Sir Geoff Hurst re-lives 1966 World Cup Final memories

England’s hero of 1966, Sir Geoff Hurst, has been looking back at the Three Lions’ finest day so far, as we commemorate their FIFA World Cup win at Wembley 60 years on.

Hurst became the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup Final, a record he held until Kylian Mbappe matched him in 2022, when his treble along with Martin Peters' opener helped England to a 4-2 win over West Germany on 30 July 1966.

And on a recent visit to Wembley, Sir Geoff spent time discussing the summer of ’66 and how it all came together for both Sir Alf Ramsey’s squad and himself which you can watch now on the England app.

“I think there was a great resilience and first of all, we had some fantastic, world-class players in key positions,” he said.

“[Gordon] Banks, the goalkeeper, was the best then and Bobby Moore, my team-mate and captain at West Ham, became the captain of the national side.

“Then you've got Bobby Charlton, 106 games for England and 49 goals from midfield, which is astonishing. One of the greats of the game and the best character you could ever wish to meet.

“My wife summed Bobby Charlton up best when she said: ‘He never put a foot wrong on the field and he never put a foot wrong off the field.’

“We had some great players in key positions through the backbone, but we had some really tough individuals who wouldn’t let Sir Alf down, players like Martin Peters, who also scored in the Final by the way, George Cohen, Ray Wilson, Jack Charlton, Roger Hunt and so on.

“We were quite shielded from what was going on outside and within the group, we had some calm and sensible, down-to-earth individuals who were never going to get too excited. I think that was one of the successes.”

Reflecting on the build-up to the first World Cup to be held on English soil, Hurst admits being a member of that tournament squad wasn’t even something that he’d considered at the start of the calendar year, when he was a young striker breaking through with West Ham United and having featured for England at U23 level.

“It was quite a shock to start with, and it was never on my radar,” he revealed.

“Although West Ham were pretty good, it was quite a shock in December 1965 when I received a letter from the FA saying I had been picked for a game against West Germany in February ‘66.

“And it was a very ordinary game, I didn’t really contribute a great deal but the big tests were playing in the four friendlies prior to the World Cup itself, in Scandinavia and Poland.

“I was the new boy on the block, I’d only played a game or two and I’m now competing with two of the greats of our game at that time, Roger Hunt from Liverpool and Jimmy Greaves from Spurs.

“I didn’t play particularly well, I didn’t score any goals in those friendlies while Jimmy got four against Norway and Roger scored two in the four games.

“When you look back on your life and career, the better balance of the three of us would have been me and either Roger or Jimmy, because I was superior in the air.

“But because I hadn’t played as well as the other two prior to the World Cup, Alf started off with those two, and there is no way I would have played had Jimmy not been injured against the French prior to the quarter-final.”

And it was in that quarter-final where Hurst got his chance, when he was named in the team to face Argentina at Wembley in what turned out to be a feisty encounter.

With Argentina reduced to ten players following the dismissal of captain Antonio Rattin, the game was on a knife-edge and heading for extra-time before Hurst glanced home a fine header to win the game for England.

“I would say that was probably the toughest, most physical game that we were going to get,” he explained.

“I still go back 60 years and say the most memorable and physical game we had to encounter was certainly Argentina in that quarter-final, without a shadow of a doubt.

“They had some good players, they were physically very tough, much more so than the other half a dozen countries we played against.”

From there, it was into the semi-finals and a Portugal team led by the legendary Eusebio which was another tight encounter.

It was settled by a brace from Bobby Charlton, either side of a penalty from Eusebio, as the Three Lions went through into what was their first and so far only senior men’s World Cup Final where they would face West Germany, ironically the team which Hurst had made his debut against five months earlier.

And from a day made of memories, Hurst picked out some of the enduring recollections he has of that glorious day under the old twin towers of Wembley.

“I have some very specific memories,” he revealed.

“First of all, in the old Wembley you came out of opposite [dressing room] doors so you virtually bump into each other and then you go through.

“We were on the right, the Germans on the left and it’s about a 50 yard walk up. The crowd across the other corner of Wembley could see us walking out and they started going nuts. I genuinely felt that the whole country was there and wanting us to win.

“My second memory is when we score the [first] goal. A lot of the stuff we worked on related to crossing balls and taking free-kicks, and that free-kick which Bobby [Moore] took was something we'd worked on at West Ham. Leaving the space in the penalty area and coming from outside, so the ball and the person get there at the same time and his delivery was fantastic.

“At that moment when the ball enters the net and you see the celebration, it’s the most stupid celebration because I genuinely felt at that time that I’d justified my place in the national side. Only then did I feel I deserved to be here.

“When you look at the game, goodness me, there was so much action that went on.

“The Germans equalised at 2-2, which would’ve been quite difficult for a weaker side to concede winning the game in the last minute. But that was never going to be the case because we had a strong bunch of individuals. Then you’ve got the famous disputed goal and the famous last goal.

“The first one has been hotly disputed over the years but was something that was worked on at U23 level where I’d played with Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles. I said to him [Ball], when you get wide, don’t try and beat the full-back, whip the ball in there.

“That’s exactly what he did. I made the run a little early and the ball came slightly behind me but I got a lot of power in it and it bounced behind the ‘keeper. I had the worst view in the stadium, but I’m still appealing to the referee.

“The referee then rushed out to the linesman to consult him. Neither spoke a common language, so I still joke about what they were talking about. The linesman gave the goal, and of course, the rest is history.

“But there was one other incident that not many people talk about around the Germany equaliser. It started off with what shouldn’t have been a foul by Jack Charlton and it finished up in their left-wing position. They cross the ball and it goes across the face of goal to their central defender, Weber, who knocks it in.

“What happened was, when it went across, the left-back Schnellinger was also in there and the ball goes almost through his arm which slows the pace down to enable Weber to come and score. So when people talk about the disputed goal, I always say their equaliser could have been disputed, but that’s football.

“It’s an astonishing game and, particularly the final moments of it, with Bobby Moore knocking the ball to me and getting to the edge of the box and knocking it in.

“And what’s also fantastic about it, which we still see and hear today, is the commentary when Kenneth Wolstenholme says: ‘There are people on the pitch. They think it’s all over…it is now.’

“That middle part, ‘they think it’s all over’, is now a part of our language in all walks of life.”

Watch the full video feature with Sir Geoff in the England app here.