Mooro Gets Tony's Vote

Tony Gale has no doubt that Bobby Moore should be nominated as the greatest England player of the last 50 years in a poll that the FA are conducting on behalf of the country - the result of which will be announced next week.

UEFA enjoy their 50th Jubilee next year and, as part of the celebrations, they are asking all 52 member associations to nominate one of its own footballers as its single most outstanding player of the past 50 years.

The official nomination, for which you can vote at [email protected], goes to UEFA on Monday.

The player chosen must have played for the national team between 1954 and the present.

The 52 players chosen will be 'presented' at UEFA's headquarters in Switzerland.

The England legend that gets the most overall votes will be officially recognised as England's greatest of the last 50 years.

TheFA.com will announce the results of the poll at 12pm on Monday.

"Bobby Moore is my choice," says Tony without hesitation.

"He is the only Englishman to have won the world cup as captain and in his era was the best defender - and we have had no one like him since in that position."

Bobby won 108 caps between 1962 and 1973 and is now an iconic figure; the image of him holding the Jules Rimet trophy aloft at Wembley is one engrained on every English football fan's memory.

He also played in the 1970 World Cup and finished third at the 1968 European Championships.

Sadly, Bobby died of cancer in 1993.

Incredibly, there is a player who was on West Ham's books - albeit in the latter stage of his career - who has even more England caps - at 125 - in Peter Shilton.

He played between 1970 and 1990 for the national side while with Leicester City, Stoke City, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, and Derby County.

His record of 125 caps is a truly remarkable achievement, especially when one considers the fact that throughout his career he had real competition for his place in the side, especially through much of the 70s and early 80s from Ray Clemence.

He capped off his international career at Italia '90 where England reached the semi-finals.

Weighing in with a 'mere' 78 caps, Stuart Pearce, who played between 1987 and 1999 with the three lions on his shirt, and finished his top flight playing career at Upton Park, was England's premier left back through the whole of the 1990s.

The high and low of Stuart's England career was a penalty in each case - one missed against Germany in 1990 and one scored against Spain in 1996.

So much for caps; as far as goals are concerned, Sir Geoff Hurst with 24 [level with Michael Owen and Stanley Mortensen of Blackpool] - can say he scored an eighth of those when it really mattered - in the world cup final.

Jimmy Greaves' West Ham career was, by his own admission, when he was far from at his best, but he does stand at third highest scorer of all time with 44 England goals.

You can see the greatest ever England team selections of Stuart Pearce, Trevor Brooking, and Sir Geoff Hurst - amongst others - on the FA's web site.