West Ham United legend Bobby Moore has been voted the Greatest Sports Personality of All Time in a poll conducted by Radio Times to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award.
The Radio Times, a weekly magazine which has provided radio and television listings since 1923 – the same year West Ham reached the first Wembley FA Cup final – asked its readers to vote for their favourite winner of the BBC’s annual sporting celebration.
Academy of Football graduate Moore, who led the Hammers to the FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup before captaining England to FIFA World Cup glory in 1966, held off the challenge of double Olympic and Wimbledon champion tennis player Sir Andy Murray and five-times Formula 1 motor racing world champion Lewis Hamilton, who finished second and third respectively.
David Beckham (eighth), Paul Gascoigne (tenth) and Ryan Giggs (18th) were the other footballers voted into the top 20 by more than 11,000 Radio Times readers.
Dad would be so honoured, so thrilled and so humbled by this
Roberta Moore
Moore’s daughter Roberta, who would cheer her father on at the Boleyn Ground and later founded the Moore Family Foundation to provide life-changing opportunities for youngsters across east London, was happy to see her father honoured.
“It makes me incredibly proud to think that after all this time he is held in such high esteem,” said Roberta. “It really is very touching and is of huge comfort to all our family.
“He was extremely proud and the trophy was in pride of place to reflect that. It was a big accolade for him. So he would be so honoured, so thrilled and so humbled by this.
“Dad was a gentleman and a gentle man. He was quite shy, but he conducted himself always, I believe, with great dignity, and I think people remember that about him.
“In Dad’s era, it was still the people’s game. Fans felt connected to it and warmed by it. It was a golden era and he embodied all that was good about it.”
Bobby Moore was born in Barking in April 1941 and joined the Hammers as a teenager, making his first-team debut as a 17-year-old against Manchester United in September 1958.
After appearing for England at the 1962 FIFA World Cup finals, aged 21, the half-back was appointed captain of club and country and led both West Ham and the Three Lions through the most-successful periods in their respective histories.
Blessed with immaculate timing and reading of the game, superb technical ability and a calm and focused leadership style, Moore lifted the FA Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup and Jules Rimet Trophy in a dazzling two-year span between 1964-66.
He remained with West Ham until 1974, before joining Fulham appearing against the Irons in the 1975 FA Cup final at Wembley.
For England, he was capped a then-record 108 times, appearing at four major tournaments.
A four-time Hammer of the Year, Moore tragically died in 1993 after being diagnosed with bowel cancer, aged just 51.
His iconic No6 shirt was posthumously retired in 2008 and he was honoured with the club’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.