Bobby Moore is, of course, known worldwide as the legendary late captain of West Ham United and England who led his Club and country to glory in the mid-1960s. Lesser known, however, is that, for one night only, he played for Thursday's visitors Olympiacos!
On 21 April 1967, just weeks before Greek elections were scheduled to be held, a military coup d'état took place in Athens which quickly escalated to the rest of Greece, establishing a dictatorship in the country. The events from that period had devastating consequences for the Athens-based Olympiacos club. In December 1967, club legend and president Giorgos Andrianopoulos was forced out by the regime, with military rule now in place that would last for the next seven years.
Greek businessman Nikos Goulandri was widely considered as one of the greatest presidents in Olympiacos' history. He began his involvement with the Piraeus-based club in 1970, becoming their general manager a year later and ultimately rising to club president in 1972. As president, he reinstated all the prominent members of Olympiacos board who had been forced out by the military regime and reformed the election process for future new boards of directors.
As part of this new chapter, Goulandris and his fellow directors arranged an international friendly match at the Karaiskakis Stadium on 12 June 1972 between Olympiacos and the Brazilian side Corinthians.
The invitation was also extended to West Ham and England captain Moore. The deal was mediated by the Olympiacos coach, Englishman Alan Ashman, the former West Bromwich Albion manager who knew Moore personally. The timing of the invitation was perfect, as the England captain had recently competed in the British Home Championship against Wales and Scotland, winning his 95th and 96th international caps respectively and was now free of club and country commitments.
The offer to wear the captain’s armband against the Corinthians might never have happened if England had beaten West Germany in the UEFA European Championship quarter-final two-legged play-off matches a month earlier. It would have been a different story for England’s captain, who would have been kept busy in June with semi-final and final or third/fourth play-off matches. Unfortunately, a 3-1 Wembley defeat to the West Germans and a 0-0 draw in the second-leg dashed England’s hopes of glory at Euro 1972.
Despite Olympiacos playing in an all-red kit on the night, Moore was paraded to the assembled 33,000 crowd wearing his iconic No6 on the famous red and white shirt. Observing the stands of the Karaiskakis Stadium he murmured “My God, what an awesome world this is.”
In a keenly fought match between the two sides, the Greeks were eventually beaten 2-0 but the match paled into the background when Moore took to their colours.
Media reporting was frenzied with journalists desperate for an interview. The weekly ‘ΓΚΟΛ’ (‘GOAL’) sports magazine told its readers that the English defender did not find it difficult to adapt to the demands of the game just weeks after completing a challenging 54-match season for the Hammers.
Moore expressed himself with positive comments on the field conditions and pointed out the language difficulties but also praised the enthusiastic displays of the fans of the Piraeus club towards him.
He personally singled out praise for Olympiacos’s Argentinean forward Antonio Justo Alcibar and also acknowledged that although he didn’t want to lose to the famous Brazilian team Corinthians, but if he “comes again, we will win.”
Asked if he would return the following season, Moore replied “If Olympiacos wants me, I will come for more games.”
The magazine went on to say that after his West Ham playing days were over he would now also support the Greek side. But for the moment all he wanted was to spend some carefree moments in Mykonos with his wife Tina.
