Nobby Stiles is an English former footballer who was a member of the successful England 1966 World Cup Squad. Stiles was born on 18th May 1942 in Collyhurst, a working class and heavily Irish Catholic area in north Manchester. A Manchester United supporter throughout his youth, he fulfilled a personal ambition when the club signed him on apprenticeship forms in September 1959 having been watching him play for England Schoolboys.

Stiles can be considered an unlikely footballer as he was very small, a wearer of dentures after having his teeth ripped out in a match as a kid, and suffered from severe shortsightedness. Stiles had to wear thick contact lenses and remove his dentures to expose a gap-toothed expression on the pitch. Fortunately Matt Busby saw something in the youngster at a time when many footballers were being rejected purely on the basis of a lack of height and just over a year later he was given his United debut against Bolton Wanderers in October 1960.

Stiles was a tireless and fearless player who never shirked a challenge and he was utilised by Busby in a role which can be described in modern terms as a 'holding midfielder', a role which was almost non-existent at the time. His primary role in most games was to stifle the creativity of the games great flair players, thus enabling his teams own most naturally talented players like Bobby Charlton and George Best to utilise their attacking abilities further up the field. Despite Stiles strong abilities and consistent performances, he was used sparingly by Busby in the first few years of the 1960's and was left out of several high profile games including the 3-1 win against Leicester City in the 1963 FA Cup final. He began to make more frequent appearances in the seasons ahead however and played an essential role in the club winning the First Division title in 1965.

It was his performances during the successful 1964/65 campaign that won him his first England cap, with Alf Ramsey trying out Stiles in a 2-2 draw against Scotland on April 10th 1965. Stiles kept his place for 8 out of the 9 internationals that followed at a time when Ramsey was chopping and changing team selections to find his perfect squad for the 1966 World Cup; he also scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory against West Germany on the way and his squad place for England was pretty much confirmed by the time Ramsey named his final 22 man England 1966 World Cup Squad.

Stiles was chosen in the first game against Uruguay in an uneventful 0-0 draw against Uruguay, and he performed well enough to keep his place for the next 2 group games. Stiles played every minute of the next two group stage games against Mexico and France, with his tenacious style helping to team to keep qualify from the group having not conceded a goal. A quarter final followed against an overly aggressive Argentina side and the team kept another clean sheet as they won 1-0 through a Geoff Hurst header. It was during the semi final against Portugal that that Stiles faced his biggest challenge of the tournament, and one that he rose to perfectly, being given the job of man marking the world class play-maker and goalscorer Eusebio. The skillful and creative attacking midfielder was marked out of the game and many sections of the media praised Stiles for winning his touch battle against one of the most difficult of possible opponents. The holding role that Nobby had played allowed his domestic team mate Bobby Charlton to attack and he made use of this privilege by scoring both England goals in a 2-1 victory; Portugal's goal was scored by Eusebio from the penalty spot after a hand ball by defender Jack Charlton.

The Wembley final against West Germany was Stiles 20thcap and he had a quiet game, with no man-marking brief, although he did everything that he had to do and was considered - like all England players - to have performed well. Stiles is famously remembered for a famous post-match image of him doing a spontaneous jig with the Jules Rimet trophy in one hand and holding his false teeth in the other. This dance was later referred to 30 years later in the lyrics to the song "Three Lions" by Frank Skinner and David Baddiel in 1996. At the age of just 24 Stiles had become a World Cup Winner and an English national hero.

Stiles played in four further internationals before being dropped by Ramsey following a poor performance in the infamous defeat against Scotland at Wembley in 1967. He had further success at club level however with a second First Division League Championship medal with Manchester United in the same year, but even greater domestic honours were to follow. The Red Devils reached the European Cup final in 1968 and Stiles faced old nemesis Eusebio, who played for the opposing team Benfica. Stiles again kept Eusebio quiet, at least until the dying minutes of the game. Eusebio broke free of Stiles and the United defence and had just Alex Stepney to beat at the score 1-1, luckily he slammed the ball straight at Stepney and United went on to win the game 4-1 following extra time.

Stiles was called up by Ramsey for the 1968 European Championships squad but his role as a holding midfielder was taken by Spurs player Alan Mullery and England went out in the semi-finals against Yugoslavia, a game during which he became the first ever England player to be sent off. Stiles was recalled in to replace the suspended Mullery for the third place play-off game against the USSR however it was clear that Mullery remained Ramsey's first choice. Stiles spent the remainder of his international career as an understudy and played just once during 1969 and twice during 1970, before being an unused member of the 1970 Mexico World Cup squad. Stiles never played for England again after 1970 and finished with 28 caps and 1 goal, the least capped member of the 1966 final XI.

Manchester United sold Stiles in 1971 to Middlesbrough for a fee of £20,000 and two years, he had played 392 games and scored 19 goals for them in 11 years. After two years with Middlesbrough he joined Preston North End as a player coach when former team mate Bobby Charlton became the clubs manager, where he played for two years before finally hanging up his boots in 1975 at the age of 33. The Preston job did not work out for Charlton and Stiles became manager between 1977-1981 before moving Canada to become coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps team. He left Canada in 1984 and took over as manager of West Brom in September 1985 before being sacked in the following February after the side won just 3 games. He later revealed that he suffered with depression whilst in the job due to the daily commute from Manchester where his family lived.

His last job in football was for Manchester United where he worked as a youth coach between 1989 and 1993 and helped to develop the talents of future stars including David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, the Neville brothers, and Paul Scholes. In 2000 he was awarded the MBE after a campaign by the media for five of the 1966 world cup XI to be officially decorated, the other 6 had already been honoured in previous years. The other players awarded an MBE at the ceremony were Alan Ball, Roger Hunt, Ray Wilson, and George Cohen. He has also co-written a book called 'The World Cup Who's Who: 50 Years of England World Cup Football 1950-2002', available from the amazon capsule below.