In a time where the England national team are built on shaky foundations, how Roy Hodgson would have liked to have been able to call upon a man the likes of Pele and Franz Beckenbauer have spoken about as the best defender football has ever had?
50 years on from English football’s greatest ever moment – spearheaded by Moore himself – ‘Bo66y’ reminds us of a man who not only graced the football pitch with such elegance, but was forever a calming influence on those around him.
Matt Lorenzo’s tasteful yet insightful illustration of Moore provided a unique as-yet unseen side to England’s greatest ever son – only supporting claims that he wasn’t treated with the respect and gratitude he undoubtedly had earned and deserved throughout his playing career.
‘I thought if only they really knew the truth, how much more he would have been revered,’ Moore’s first wife, Tina said. ‘So you know, he was a proper hero.’
He was.
In the modern era where professional footballer’s lives are documented to such a level that at a simple search of a name on Twitter we could find out what they were up to on any Saturday night, you struggle to comprehend how the captain of England’s national team managed to keep his first battle with cancer under-wraps for as long as he did.
Diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1964, Moore successfully had surgery to remove the disease from his body, but the idea of having a testicle removed was something he couldn’t deal with. He believed it made him less of a man. Ashamed of what had happened to him, Moore kept this to himself, whereas you can’t help but believe that the world would’ve taken to him even more if they had found out their greatest ever hero had beaten one of the world’s most threatening ailments.
He went on to lift the FA Cup with West Ham and then the World Cup with England in the two years following his surgery. The man couldn’t be beaten on or off the pitch – he had a hardiness to him which has yet to be replicated.
As a schoolboy coming through the ranks at West Ham, Moore wasn’t one of the top players. He wasn’t big, he wasn’t fast, he wasn’t good in their air, all traits we had previously considered to be essential for a centre-half. West Ham took a chance on him and never looked back.
Not willing to let his athletic drawbacks stop him, Moore tirelessly worked on the tactical and positioning side of his game. He became a perfectionist, ultimately becoming the role model to all up-and-coming young footballers out there, that technique ultimately trumps athleticism – all the more reason why the FA should’ve made a move to bring Moore into the football set-up and pass on his unparalleled knowledge, a posthumous statue outside Wembley doesn’t right the wrongs.
Despite giving him his first break in football, West Ham also wrongly turned a blind eye to Moore in his post-football life. A man who should’ve been involved in a Director of Football-type of role was left working for local radio to make ends meet.
The vivid array of video archives and still photography from Lorenzo and director Ron Scalpello made sure Bobby’s legacy lived on long after his tragic death from bowel cancer in 1993. It was only after his death that people started to hark back on his career and what he meat to English football, but by that time it was far, far too late.
Moore’s life was constantly hit with adversity and struggle, all of which he kept mainly to himself at the risk of being ridiculed and mocked. His insomnia, the arrest in Mexico 1970, his first cancer fight, his financial woes after football. Moore thought these were all things that would bring him down – just like he brought down Jairzinho with one of the greatest tackles ever made – but in reality, only if he had asked for that helping hand he desperately needed he would’ve been revered even more.
Nevertheless, he failed to let his off the field issues affect his performances on it. He was always on top of his game when his country needed him to be. The bigger the game, the better he played, a mentality few England players before and especially since have possessed.
‘Bo66y’ is a stunning and thorough visual-biography of a man many, like myself, had only previously heard about through stories from those who lived his generation. You see a side previously undocumented. Moore was and will always be what all Englishmen should aim to be – humble, kind and thoughtful, yet possessing that inner steel and determination which’ll keep them when times get tough. It truly is a must-watch.
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