Читать книгу Bobby Moore: By the Person Who Knew Him Best - Tina Moore, Tina Moore - Страница 5

In the words of his adoring West Ham fans, Bobby Moore was a ‘top geezer’.

The fact that he left us at fifty-one years of age is downright unfair. His memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey - how fitting for the best England captain we have ever had and for us all to say goodbye to our national hero. It was a wonderful service. Franz Beckenbauer read a lesson and then it was my turn. I have never been so nervous in my life. I opened up with, ‘I usually say it’s nice to be here, but on this particular day it certainly isn’t.’

What I thought happened was that God had arranged a football match in heaven and had said to St Peter, ‘Get me the best captain.’ That, without doubt, was Bobby Moore.

He was a total gentleman and a very fair man, both on and off the pitch. He was a terrific companion who could have won the World Lager Drinking Championship three years running. He was totally let down by those small, envious men who controlled football on a national basis in those days. He was never once offered a job, a position as a football ambassador or just representing the England team. It was, and still is, a bloody disgrace. He deserved so much more from life. What a great Minister of Sport he would have made.

I once asked Pele about him. He said that Bobby wasn’t a friend, he was a brother. After all these years I still can’t believe that he’s gone and the phone is not going to ring and that voice at the other end will say, ‘Hello, Jimbo, all well?’ His sense of humour and his companionship and him just being Bobby Moore - oh, I do miss him.