Alan Ball Dies

[taxexile]

World Cup winner Ball dies at 61

World Cup winner Alan Ball has died of a heart attack at the age of 61.

Ball was the youngest member of the England side that won the World Cup in 1966 and went on to win 72 caps.

The industrious midfielder started his career at Blackpool and went on to play for Everton, Arsenal and Southampton before a spell in the United States.

Ball, who collapsed outside his home after tackling a bonfire, also managed seven clubs, including Portsmouth, Southampton and Manchester City.

Ball, who was awarded an MBE in 2000, is the second member of the side that beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley to die. Captain Bobby Moore died of cancer in 1993.

Your tributes to Alan Ball

Ball's son Jimmy said: "I was talking to him last night just after the football and he was in great form. We were talking about (Paul) Scholes' pass.

"And then I got a phone call in the middle of the night. It's unbelievable and very, very sad.

"I would like him to be known as a nice man with a passion for football. He had a big heart and was very generous."

Mr Ball said his father missed his mother Lesley terribly after she died from cancer three years ago and added: "I hope they are together now."

The couple were married for over 36 years.

The Football Association has announced that England's players will wear black armbands as a mark of respect to Ball during their first game at the new Wembley against Brazil on 1 June.

Sir Geoff Hurst, who scored a hat-trick in the 1966 final, led the tributes to Ball.

He said: "He was the youngest member of the team and man of the match in the 1966 World Cup final.

"Socially he was always a good laugh and the 1966 team mixed a lot after then."

He added: "We are all totally devastated."

Lawrie McMenemy, who twice signed him for Southampton, told the BBC: "He was my guest at St Mary's on Saturday and I should have been playing golf with him this morning.

"We were very, very good friends.

"I was very fortunate to manage him. I wanted him badly not just for his ability but for his enthusiasm. Once his feet touched the grass he was like a performer on the stage.

"In his early career he was a runner, a scrapper, a fighter, a workmanlike player. At the end of his career he became the best one-touch footballer in the game.

"Alan started life as a road sweeper and ended up as the best lead violinist Southampton ever had.

"They were a tight-knit family that World Cup team but he has gone to join Bobby Moore now.

"He was about to move up to his close pal Mick Channon and start a new part of his life that he was very excited about.

"He had an enthusiasm for life, not just football, and it spread. He was a lovely fella."

Sir Bobby Charlton , his midfield partner in 1966, said: "He was probably the best player that day and if it had not been for his impact the result could have been totally different.

It is very sad news which has hit everyone hard. He was a terrific character who was always bubbly and jolly and a football man through and through.

Leon Crouch, acting chairman of Southampton

"He did not appear to have a nerve in his body, and he was an inspiration to us all.

"Alan was always bright and bubbly in everything he did as a player. He went about his work with great enthusiasm and gusto and he always had a smile on his face.

"He was a sensational little player with great touch and great vision. He had great close control and although he wasn't a fast player he didn't need to be. He could see things clearly and always made the right decisions.

"He was the youngest member of our squad and we were all looking forward to our latest reunion in two weeks. I am very sad and shocked by the news. Alan will be badly missed."

England team-mate Alan Mullery said: "I just can't believe it. His nickname was 'Bouncy', he was just such a bouncy, lively 61-year-old.

"It's such a shock. He was a loveable character, heart of gold and lived football. He just loved playing for his country.

"He was a wonderful footballer to have in your side, he was so enthusiastic. He had a marvellous engine for a midfield player and had wonderful skill.

"In the World Cup final he was 5ft 10in when he started but he did so much running that day he was 5ft 5in at the end.

"When everyone else was tiring there was Bally running round the pitch."

Ball was only 21 when England won the World Cup

England team-mate Jack Charlton added: "Alan was a brave little fella. Everybody loved Alan; he was a lovely little lad.

"Every time I met him and spent time with him he was taking the mickey out of me, he was having a go at me. It was something we had going since 1966.

"I used to get annoyed with him and grab him by the shirt but it was only fun and we both knew it and I am going to miss Alan more than anybody because we had a tremendous relationship.

"I'm laughing now because I am thinking of Alan. I am not happy and I don't know why I'm laughing. It's just thinking of him. I've got so many good memories of Alan Ball."

Kevin Keegan, who played with him at Southampton, said: "He was a great player but I think as a person he was even greater

"I played with him when he was 38, I'd already been European Footballer of the Year twice but he could teach me things that I never even thought about."

Former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson, who played alongside Ball at Highbury in the 1970s, said: "Everyone can visualise him with his red hair and squeaky voice which is still there and will always be there.

"He was such an infectious character, an extraordinary character - his love for the game was amazing. He would argue all the time, love to talk about the game - just an amazing character."

Former Blackpool and England team-mate Jimmy Armfield said: "It is devastating news.

"He had energy, ambition, drive and passion - and if he was not passionate about something, he didn't do it."

Howard Kendall, who combined with Ball and Colin Harvey to form the 'holy trinity' at Everton, said: "We arrived at Everton in the same season and hit it off immediately.

"He was such a bubbly character, it was really Alan who made the partnership with me and Colin work as well as it did.

"This is a terrible loss for the club and for football. I'm devastated by the news, I have lost a friend and team-mate."

Ball was part of Everton's 1970 league championship-winning side and also appeared in the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico.

In 1973, he became only the second England player to be sent off in a full international when he was dismissed in a vital World Cup qualifier in Poland.

He missed the return game at Wembley as a result, a match that famously saw England fail to reach the 1974 finals and resulted in Ramsey's dismissal.

Ball went on to briefly captain his country but his international career was ended abruptly in 1975 when Ball was only 30.

In May 2005, Ball put his World Cup winners' medal and commemorative tournament cap up for auction to raise money for his family. They were sold for £140,000.

He is survived by his son, Jimmy, and two daughters, Mandy and Keeley.

ALAN BALL FACTFILE

Born: Lancashire 12/05/1945

Playing career: Played for Blackpool, Everton, Arsenal, Southampton, Philadelphia Fury, Vancouver Whitecaps (player manager), Blackpool (player manager), Southampton, Eastern (Hong Kong), Bristol Rovers

Made 975 appearances in a 21-year career

Managerial career: Portsmouth, Colchester, Stoke, Exeter, Southampton, Manchester City, Portsmouth

Honours: World Cup (1966), league title (1970)

[scott1999]

great post , great player, great man.

[marshbags]

Courtesy of the BBC Sports web site on url:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/6621185.stm

Last Updated: Thursday, 3 May 2007, 19:26 GMT 20:26 UK

Quote:-

Football unites in tribute to Ball

By John May in Winchester

Fans turned out to pay tribute to man of the people Alan Ball

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and England coach Steve McClaren led mourners as football said goodbye to World Cup winner Alan Ball.

The funeral for Ball, who died of a heart attack last week aged 61, was held at Winchester cathedral.

Thousands lined the streets and applauded the hearse containing Ball's coffin, draped in a St George's flag.

Ball's son Jimmy led the tributes to his father, saying: "He was the best man I ever met."

Report: Footballing legends remember Ball

It was an exit Ballie would have loved and the venerable cathedral would never had witnessed anything like it in its 1,000-year history.

No other funeral would have seen the packed congregation rise to its feet and applaud and cheer the coffin as the little maestro left the field for the last time - and the 20 or so Anglo-Saxon kings buried in the cathedral would have nodded their heads in appreciation.

There were as many football shirts worn as sober suits, with the red-and-white of Southampton sat cheek by jowl with the blue-and-white of Portsmouth, as well as that of Everton, and the red that England wore on that triumphant July day in 1966.

He was a bloke who loved life and had a bloody good crack at it

Mick Channon

Certainly, the football royalty and aristocracy of 40 years of English football was out in force to pay homage to the babe of the Boys of 66.

And perhaps it was because Ballie was the youngest player that the lines appeared to be etched that much deeper on the faces of his older team-mates from that day.

George Cohen spoke of "How empty and hollow the toast to absent friends would be at our reunion, which is coming up." Sir Bobby Charlton, who has known plenty of tragedy in his life, looked ashen.

His brother Jack, while still an imposingly tall figure, looked frail.

The tick-list of football's great and good was impressive. United boss Ferguson, so magnanimous in defeat the previous evening, showed that he is not all abrasion and hairdryer by hastening back from Milan to attend the funeral.

Brian Barwick and Sir Trevor Brooking represented the Football Association, McClaren and Kevin Keegan bridged the years of England managers.

But more than the big names, it would have been the smaller personnel that Ballie would appreciated.

Team-mates from his playing days at Everton, Arsenal and Southampton, included Mike Channon, who Ball was preparing to move house to be next too when his heart attack struck him down.

Channon's personal tribute to his one-time sidekick was typically robust and earthy: "He was a bloke who loved life and had a bloody good crack at it!"

There were players who Ball managed - guys like Alan Knight, Billy Gilbert and Mark Chamberlain at Pompey. Jason Dodd, Francis Benali and Matt le Tissier at Southampton.

Then there was Theo Walcott, a young man who was not even born when Ball hung up his boots.

Arsenal youngster Theo Walcott turned out to pay his respects

Ballie was not shy to voice his criticism of former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson's decision to take Walcott to the World Cup, although he never placed any blame on the player, and his admiration of the young man no doubt came as he could see a little of himself in the teenager, proudly pulling on an England shirt.

Such was the pull of Alan Ball, that Walcott felt compelled to attend.

The service had few tears. Those would be reserved for the family funeral.

Both Nobby Stiles - Ball's England room-mate - and former Arsenal colleague Frank McLintock were renowned as teak-tough hardmen in their days but their voices cracked and faltered as they rolled out the anecdotes.

Ballie's coffin was draped unashamedly in an England flag, while on top was placed his favourite tweed 'ratting cap', always worn when he managed his teams and no worse for the abuse it took when constantly thrown to the ground in frustration.

606: COMMENT

Fans remember Alan Ball

In his address, the Reverend Canon Michael St John-Channell said he was grateful that he was old enough to witness Ball's part in giving the nation "One of the finest days" it has had.

He added: "I remember my mum falling off the settee screaming with delight - and she couldn't stand football."

As you would expect, the hymns were stirring - Jerusalem and, fittingly, football's FA Cup final anthem Abide With Me.

Son Jimmy spoke of his pride at having Ball for a dad, and recited Rudyard Kipling's poem If, rounding off the final line "Which is more, you'll be a man, my son" with "He was the best man I ever knew".

But it was also a day for the people. The queue for the precious public seats for the service snaked theme park-like round the cathedral precincts and those unable to get in listened with rapt attention outside.

There was a sharp and necessary reminder from the Reverend Canon that Ball was a footballer from another time and dimension, someone who played for the love of the game first and a wage-packet as an adjunct.

"Those who have huge wealth," said Reverend Canon Michael: "Would do well to learn from Alan's example of how to treat people and what is important in life."

Whatever else he was, Ballie was always accessible - and not just from the point of a media man, to whom Ballie was a dream - available at the end of a telephone with a pithy quote.

He was accessible to the people who paid his wages as a player or manager and you would find Ballie in his local, always willing to stand his ground in an argument with a fan and willing to stand him a pint afterwards.

It was why people loved him - and why they turned out in force to show it.

Unquote.

Gone but not forgotten

Amen

marshbags