulterated joy tinged with mighty relief. In many ways, he was our representative out there on the Wembley turf. None of us could ever match the grace of Bobby Moore, or the lung-bursting dynamism of Alan Ball, or the extraordinary athleticism of Gordon Banks. But the short-sighted, gap-toothed little bald bloke engaging in an unhinged dad dance? Nobby was one of us.

But then appearances can be deceptive. As it happened Stiles was such a vital cog in that England team, the manager Alf Ramsey would later insist that of the five world class players he had at his disposal, his combative midfielder was one. The N’Golo Kante of his time, Stiles’s selfless tracking of opponents, combined with his economical passing and ferocious tackling were a critical element for club and country. He did the unnoticed hard work, while others took the headlines. And in the process trophies were won.

1966 World Cup winners: What became of England's Wembley heroes
1966 World Cup winners: What became of England's Wembley heroes

Yet for much of his early career, he was plagued with imposter syndrome, convinced his physique would count against him. In his autobiography he described himself as “a half-blind dwarf who was bombed by the Germans and run over by a trolley bus when he was one”.

Born in the cellar of his parents’ home in north Manchester during a Luftwaffe raid in May 1942, he was christened Norbert, but soon became universally known as Nobby.

At 17 he signed on as an apprentice at Manchester United, the team he had grown up watching from the Old Trafford terraces. Brought up on the streets of Collyhurst, the young Stiles knew how to look after himself: he lost his upper set of teeth in a brawl at the age 15. He made his first team debut against Bolton Wanderers in 1960 as a right back. But the United manager Matt Busby saw something in his tenacity, and moved him into the centre of midfield, his job to protect the back four, win the ball and give it to more creative team mates. It was a revolutionary tactical development. And Stiles became its first exemplar.

Tough, uncompromising, relentlessly competitive, he enjoyed a magnificently fruitful decade-long career at the top. By the time he gained his first England cap in 1965 he had already won the FA Cup and league title with United, the unsung work horse providing the support (and the ball) to the glorious front three of Denis Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton.

Manchester United's Nobby Stiles (left) and Tottenham Hotspur's Jimmy Greaves in a tussle for the ball during the First Division match at White Hart Lane - PA Archive
Manchester United's Nobby Stiles (left) and Tottenham Hotspur's Jimmy Greaves in a tussle for the ball during the First Division match at White Hart Lane - PA Archive

Then came the World Cup on home soil and Stiles was to play every minute of England’s campaign. Though, it later turned out, he would not have done had the FA bigwigs had their way. For Stiles’s uncompromising tackling was not universally popular. And after he had reduced the French playmaker Jacques Simon to a hobbling wreck in a group game, a diplomatic incident ensued. The FA chairman insisted that Ramsey not include Stiles in the quarter-final team against Argentina: England’s reputation for fair play was at stake. Stiles only discovered after the manager’s death that, far from obliging his paymasters, Ramsey had made it a resignation issue: if he goes, I go. And how Stiles repaid such insistence. In the semi final, he was given the job of man marking Eusebio. And by sticking to his opponent like velcro, he completely annulled the great playmaker’s threat. 

According to his England team-mate Terry Paine, Stiles more than a little intimidated the Portuguese maestro. Which meant when the pair met again in the 1968 European Cup final, when Eusebio was playing for Benfica against Manchester United on the same Wembley pitch, there was only going to be one outcome. Thus Stiles became, alongside Charlton and Liverpool’s Ian Callaghan, one of only three players in English football history to have in their collection both a World Cup and a European Cup winner’s medal.

His time in the England team, however, was soon over. The last of his 28 international caps was awarded in 1970. And he was let go by United the following year, making his way to Middlesbrough, before becoming manager of Preston North End. After a spell in Canada coaching the Vancouver Whitecaps, he returned for a short-lived period as boss of West Bromwich Albion. But he was not cut out for management, finding it almost impossible to tell his players they were not picked for the team, never mind when they were no longer wanted and had to be moved on.

Despite his accomplishments, Stiles never made big money out of the game; his most substantial contract was with Middlesbrough and worth about £20,000 a year. It meant he had little to fall back on. So to supplement the income of his wife Kay (sister of his old United team mate Johnny Giles) he was obliged to turn to after dinner speaking. Not that he enjoyed being on the celebrity circuit. A self-effacing man, not comfortable at the centre of attention, he was taken aback at how much he was lauded by those he spoke to. Adulation was not his thing.

So when Alex Ferguson offered him a position coaching the Manchester United youth teams in 1989, he seized the chance. And his presence there coincided with the finest crop of young players produced at the club since the Busby Babes he had so enjoyed watching as a teenager. Paul Scholes in particular has long credited Stiles for helping his development.

Stiles sent his collection of footballing memorabilia to auction to raise money for his family - PA ARCHIVE
Stiles sent his collection of footballing memorabilia to auction to raise money for his family - PA ARCHIVE

Sadly, his time at United came to a close when his health began to deteriorate. After a heart attack in 2003, in 2010 he had a stroke, and in 2013 was discovered to have prostate cancer. But, more significantly, for the last 17 years of his life he was afflicted with Alzheimer’s and Vascular dementia, which ultimately curtailed his powers of speech. But even though they couldn't converse, Charlton remained a regular visitor to his house in Stretford to the end: their shared history forever potent.

And in 2010, anxious to secure an inheritance for Kay and his three sons, he sent his collection of footballing memorabilia to auction. His World and European Cup medals ended up in an appropriate place: Manchester United paid £209,000 for them and they are now on display in the club museum, a glorious reminder of the nation’s dancing hero.