Player Profile: Bobby Moore

Bobby Moore

12th April 1941.

Country: England

Club played for majorly: West Ham United

He stands 20ft. tall at the Wembley weighing about two tons, portraying the many successes he has won for his country. “He was my friend as well as the greatest defender I ever played against,” said Pele himself for this English Captain who was the first and till date remains the only one to have won the World Cup for England.

Robert Fredrick Chelsea Moore a.k.a. Bobby Moore is considered to be one of the greatest footballers in the history of England as well as West Ham United. He held a record of 108 caps for England until March 28th 2009, when David Beckham played against Slovakia at the Wembley. But unlike Beckham, Bobby Moore has played every single minute of every single cap he’s earned. He was a poised central defender and was well known for his ability to foresee the opposition’s movements. To mock his ability former Celtic centre half Jock Stein once said, “There should be a law against him. He knows what's happening 20 minutes before everyone else.”

Moore joined West Ham United in 1956 as a youth player and advanced through this setup to join the senior team on September 8th, 1958 playing his first match against Manchester United. But he’s more a legend for the English team than for The Hammers. It is said that in early 1966 Bobby Moore wanted to leave West Ham the reason being some heat he shared with his club manager Ron Greenwood. Also, the fact that his demand of £10 more per week as his wage with his contract expiring at the end of that month wasn’t being fulfilled made him decide that he would leave the club as soon as his contract expired. But Sir Alf Ramsey who was then the manager of England, intervened timely and helped Moore realize that he would become technically ineligible to contribute for the England squad if he left the club. Ramsey called Greenwood to the hotel where the English team was staying and told him and Moore that they had one minute to sort out their problems. Moore then signed a one month contract to elongate his stay at Upton Park which allowed him to captain the English National Team for the World Cup they later went on to win.

After the World Cup win, he won several individual honours including the “BBC Sports Personality of the year” and the OBE (Order of the British Empire) at the end of 1966.

He ultimately left West Ham in 1974 after playing for 16 years and making 544 appearances while scoring 24 goals in the process. After leaving West Ham he joined Fulham where he played for three years. Ultimately, he retired from club football playing for the Danish club Herning Fremad which is now known as “FC Midtjylland”.

Other than football, he also played county cricket for Essex with his West Ham teammate Geoff Hurst. More than being just a good footballer, Moore was also a good person and a good teammate. When the English team got a £22,000 bonus for winning the World Cup, Moore insisted that the money should be split between every player in the 22-man squad regardless of whether he played or not.

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-PRANAV MUKUL

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Player Profile: NP Pradeep

NP Pradeep

April 28th 1983.

Country: India

Club: Viva Kerala

Naduparambil Pappachen Pradeep. His contribution to the game is as weighty as his name. NP Pradeep better known as Pradeep, is an attacking midfielder who plays for the i-League outfit Viva Kerala. Originally from Kerala, Pradeep started his senior career with the team of State Bank of Travancore (SBT) in 2002 at the age of 17. Before that, Pradeep started off as a striker playing for the state of Kerala at the U-17 and later the U-19 levels. He then turned himself into a midfielder soon after joining SBT. He represented SBT till 2006 during which he played 56 games and scored 8 goals. During his stay at SBT, he managed to win four Kerala league titles for his club.

After leaving SBT in 2006, Pradeep joined Mahindra United. Incidentally, his record of 56 appearances and 8 goals was repeated at his new club till 2010 when the club was disbanded. He experimented with various positions while at Mahindra and sometimes even played as a full-back. At Mahindra United he was benched for a lot of the season 2008-09 and at the end when the coach Derrick Pereira left the club, Pradeep was visibly happy to see him go. Pradeep, on his birthday in 2009 said, “Last season, I was benched for most parts of the season and that didn’t please me one bit. For me, Derrick leaving Mahindra is good.” Despite all this he managed to win two IFA shields with Mahindra in 2006 and 2008. He also contributed to his club reaching the quarter finals of the AFC Cup.

It was his contribution to Mahindra in the AFC Cup that caught Bob Houghton’s attention. This led to him being called up for the National Squad. Initially he started playing as a left-back for India but progressively he came back to his position of a goal-scoring mid fielder. For the national team, Pradeep actually came into the lime-light post the Nehru Cup 2007. He scored the most important goals of the tournament. He scored the opening goal of the Nehru Cup for India and he also scored in the final against Syria making it the only goal of the game and helping India lift the Nehru Cup for the first time. After the cup, Pradeep became a regular in the starting XI for the English coach and has been proving his worth since then.

Later as Mahindra played him at various positions, Pradeep started losing form. Eventually when the club broke up, he remained a free agent for some time until joining Viva Kerala in January 2011 late in the transfer window. Even in Qatar during the AFC Asian Cup, Pradeep’s role in the team was crucial since India hasn’t produced many attacking midfielders of his kind. To his credit, he has also been tipped by various critics to surpass the former Indian captain I.M. Vijayan considering his talent and skills on the pitch.

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United We Stand: The Story Of An Infant Football Club

FC United of Manchester, The Red Rebels, FCUM are various names of the same club. But don’t confuse this Northern Premier League Premier Division club for the English top-flight giants Manchester United. This club was formed in 2005 after hundreds and thousands of fans detached themselves from United following the takeover by American businessman Malcolm Glazer. The takeover which was controversial in many ways, including huge loans from hedge funds, is still being opposed by Man. United fans in the way of the “Anti-Glazer” Green and Gold campaign. This campaign was launched only recently by the independent Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST). The trust started with an intent of taking over the club from the Glazer family and launched the campaign which has 167369 supporters as on 22-03-2011 08:37 IST. For more information on the MUST, visit http://action.joinmust.org

The Glazers managed to retain David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson at the club considering the great successes achieved by the duo in all the past years. But this effort didn’t hinder the small group of disgruntled supporters from forming a small club known as ‘FC United of Manchester’. This club is based in Bury, Greater Manchester. FC United started their journey in the English club football on 14th June 2005 at the Gigg Lane ground which they share with Bury F.C. They entered the tenth level of the English club football system which is known as the second division of the North West Counties Football league. Since their formation, the first three years they saw ultimate success with winning promotion thrice in a row and lifting themselves to Northern Premier League Premier Division where they currently play. Currently, FC United is managed by the ex-Macclesfield Town player Karl Marginson.

The club recently came to light when for the first time they reached the first round proper of the FA Cup. They were anticipated to face their parent club Manchester United in some later stages had the former not been beaten in a replay against Brighton & Hove Albion. This young club has a lot of promise and aims to build its own ground before 2012 which will be known as the ‘Ten Acres Lane’. The club has a fund-raising campaign for their new home known as ‘Make it so?’ where it collects pledges and donations from supporters.

The Golden period of this club was from April 29th to September 30th 2006 when they were unbeaten for 22 games in a row making it the longest unbeaten streak for the FC United. The highest recorded attendance was on December 8th 2010 at the Gigg Lane ground where they hosted their FA Cup opponents Brighton & Hove Albion and 6,731 supporters registered their attendance. The endeavour put in by the all time top scorer of FCUM, Rory Patterson was enough for the club to attract the interest of various professional clubs all across Great Britain.

If you’re a Man. United supporter but are anti-Glazer, this is the club you should be aware about. To know more about FC United of Manchester or to support it, visit: http://www.fc-utd.co.uk

-PRANAV MUKUL


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