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Glenn Hoddle
| Category: | Male Player |
| Year Inducted: | 2007 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
Glenn Hoddle earned the admiration of Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona and Michel Platini for his skill and passing ability during a memorable career dotted with extraordinary moments of sublime improvisation and spectacular goals.
An attacking midfield player of rare balance and unbreakable ambition, Hoddle was the creative mainstay around whom Tottenham Hotspur built successive teams during the late 1970s and 1980s.
In his heyday in English football, Hoddle orchestrated back-to-back FA Cup triumphs for Spurs, in 1981 and 1982, and a successful UEFA Cup campaign in 1984. Sadly, at his peak, he endured a succession of niggling injuries, hampering his progress.
At international level, after a cameo appearance in the World Cup in Spain in 1982, Hoddle emerged as a pivotal figure for England during the tournament staged in Mexico four years later – the highlight of an international career spanning nine years, during which time he amassed 53 caps.
A Spurs fan as a lad, Hoddle practised, hour after hour, with a small rubber ball, developing his technique. On seeing him in action as a schoolboy for the first time, Bill Nicholson, the then Spurs manager, signed him almost on the spot. The lanky teenager, his shirt forever outside his shorts, was soon likened by Nicholson to Johnny Haynes, the great England and Fulham schemer of the 1960s and the most accurate passer of a ball of his generation.
Similarly impressed, team-mate Steve Perryman was astonished by Hoddle's ‘extraordinary' mastery of the ball, likening him to an expert golfer. ‘Glenn swerves the ball, fades it, flips it, spins it, drives it, chips it and uses backspin to make it stop,' the Spurs captain said.
During his 12 years at Tottenham, Hoddle made 378 appearances and scored 88 goals – many of them unforgettable. There was the acrobatic, breathtaking volley that flew into the top corner against Manchester United; the celebrated, opportunist, inch-perfect chip on the turn at Watford and, late in his Spurs career, a brilliant solo run at White Hart Lane: picking the ball up in his own half, he outwitted several defenders, before dummying the keeper and rolling the ball nonchalantly into the empty net.
The so-called ‘Great Enigma' of the English game, Hoddle was idolised on the White Hart Lane terraces, admired by neutrals and eulogised by many of the football writers. Never one to shirk responsibility in striving to find the ‘killer' pass, Hoddle was praised by Brian Clough for his ‘moral bravery'.
Within the game, however, there were those who questioned his defensive discipline and stamina. Ultimately, for all his ability going forward and much to his frustration, none of the managers in England gave him full reign to fully express his talent for an extended period.
On the continent, however, it was a different story. In Europe, Hoddle was embraced and feted. Growing up in Amsterdam, a young Dennis Bergkamp idolised him. And France playmaker Michel Platini once famously stated: ‘Had he been French, he would have won 150 caps.'
Eventually, and perhaps inevitably, Hoddle moved overseas, joining Monaco, whose manager, a certain Ars è ne Wenger, gave him total freedom in attack. ‘Glenn was the most skilful player I have ever worked with,' Wenger said later. After helping Monaco win the French championship, Hoddle returned to England, as player-manager of, first, Swindon Town and then Chelsea, guiding them to a losing appearance in FA Cup Final in 1994 in a repeat of his experience as a player with Spurs seven years earlier.
A measure of his talent is that Ossie Ardiles, a World Cup winner with Argentina, deferred to him as a playmaker during their time together at Tottenham.
As Ardiles used to say: ‘Some people give you the ball and it is round, other people give you the ball and it is square. One you can do something with, the other you can't. When Glenn gives you a pass, the ball is always round.'