Denis Law: A tribute to a wonderful footballer
Denis Law
One of the very few benefits of having qualified for life’s Seniors Tour is the ability to look back upon decades of sublime sporting achievement. Teams, characters, matches – a ringside seat at so many special occasions, on TV or better still, now and then, in the flesh.
As a young kid in the 1960s here are some of the names rocking my sporting world on an everyday basis. Muhammad Ali. Jack Nicklaus. Gareth Edwards. Pele. Gary Sobers. Bobby Charlton. George Best. And of course the other member of Old Trafford’s Holy Trinity, Denis Law.
It’s with great sadness that we learn of the passing of Denis, aged 84. He began his career at Huddersfield Town in the mid-50s, moved to Manchester City in 1960, and after brief spells there and in Italy with Torino he joined Manchester United in 1962 for a reported fee of around £115,000. It would prove to be the defining move of his career and help make Manchester one of football's foremost swinging sixties cities.
He was an instant, electrifying success, winning the FA Cup in 1963, the Ballon d’Or no less in 1964, First Division League titles in ’65 and ’67, and contributing to the Reds’ European Cup triumph of 1968, though he was injured and missed the final against Benfica at Wembley.
United became the first English club to lift that enormous trophy, and of course for manager Matt Busby and his players the added poignancy of honouring the memory of his gifted Babes, European football pioneers of a decade earlier.
Denis was the scorer of magnificent goals. Brilliant in the air, razor-sharp in and around the box, brave, resourceful. Hard to think of a modern-day player who operated in a similar fashion, because The Lawman was a glorious one-off.
He was a very proud part of an outstanding Scottish international set-up that humbled world champions England at Wembley in 1967, scoring one of the goals in a 3-2 thriller, and was recognised the world over as an outstanding striker of the highest quality.
After over a decade at Old Trafford Denis left the club in 1973 having scored 237 goals in 404 matches across all competitions. All told, he found the back of the net over 300 times in his career.
The final chapter was a brief return to City for a season, and an international swansong with Scotland at the 1974 FIFA World Cup, where he featured against Zaire.
Post-football, Denis has been a media personality, been tirelessly involved in a multitude of charitable projects, and was awarded the CBE for services to football and charity in 2016.
I saw Denis play football many, many times. He was everything you’ll be reading about him right now and more. He had that star quality reserved for the very, very best. He moved quicker than most, physically and certainly mentally. Bob Paisley used to say that the first few yards are in the head at the highest level, and he could well have been thinking about Denis when he said it.
He darted. He was a rapier. A sublime opportunist. An irreplaceable component part of Best, Law, and Charlton. A hero. An inspiration.
What times they were.
RIP Denis Law, 1940 – 2025.
