Jimmy Greaves

Jimmy Greaves is an English professional footballer, born on 20 February 1940 in Manor Park, Essex, England.

Greaves played as a forward for majority of his career with Tottenham Hotspur.

Greaves had an eye for goal and had brilliant composure. He was quick off his mark and had great acceleration. Wise positioning, coupled with great dribbling skills made him a top class striker.

Background

Jimmy started his footballing career at english club Chelsea. He was selected by team’s scouts when he was in school. Greeves made a good impression as a youth at Chelsea.

Debut

Greeves made his senior debut for Chelsea in 1957. His play and style was appreciated throughout England.

On 17 May 1958, Greeves made his England debut against Peru. He scored a goal however England lost the match 4-1.

Rise To Glory

In the 1957-58 season, Greeves was the top scorer for Chelsea with 22 goals in the bag.

One of the most audacious moments of his career was the 5 goal rampage he scored against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 6-2 win in the 1958-59 season. Greeves was also the top scorer of the season with 32 goals in 44 appearances.

In the next season, Greeves played 40 games and was able to score 29 goals.

He scored a number of hat-tricks in the following season, including his 100th league goal on 19 November against Manchester City. He scored 41 goals in 40 games and scored the top on the leaderboard.

Greeves had a short spell with Series A club A.C. Milan, appearing 12 times for them and scoring on 9 occasions.

The end of 1961 marked the signing of Greeves for Tottenham Hotspur. Playing for Spurs was by far the best phase of his life as a footballer. He won the FA Cup in 1961-62 and 1966–67, FA Charity Shield in 1962 and 1967 and European Cup Winners Cup in 1962-63.

Greeves was the star player at Spurs and played 321 games for the english side. He scored a mind boggling 220 goals.

Greeves joined club West Ham United in 1970. He appeared in 37 games for them and scored 13 goals.

Jimmy played for England in the 1962 World Cup. He contributed enough to defeat Argentina and advance into the quarterfinals, but unfortunately lost to Brazil.

He was also a huge part of the team helping England go all the way and win the 1966 World Cup. Greeves had 57 appearances and 44 goals for England in his whole career.

Low Points

Greeves left football for 2 years after leaving West Ham and got into a drinking habit. He became unfit and had to play for lower level teams.

Retirement

Greeves retired in 1971 after playing a season for West Ham. He later started working for The Sun as a columnist and also worked for Star Soccer as a pundit.