Geoff Hurst

Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst (born 8 December 1941) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is best known for being the first player ever to score three goals in a World Cup final, helping England beat West Germany 4–2 at Wembley in 1966.

Hurst started his club career at West Ham United, netting 242 goals in 500 first-team appearances. With West Ham, he won the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965. In 1972, he was transferred to Stoke City for a fee equivalent to £900,000 in today’s money. Over three seasons at Stoke, he won the Watney Cup in 1973, then finished his Football League career with West Bromwich Albion in 1976. He later played in Ireland for Cork Celtic and in the United States for the Seattle Sounders, before returning to England to manage non-league side Telford United. Hurst also coached within the England setup and managed Chelsea from 1979 to 1981. After that, he coached Kuwait SC before leaving football to focus on business.

In total, Hurst scored 24 goals in 49 appearances for England. Besides the 1966 World Cup, he also played at UEFA Euro 1968 and the 1970 FIFA World Cup. He briefly played cricket, making a single first-class appearance for Essex in 1962 before committing fully to football.

Hurst was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, on 8 December 1941, the eldest of three children. His family moved to Chelmsford, Essex, when he was six. His father, Charlie Hurst, was a professional footballer who played as a centre-half for Bristol Rovers, Oldham Athletic, and Rochdale. His mother, Evelyn Hopkins, came from a Gloucestershire family with German roots on her mother’s side. As a teenager, Hurst was so obsessed with football that he was fined £1 for disturbing the peace by repeatedly kicking a ball into a neighbour’s garden.

His one first-class cricket match for Essex, against Lancashire at Aigburth in 1962, was unsuccessful: he scored 0 not out in the first innings and was bowled for 0 by Colin Hilton in the second. He did, however, play 23 times for the Essex Second XI between 1962 and 1964, usually as a wicket-keeper, before giving up cricket for football. At about age 14, he played once for Halstead Town reserves, a club his father managed.

Hurst’s football career began as an apprentice at West Ham United at age 15. He played alongside Bobby Moore in the 1959 FA Youth Cup final, which West Ham lost 1–2 on aggregate to Blackburn Rovers, but they also won the Southern Junior Floodlit Cup that year, beating Chelsea 1–0. Manager Ted Fenton gave Hurst his first senior outing in a Southern Floodlit Cup tie against Fulham in December 1958. He turned professional four months later, earning £7 a week with a £20 signing-on fee.

His competitive debut came in February 1960, when injuries forced Fenton’s hand; Hurst played poorly, and the team lost 3–1. He made only two more appearances that season and noticed Bobby Moore progressing faster in the same position. In 1960–61, he played six times and nearly switched to cricket full-time. When Ron Greenwood became manager in April 1961, he overhauled training to emphasise skill over fitness.

Hurst missed the start of the 1961–62 pre-season due to cricket, but still made 24 appearances at left-half, scoring his first goal for the club in a 4–2 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in December 1961. He again missed pre-season the following summer and was dropped after being unfit for the opening game of 1962–63. That September, Greenwood tried Hurst as a striker, judging his defensive work too weak for midfield. He formed a strong partnership with Johnny Byrne, scoring 13 goals in 27 First Division games that season (Byrne scored nine in 30). In summer 1963, he joined the club’s pre-season tour of New York, benefiting from playing top international players in the International Soccer League.

West Ham and Hurst started the 1963–64 season poorly, finishing 14th in the league, but excelled in the FA Cup. After a 3–0 home win over Second Division Charlton Athletic, they beat East End rivals Leyton Orient 3–0 at home following a tough 1–1 draw at Brisbane Road. Greenwood used the same 11 players, including Hurst, in all seven FA Cup ties. Hurst scored against Charlton, two against Orient, and another in a 3–1 fifth-round win at Swindon Town. In the quarter-finals, West Ham beat Burnley 3–2 at home, then faced Manchester United at Hillsborough in the semi-finals, winning 3–1 with Hurst scoring the final goal after a Bobby Moore assist. In the 1964 FA Cup Final at Wembley, West Ham came from behind twice to beat Second Division Preston North End 3–2; Hurst scored the equaliser with a header that bounced under the crossbar and just over the line.

That FA Cup win earned West Ham a place in the 1964–65 European Cup Winners’ Cup. They edged past Belgian side K.A.A. Gent 2–1 on aggregate in the first round, then beat Czechoslovak side AC Sparta Prague 3–2 on aggregate in the second round, despite Bobby Moore missing the tie.