Well versed to leading out his country against foreign opposition, Wright soon got used to captaining Wolves against the best club sides from across the world thanks to the floodlit friendlies of the 1950s.
Billy Wright In World Cup
Well versed to leading out his country against foreign opposition, Wright soon got used to captaining Wolves against the best club sides from across the world thanks to the floodlit friendlies of the 1950s.
Billy Wright In World Cup
In terms of my celebrations, I think the recent FA Cup win against Manchester United in March will go down as being pretty epic. I went out in town to Popworld (nightclub) in Wolverhampton with my sister-in-law, nephew and his mates afterwards. It was certainly a night to remember, not necessarily for the right reasons.
Brazil won its first World Cup title in 1958 in thrilling fashion, defeating host Sweden 5-2. As a result, it became the first team to win the tournament outside its continent. The win helped ease the pain of the defeat eight years earlier when Brazil, at home, lost the final match of the tournament to Uruguay. The 1958 tournament was notable for the emergence on the world stage of 17-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Pele, as he was known, scored twice in the final, taking his tournament tally to six. Still, he didn't end up the tournament's top-scorer as France's Just Fontaine scored an astonishing 13, a record no one has come close to matching since.
By the time he hung up his boots in August 1959 he had played for his beloved Wolves 490 times but it would be the 105 appearances for his country which would make him a household name around the world at a time when such an achievement was almost unthinkable.Following his retirement he was appointed England youth team manager in 1960 and then the manager of the under-23 side before taking charge of Arsenal in May 1962 - a position he retained until June 1966.
His tally of England appearances may have been overtaken by the likes of Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Bobby Moore, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Peter Shilton, but becoming the first player in the world to play 100 games for their country is something that can never be taken away from Billy Wright.
Capitalising on the recent addition of floodlights to their ground, Wolverhampton Wanderers and their manager Stan Cullis arranged a series of high-profile night matches against opponents from around the world including Celtic, Spartak Moscow and Maccabi Tel-Aviv. The most famous of these prestigious ties took place on 13 December 1954, when Wolves faced the daunting task of taking on Hungarian champions HonvÃd.
HonvÃd were widely regarded as being the greatest club side in the world at the time, and their squad featured six members of the Hungarian national team that had famously dismantled England on two separate occasions over the past 13 months. The likes of Ferenc PuskÃs, SÃndor Kocsis and JoÅef BoÅik headed to the West Midlands hoping to show off their skills to the smug English public.
Wright is sometimes viewed nostalgically as an exemplar of the traditional working-class footballer of the 1940s and 1950s. But in many respects his career anticipated the more modern, commercialised football world of the 1960s and 1970s.
Qatar are using and abusing the World Cup, and it was ever thus. This is the downside of football as the one truly global sport. Yes Rugby (both versions) and cricket (all versions) have their World Cups but they're not truly global, are they? They are sports fundamentally framed by the British Empire with a few other international hangers-on who can score upsets but never get remotely close to the latter stages of the tournament. The winners of football's World Cup are likewise a select few from Europe and South America, but in contrast to the cricket and rugby World Cups semi-finalists and quarter-finalists come from every continent and from every corner of the world.
Yet another player that would probably have missed out due to age, rather than ability. At the time of his death, Taylor was one of the finest centre forwards in the world. His goal scoring record was phenomenal both for club and country. Sixteen goals for England in nineteen appearances is an incredible record and aged just 26 his best years were still to come. Sir Matt Busby turned down a world record transfer from Inter Milan bid for his services in 1957, and that outlines how revered he was in world football. The great Nat Lofthouse played for England at 33, but Taylor would have been competing with the prolific Jimmy Greaves, Sir Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt and father time would have probably had the final say.
Although the complexity of the squad and United's involvement could have been greater or maybe different in 1966, history would have no doubt been changed, because whether or not England could have benefited in 1966 or not, they most certainly would have in both 1958 and 1962. The last international England played before the disaster included Byrne, Edwards and Taylor in a 4-0 victory over France. Taylor netted twice. Their loss was felt in Sweden, as England failed to win a solitary game. They drew all three games with the Soviet Union, Brazil and Austria and were eliminated to the Soviet's in a play off. The loss of two potentially future captains and one of the best strikers in the world was sorely missed. Ironically, Sir Bobby played his first two internationals in the wake of Munich, scoring three goals as England beat Scotland 4-0 and Portugal 2-1 (Charlton got both), but he didn't play a minute in Sweden.
Manchester United can be proud of the connections that helped England to conquer the world in 1966, but it is not so fanciful to suggest that England may have reached the football summit either four or even eight years earlier had tragedy not struck, with United's influence at the heart.
Year: 1950
Manager: Walter Winterbottom
Captain: Billy Wright
Top Scorer: Stan Mortensen, Wilf Mannion
Expectation: England came into the competition with a post war record of played 30 won 23 lost 4 and were the self-styled 'Kings of Football'. This was their first World Cup and they were expected win.
How we really did: The tournament started well with a 2-0 victory over Chile. However in the next game against USA, England suffered a shock 1-0 defeat. It is a game that has been declared the biggest ever upset in international football. The last game of the group was a 1-0 defeat to Spain which meant England failed to advance.
Who got the blame: There was huge shock all over the world, especially over the USA game, except in England where the football received little coverage and people simply assumed the score was a newspaper printing error and the result was probably 10-0 to England. Consequently there was little backlash in England, although the FA still claim that three USA players should have been ineligible due to their citizenship.
What happened next: Very little, Walter Winterbottom stayed in charge and there was little fall-out.
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