Alf Ramsey

Alf Ramsey

Sir Alfred Ernest Ramsey was an English football player and manager. As a player, he represented the England national team and captained the side. He is best known for his time as England manager from 1963 to 1974. Ramsey led England to victory in the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He was the first person to have been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame twice.

About Alf Ramsey in brief

Summary Alf RamseySir Alfred Ernest Ramsey was an English football player and manager. As a player, he represented the England national team and captained the side. He is best known for his time as England manager from 1963 to 1974. Ramsey led England to victory in the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He also managed his country to third place in the 1968 European Championship and the quarter-finals of the 1970 World Cup and the 1972 European Championship respectively. Ramsey retired from playing aged 35 to become the manager of Ipswich Town, then in the third tier of English football. He led a somewhat reclusive life in Ipswich over the next two decades and died in 1999, aged 79. A statue of Ramsey was dedicated at the reconstructed Wembley Stadium in 2009. He was the first person to have been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame twice: an inaugural inductee in 2002, in recognition of his achievements as a manager and admitted again in 2010 for his exploits as a player. He remains widely regarded as one of British football’s all-time great managers. Ramsey was born and raised in a quiet Essex village. He showed sporting promise from an early age and, after serving in the British Army during the Second World War, embarked on a football career, primarily as a right-back. He played his club football for Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur and was part of the Tottenham side that won the English League championship in the 1950–51 season.

In a distinct break with common practice of the day, he used a narrow formation that led to his England side being dubbed ‘The Wingless Wonders’ Ramsey was knighted in 1967 for his role in England’s 1966 World Cup win. He later held football-related roles at Birmingham City and Panathinaikos, before retiring in 1979–80. He died of a heart attack in 1996, at the age of 79, and was buried in a private ceremony at St James’ Park, Ipswich, where he had previously worked as a carpenter and carpenter. He had a son, Peter, and two step-daughters,  and a daughter, Sally. Ramsey is buried at St Mary’s Cemetery, Dagenham, near London, with his wife, Florence, and their two sons, Peter and Peter Jr, and his daughter, Pauline, in a plot of land near St James’s Park, London, which is now the site of a new football ground. Ramsey also had three step-grandchildren, Peter and Paul, and a step-great-grandson, Pauline, David, and Paul, who now lives in the south of England. Ramsey died in 2011, aged 80. He leaves behind a wife and four children, Peter Ramsey, a son and two daughters, Paul, Paul and Pauline and Pauline’s daughter Sophie, who is now a mother-of-three. Ramsey is buried in St James’s Park, where the family still lives.