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Mark Hughes
| 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:
Sir Alex Ferguson once described Mark Hughes as ‘the most courageous striker in the game and the greatest big-game player I have ever seen'.
His combination of power, verve, and relish for battle made Hughes a terrace idol at Manchester United and Chelsea – the two English clubs he served with such distinction in his peak years as a player.
At Old Trafford, Hughes was likened to Denis Law, the great hero of the Stretfod End masses during the 1960s. ‘They like Mark's commitment and see in him a present-day Denis Law, especially as a scorer of spectacular, often vitally important goals,' Ferguson said.
Voted footballer of the year by his peers in 1989 and 1991, Hughes climbed the steps to the Royal Box as an FA Cup winner a record four times: as a United player in 1985, 1990 and 1994, and then, in a last Wembley hurrah, with Chelsea in 1997. The following season, he won a second European Cup-winners' Cup medal.
Remarkably, Hughes wasn't finished yet. In a final flourish, the veteran striker helped Blackburn Rovers, the club he would go on to manage, to lift the League Cup – the last of his eleven honours in the game.
Sandwiched in the middle of all this came stints at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. After a frustrating time in Spain, Hughes enjoyed a renaissance in the Bundesliga.
On one celebrated occasion, Bayern organised a private jet to whisk him back to Munich for an evening kick-off – only hours after he played in an international fixture for Wales. His importance to Bayern was reinforced when he came off the bench to help his colleagues win the game.
‘The more important the occasion,' Hughes once said, ‘the more I relished the challenge. The big games seemed to bring the best out of me.'
In his second stint at Old Trafford, following the loan spell in Germany, Hughes was a vital figure in United's resurgence under Ferguson, most notably in 1992-93, the club's breakthrough, title-winning season.
Fears of a personality clash the equally strong-willed Eric Cantona proved unfounded. ‘The best answer to that is our record,' the Frenchman wrote. ‘In 20 games we started together that season, United scored 39 goals.'
The following season, Hughes kept United on track for the club's first-ever double with a last-gasp equaliser against Oldham Athletic in the semi-final of the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium. His spectacular volley into the top corner created an indelible memory for United fans and typified his qualities as a goalscorer.
But there was more than this to his game. Hughes was the ‘link-man', whose strength and skill in keeping possession were vital to United's tactics going forward.
Soon after his departure from Old Trafford in 1995, Ferguson described Hughes as ‘a sort of British warrior', adding: ‘Mark's willingness to compete up the middle on his own and his refusal to shrink from the most punishing markers is like waving a flag of courage for the rest of the team.'
Assessing his former player's contribution, Sir Alex added: ‘Anybody who sees himself as a centre forward of the old type should come and watch Mark.'