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Trevor Brooking
| Category: | Male Player |
| Year Inducted: | 2009 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of The Football Hall of Fame, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
Respected throughout the game for his skill and sportsmanship, Trevor Brooking was the creative lynchpin in midfield for West Ham United and England - a loyal and celebrated one-club man of fluid style, inspired vision, and calm demeanour.
Born within the a few miles of Upton Park, where he stood behind the goal as a boy, he emerged alongside Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst in the 1960s. For almost two decades he wore the famous claret and blue with pride - most notable, in 1980, when a rare header secured victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup Final.
Fellow Hammer Frank Lampard once said of his tall, notably two-footed team-mate: ‘Our tactics were always the same: get the ball and give it to Trevor.’ With England, Brooking formed an outstanding partnership with Kevin Keegan. ‘They are my trump cards,’ said Ron Greenwood, the England manager.
A telling example of their understanding came in 1979, when they combined to create a much-remembered goal against Scotland at Wembley. ‘I recollect in particular the one-two with Kevin against the Scots,’ Brooking wrote later. ‘That day, I felt, Kevin and I achieved near perfection with the wall pass at the edge of the penalty area.’ Put clear, Keegan then slid the ball under George Wood in the Scotland goal, to cap a 3-1 win for Greenwood’s side. Ray Clemence, the England goalkeeper that day, described them as ‘two great football brains working together’.
In the qualifying campaign for the 1982 World Cup, Brooking put England back on track for a place in the finals in Spain with two goals in a vital 3-1 away win against Hungary. The second goal - ‘the finest shot I have ever struck’ - was set up by Keegan, who cushioned the ball into his path. ‘The ball did not deviate an inch,’ Brooking wrote, recalling the powerful, rising left-foot strike that lodged in the stanchion of the goal, creating one of the iconic images of the modern era. As the Hungary keeper punched the ball loose, commentator Brian Moore, said: ‘It’s incredible how often Brooking scores these really important goals.’
To Greenwood’s great regret, injury ruled out both Brooking and Keegan for all but 20 minutes of the World Cup, as England narrowly failed to reach the last four in Spain. ‘With the two of them in the side I think England would have gone on to win the tournament,’ Greenwood would write. It was the last of 47 appearances for England.
His international career had begun at youth level, an important step on the way to establishing himself in the West Ham first team, in 1969-70. Under the tutelage of Greenwood, the then Hammers manager, Brooking developed gradually as far as the physical side of the game was concerned. ‘I accepted Ron’s advice that I should be more aggressive and be more involved in matches,’ he recalled. Later in his career, he added another important component to his game: an ability to ride tackles and stay on his feet. Receiving the ball, Brooking had outstanding spatial awareness. Rather than always controlling the ball, he was adept at letting the ball run - a rare attribute in English football, said Greenwood, who also described Brooking as ‘expert’ in shielding the ball.
Enzo Bearzot, the manager who guided Italy to World Cup success in 1982, once said of Brooking: ‘Like Johan Cruyff, he is deceptive, yet so perceptive. It is not his pace, as much as his change of pace that makes him so difficult to mark’.
That goal against Hungary at the Nep Stadium highlighted another aspect of Brooking’s technique - his two-footedness. ‘My true foot, the one I kicked with first when I was a toddler in my garden, is my right,’ Brooking wrote later. From the age of four, his father made him practise with his other, ‘bad’ foot.
In 1972-73 Brian Clough, the then Derby County manager, offered West Ham £400,000 for Brooking and Bobby Moore. In 1974, rumours circulated the game that Tottenham Hotspur were offering £425,000 for Brooking’s signature. The following season, Brooking collected the winner’s medal after the Hammers’ victory over Fulham in the FA Cup Final.
As a one-club man, Brooking offered a throwback to the earlier days of Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse. After his last appearance for West Ham at Upton Park, in 1984, Brooking was carried off the field on the shoulders of supporters at the end of game - a throwback to the scenes surrounding Stanley Matthew’s testimonial two decades earlier. For many Hammers fans, his retirement signalled the end of an era, dating back to the days of Moore, Hurst and Peters. Informed that the crowd was still chanting his name long after the final whistle, Brooking returned for a lap of honour on his own, collecting some scarves thrown from the terraces as he went. ‘That was a very emotional night for me,’ he wrote later. In 2009, the club re-named the Centenary Stand at Upton Park as a permanent tribute.
Having witnessed Brooking’s emergence at Upton Park in the mid-sixties, Bobby Moore spoke of him in the same breath as three of the then greats of world football: the German Gunter Netzer, Gerson, the Brazil playmaker, and Italy’s Gianni Rivera. ‘A fabulous player,’ Moore said. The final word, though, goes to Ron Greenwood: ‘The hardest thing to do in football is to make the game look simple, and Trevor was able to do that.’