Norbert Peter Stiles (18 May 194230 October 2020) was an English professional footballer. He played for England for five years, winning 28 caps and scoring one goal. He played every minute of England's victorious 1966 FIFA World Cup campaign. Stiles also played in the final, which England won 4–2 against West Germany. His post-match dance on the Wembley pitch, holding the World Cup trophy in one hand and his false teeth in the other, was widely broadcast.
Stiles spent the majority of his club career at Manchester United, spending eleven years at Old Trafford, where he became renowned for his tough tackling and ball-winning qualities. Jonathan Wilson, writing for The Guardian in 2013, labelled Stiles as a type of holding midfielder he described as a "destroyer", a player who is primarily tasked with running, winning back possession and distributing the ball to other players.
With the Red Devils, he won two League titles and one European Cup. Stiles is one of only three Englishmen, alongside Bobby Charlton and Ian Callaghan, to have won both the World Cup and European Cup. He was of Irish descent.
Club career
Manchester United
Stiles supported Manchester United and his talent was swiftly recognised when he played for England Schoolboys at the age of 15.
Stiles was an unlikely-looking footballer in many ways – he was short, at a time when teenagers were being rejected by clubs purely because of their lack of height; he also had several teeth missing and wore dentures, the removal of which prior to matches gave him a gap-toothed expression which had the potential to scare. He was also severely short-sighted and needed strong contact lenses when playing, and wore thick spectacles off the field. Stiles's simple passing game and fearless ball-winning skills saw his swift conversion into a "holding" midfield player of a type now a feature of all top teams but still a rarity at a time when forward lines consisted of five players and the midfield was restricted to covering half-backs. He began to make more frequent appearances in the seasons ahead, however, and won the First Division title in 1965. Stiles played well without keeping Eusébio wholly quiet; with the score at 1–1 and just a few minutes left, the Portuguese legend got away from the United defence with just goalkeeper Alex Stepney to beat, yet only managed to slam the ball straight into Stepney's midriff. United won 4–1 and became the first English club to lift Europe's main trophy.
Later career
After 395 matches and 19 goals, Manchester United sold Stiles in 1971 to Middlesbrough for £20,000. Two years later, he became a player-coach at Preston North End when Bobby Charlton was manager.
International career
1966 FIFA World Cup
With England hosting the World Cup in 1966, manager Alf Ramsey had no competitive qualifying campaign to prepare; therefore, he spent the prior two years meticulously assessing players in friendly matches and British Home Championship games. With Bobby Charlton the only certainty for his World Cup midfield, he needed to create a trio of players to complement the Manchester United attacker and among those was the requirement for a "spoiler". Stiles was tested out for this role in a 2–2 draw against Scotland at Wembley on 10 April 1965. He kept his place for eight of the next nine internationals, scoring the only goal in a Wembley win against West Germany along the way, and by the time Ramsey confirmed his 22, it was thought likely that he would be in England's starting team for the World Cup.
Stiles won his 15th cap as England kicked off the competition with a goalless draw against Uruguay and maintained his place as the uncompromising hardman playing ahead of the back four and making sure there was space and time for the likes of Charlton ahead of him. With Stiles not missing a minute, England progressed through the group with wins over Mexico and France and then scraped past a violent Argentina side in the last eight.
In the semi-final, Stiles performed an effective man-marking job on the Portuguese prolific goalscorer Eusébio, to the extent that the skilled player was essentially nullified for the whole match, which England won 2–1. In the dressing room afterwards, Ramsey praised Stiles's individual performance, a rare accolade.
Stiles, winning his 20th cap, had no man-marking brief against West Germany but played a strong, tough match as England saw a 2–1 lead levelled with the last kick of the game before Geoff Hurst completed a hat-trick to win the competition in extra time. At the final whistle, Stiles did a spontaneous jig with the Jules Rimet Trophy in his hand while holding his false teeth in the other. Thirty years later this moment would be referred to by Frank Skinner and David Baddiel in the lyrics to "Three Lions", the England theme song written with the Lightning Seeds for Euro 96: in the 1996 version, a list of English football memories ends with "...Nobby dancing"; and in the 1998 version, in a reference to the World Cup finals taking place in France, the middle section consists of the line: "We can dance Nobby's dance, we can dance it in France". but it was clear that despite his misdemeanour, Mullery was now Ramsey's first choice.
Stiles played just once for England in 1969 and twice in 1970. He was selected by Ramsey for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, but only as Mullery's understudy. Not only did he not get a kick during the competition, as England surrendered the title in the quarter-final, but he never played for his country again.
Managerial and post-playing career
In August 1975, Stiles was appointed as caretaker manager of Preston when Bobby Charlton resigned in protest at the transfer of defender John Bird to Newcastle United, but he resigned a week later in support of his former Manchester United teammate. Stiles returned to Preston to serve as manager from 22 July 1977 to 5 June 1981 when he was sacked along with his assistant after the club were relegated.
Stiles joined the exodus of ageing and semi-retired European players to the NASL in 1981, to become coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps, spending three years at the Canadian club. He later revealed his struggle with depression while in the job, finding it tough to cope with working in the Midlands and the daily commute from Manchester where his family lived.
Between 1989 and 1993 he worked for Manchester United as their youth team coach, developing the considerable skills of teenage prodigies such as David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, Gary and Phil, also came through at this time. His wife was a sister of Johnny Giles and they were introduced to each other around the time they were teammates at Manchester United. They lived in Manchester and had three children. Stiles' son John was also a footballer, playing for Shamrock Rovers in Dublin and Leeds United in the 1980s.
Stiles was a devout Catholic throughout his life and even tried to attend Mass on the day of the World Cup final. In 1968, Stiles released his first autobiography, Soccer My Battlefield; his second, After the Ball, followed in 2003. In 2007, he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. His European Cup medal, which he won with Manchester United in 1968, was also sold, reaching more than £49,000. Stiles sold the medals so that his family could benefit from the proceeds.
On 24 November 2013, it was announced that Stiles was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and in 2016, it was announced that he was suffering from advanced dementia. He was too ill to attend a celebration dinner to mark the 50th anniversary of England's 1966 World Cup win. In November 2017, a BBC documentary on the subject of brain injuries amongst retired footballers presented by former England striker Alan Shearer included an interview with Stiles' son.
Stiles died on 30 October 2020 at Manor Hay Care Centre in Manchester, aged 78. He had been suffering from prostate cancer and dementia, the latter brought on due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from the repeated heading of footballs. Stiles's brain was donated to the FIELD study conducted by Dr Willie Stewart into the link between dementia and a career in professional football. Stiles was one of five England players from the 1966 World Cup final who suffered from and in some cases died of dementia.
|-
!rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Season
!colspan="3"|League
!colspan="2"|FA Cup
!colspan="2"|League Cup
!colspan="2"|Europe
!colspan="2"|Other
!colspan="2"|Total
|-
!Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="12"|Manchester United
|1960–61
|First Division
|26||2||3||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||31||2
|-
|1961–62
|First Division
|34||7||4||0||0||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||38||7
|-
|1962–63
|First Division
|31||2||4||0||0||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||35||2
|-
|1963–64
|First Division
|17||0||2||0||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||21||0
|-
|1964–65
|First Division
|41||0||7||0||0||0||11||0||colspan="2"|–||59||0
|-
|1965–66
|First Division
|39||2||7||0||0||0||8||1||1||0||55||3
|-
|1966–67
|First Division
|37||3||2||0||1||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||40||3
|-
|1967–68
|First Division
|20||0||0||0||0||0||7||0||1||0||28||0
|-
|1968–69
|First Division
|41||1||6||0||0||0||8||1||1||0||56||2
|-
|1969–70
|First Division
|8||0||3||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||13||0
|-
|1970–71
|First Division
|17||0||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||19||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!311!!17!!38!!0!!7!!0!!36!!2!!3!!0!!395!!19
|-
|rowspan="3"|Middlesbrough
|1971–72
|Second Division
|25||1||6||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||33||1
|-
|1972–73
|Second Division
|32||1||1||0||3||0||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||36||1
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!57!!2!!7!!0!!5!!0!!0!!0!!0!!0!!69!!2
|-
|rowspan="3"|Preston North End
|1973–74
|Second Division
|27||1||||||||||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||27||1
|-
|1974–75
|Third Division
|19||0||||||||||colspan="2"|–||colspan="2"|–||19||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!46!!1!!!!!!!!!!0!!0!!0!!0!!46!!1
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!414!!20!!45!!0!!12!!0!!36!!2!!3!!0!!510!!22
|}
International
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="6"|England
|1965||8||0
|-
|1966||15||1
|-
|1967||1||0
|-
|1968||1||0
|-
|1969||1||0
|-
|1970||2||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total!!28!!1
|}
:Scores and results list England's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Stiles goal.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of international goals scored by Nobby Stiles
|-
!scope="col"|No.
!scope="col"|Date
!scope="col"|Venue
!scope="col"|Opponent
!scope="col"|Score
!scope="col"|Result
!scope="col"|Competition
|-
| align="center"|1 || 23 February 1966 || Wembley Stadium, London || || align="center"|1–0 || align="center"|1–0 || Friendly
|}
Honours
Manchester United
- Football League First Division: 1964–65, 1966–67
- European Cup: 1967–68
- English Football Hall of Fame: 2007 (inducted)
- PFA Team of the Century (1907–1976): 2007
- FAI International Football Awards – International Personality: 1998
References
Specific
General
- Keeling, Peter (1971). Nobby Stiles. London: Wolfe, .
- McKinstry, Leo (2006). Sir Alf. London: HarperSport. .
- Stiles, Nobby (2003). After the Ball: My Autobiography. London: Hodder & Stoughton, .
- Tyers, Alan (2007). "The Sixties...Be Sure to Wear False Teeth in Your Hair", Football365
External links
- FA.com profile
- Sporting Heroes profile