GENTLEMAN GEORGE THE FLYING FULLBACK - GEORGE COHEN

 

George Reginald Cohen MBE (22 October 1939 – 23 December 2022)

 

George Cohen was a one-club player

Playing 459 games at right back for Fulham

He will also be forever immortalized

For winning the World Cup with England in 1966

In which he played in every minute

Of his country's six games,

For which he was inducted into

The English Football Hall of Fame 

England Manager, Sir Alf Ramsey

Unequivocally called Cohen

“England's greatest right-back”,

While Manchester United winger

George Best, claimed he was

“The best full-back I ever played against”.

His life was not all glory however

He had more than his fair share of illness and injury

And personal tragedy in his life  

But he was a true English sporting hero

THE LAST OF THE BUSBY BABES – JEFF WHITEFOOT

 

(31 December 1933 - 2 July 2024) 

 

On hearing about his passing

A statement from United read:

“There were few more perceptive

And precise passers of a football

In England than Jeff Whitefoot

During the mid-1950s”

 

In April 1950,

Aged 16 years and 105 days,

Jeff Whitefoot debuted as one

Of the original Busby Babes,

A team that, in the 1950s,

Took the First Division by storm

Known for its youth

And exciting football

Under legendary manager

Sir Matt Busby.

Jeff Whitefoot won two

First Division titles

As one of the Babes

In 1952 and 1956

He transferred to Grimsby

At the end of 1957.

Three months before the

Munich air disaster,

Which claimed the lives

Of eight of his former teammates.