James Peter Greaves was an English professional footballer who played as a forward.
65 Facts About Jimmy Greaves
2.
Jimmy Greaves is the highest goalscorer in the history of English top-flight football with 357 goals.
3.
Jimmy Greaves finished as the First Division's top scorer in six seasons, more times than any other player and came third in the 1963 Ballon d'Or rankings.
4.
Jimmy Greaves is a member of the English Football Hall of Fame.
5.
Jimmy Greaves began his professional career at Chelsea in 1957, and played in the following year's FA Youth Cup final.
6.
Jimmy Greaves moved to West Ham United in a player-exchange in March 1970 and retired the following year.
7.
Jimmy Greaves scored 13 goals in 12 England under-23 internationals and scored 44 goals in 57 full England internationals between 1959 and 1967.
8.
Jimmy Greaves played in the 1962 and 1966 FIFA World Cup, but was injured in the group stage of the 1966 World Cup and lost his first team place to Geoff Hurst, who kept Greaves out of the first team in the final.
9.
England won the World Cup, but Jimmy Greaves was not given his medal until a change of FIFA rules in 2009.
10.
Jimmy Greaves was part of the squad that finished third in UEFA Euro 1968, although he did not play any minute in the finals.
11.
Jimmy Greaves worked on a number of other sport programmes on ITV during this period, including Sporting Triangles.
12.
Jimmy Greaves was born in Manor Park and raised in Hainault, Essex.
13.
Jimmy Greaves was scouted playing football while a schoolboy by Chelsea's Jimmy Thompson, and in 1955 was signed on as an apprentice to become one of "Drake's Ducklings".
14.
Jimmy Greaves turned professional in the summer of 1957, though spent eight weeks working at a steel company to supplement his income during the summer break.
15.
Jimmy Greaves was an instant success, as the News Chronicle reported that he "showed the ball control, confidence and positional strength of a seasoned campaigner" and compared his debut to the instant impact the young Duncan Edwards had as a teenager.
16.
Nevertheless, Jimmy Greaves ended the season as the First Division's top scorer with 32 goals in 44 league games.
17.
Jimmy Greaves became unhappy at the thought of leaving London and tried to cancel the move before it was fully confirmed, but "Rossoneri" manager Giuseppe Viani refused to annul the deal.
18.
Jimmy Greaves scored nine goals in 14 appearances, including one against Inter Milan in the Milan derby.
19.
Jimmy Greaves joined Spurs just after they became the first club in England to complete the First Division and FA Cup double during the 20th century.
20.
Jimmy Greaves went on to feature against Benfica in the semi-finals of the European Cup; in the first leg at the Estadio da Luz he had a goal disallowed for offside, and another disallowed in the return fixture for offside.
21.
Jimmy Greaves played in all seven games of the club's FA Cup run, scoring nine goals in the competition as they beat Birmingham City, Plymouth Argyle, West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa and Manchester United to reach the 1962 FA Cup Final against Burnley at Wembley.
22.
Jimmy Greaves scored 37 goals in 41 league games, finishing as the division's top scorer.
23.
Dave Mackay remained until 1968 and Jimmy Greaves remained a consistent goalscorer.
24.
Jimmy Greaves scored 35 goals in 41 league games to again finish as the division's top scorer.
25.
Strike partner Bobby Smith left the club in the summer, though Jimmy Greaves felt the partnership he went on to form with new signing Alan Gilzean was even more effective.
26.
Jimmy Greaves had a poor season by his own standards, though with 29 goals in 48 appearances he was still the club's top scorer.
27.
Jimmy Greaves scored four of his goals in one match against Sunderland, and scored hat-tricks against Burnley and Leicester City.
28.
Jimmy Greaves was never recalled to the starting line-up, but still ended the season as the club's joint top scorer, having scored 11 goals in 33 matches.
29.
Jimmy Greaves finished his Spurs career with 268 goals in 381 appearances in total, including 15 hat-tricks, a club record.
30.
In March 1970, Jimmy Greaves joined West Ham United as part-exchange in Martin Peters' transfer to White Hart Lane.
31.
In hindsight Jimmy Greaves felt that Clough might have helped him revive his career, as he had done for Jimmy Greaves's former Tottenham teammate Dave Mackay.
32.
Jimmy Greaves later admitted his regret in making the move to Upton Park.
33.
In January 1971, with Bobby Moore, Brian Dear and Clyde Best, Jimmy Greaves was involved in late-night drinking, against the wishes of manager Ron Greenwood, before a FA Cup tie away to Blackpool.
34.
Jimmy Greaves claimed the defeat was not a result of the late night, the drinking or the frozen pitch, but because the West Ham team in which he was playing was not good enough.
35.
Jimmy Greaves felt he had become a journeyman footballer and lost motivation as he believed that apart from Moore, Geoff Hurst, Billy Bonds and Pop Robson, few of his teammates could play good football.
36.
Towards the end of his career with West Ham Jimmy Greaves began to drink more and more alcohol, often going straight from training in Chadwell Heath to a pub in Romford, where he would remain until closing time.
37.
Jimmy Greaves later admitted that he was in the early stages of alcoholism.
38.
Jimmy Greaves scored 13 goals in 40 games in all competitions for West Ham.
39.
Jimmy Greaves later admitted that he was regularly driving whilst drunk during this period.
40.
Jimmy Greaves was still struggling with alcoholism and delirium tremens and sought out help from Alcoholics Anonymous.
41.
Jimmy Greaves was hospitalised in the alcoholics' ward of Warley Psychiatric Hospital.
42.
Jimmy Greaves went on to make several appearances for semi-professional side Woodford Town before retiring.
43.
The tour of the American continents was not considered a success by the British media, as England lost to Brazil and Mexico, but Jimmy Greaves mostly escaped criticism in the press as he was still a teenager and showed promise with his performances.
44.
Jimmy Greaves scored consecutive hat-tricks on 8 October 1960 and 19 October, in victories at Northern Ireland and Luxembourg.
45.
At the World Cup he played all three group games against Uruguay, Mexico and France in the win against France, midfielder Joseph Bonnel raked his studs down Jimmy Greaves's shin, causing a wound that required 14 stitches and left a permanent scar.
46.
Jimmy Greaves was fit to play in the final, but manager Alf Ramsey opted against changing a winning team.
47.
Jimmy Greaves played only three more times for England after the 1966 World Cup, scoring a single goal.
48.
Jimmy Greaves retired from international football early the following year after telling Ramsey that he had no intention of becoming a bit-part player in the England squad.
49.
Jimmy Greaves is currently in fifth place on the all-time list of England goalscorers, behind Wayne Rooney, Charlton, Harry Kane and Gary Lineker.
50.
Jimmy Greaves was a prolific goalscorer, and cited his relaxed attitude as the reason for his assured composure and confidence.
51.
Jimmy Greaves had great acceleration and pace, as well as great positional skills, clinical finishing, and opportunism inside the penalty area; he was an excellent dribbler.
52.
Jimmy Greaves became a columnist at The Sun newspaper in 1979.
53.
Jimmy Greaves continued to write his column until 2009, then began working as a columnist for The Sunday People.
54.
Jimmy Greaves worked as a pundit on Star Soccer from 1980, and later co-presented The Saturday Show before he was selected as a pundit for ITV's coverage of the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
55.
Greg Dyke hired Jimmy Greaves to work as a television reviewer and presenter on TV-am in what Dyke admitted was a way of "dumbing down" the programme to attract more viewers.
56.
Jimmy Greaves went on to work as a team captain on Sporting Triangles, opposite Andy Gray and Emlyn Hughes.
57.
Jimmy Greaves wrote numerous books in partnership with his lifelong friend, the journalist and author Norman Giller.
58.
Jimmy Greaves married Irene Barden at Romford register office on 26 March 1958, and, though the pair went through a divorce process at the height of his alcoholism, it was never finalised and they reunited after three months apart.
59.
Jimmy Greaves had a number of different business interests, including a travel agency.
60.
Jimmy Greaves entered the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally.
61.
Jimmy Greaves underwent surgery on an artery in his neck following a mild stroke in February 2012.
62.
Jimmy Greaves was placed in intensive care and, according to doctors, was expected to undergo a slow recovery.
63.
Jimmy Greaves was discharged from hospital a month later, his health having "improved considerably" said his friend and agent, Terry Baker.
64.
Jimmy Greaves was announced as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 New Year Honours list, along with fellow 1966 World Cup squad winner, Ron Flowers, for their services to football.
65.
Jimmy Greaves died at his home in Little Baddow on 19 September 2021, aged 81.