England's World Cup hero Geoff Hurst shares heartbreaking update after losing every teammate from 1966
14 June 2024, 07:38
Sir Geoff Hurst, who scored a hat-trick as England won the World Cup in 1966, has said he is "extremely sad" to be the last surviving member of the side.
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The 82-year-old striker, who netted three times at Wembley as England beat West Germany 4-2, mourned the loss of Sir Bobby Charlton last year.
Sir Geoff said that it was "very sad, naturally," that all of his teammates had now died. "I spent so much time with those players, not just playing but we had many golf days afterwards for many, many years," he told the Mirror.
"Every time now I see a picture of the team or just the two or three of us doing something that we did in all the pictures over the years, it fills me with great sadness.
"Yeah, it's as simple as that, really. It's extremely sad. They've all gone. I'm still not the oldest yet. I've still got a bit to go.
"You know Jack (Charlton) was older than me, George (Cohen) was older, Ray (Wilson) was older, so I've still got a bit to go to be the oldest one."
Sir Geoff, who spent most of his club career with West Ham and Stoke, played for England 49 times, appearing for the national side until 1972.
He said he kept in touch with other members of the side mostly through golf days, although this eventually petered out as they got older.
He said he couldn't remember the last time he had spoken to Sir Bobby, who died in October last year aged 86.
But he said he realised that something might not be right when Sir Bobby was no longer being picked out by TV cameras at Manchester United games.
Sir Geoff said: "They’d always focus naturally on Bobby. Then all of a sudden, you know, he's not there. Nothing much was said, it was kept very, very sensibly quiet on everything. So there was very little contact after we really finished the golf days, many years before.
"But, Bobby Charlton, I mean, he was just unbelievable. You just talk about him. One of our true greats then and forever."
Sir Geoff was the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final until Kylian Mbappe achieved the same feat in 2022 in France's loss to Argentina.
And he said he didn't think that he would still be talking about the 1966 victory as England's only major tournament success nearly 60 years on.
"We've got a very good squad," he said. "We talked about the squad, it's one of the best squads that we have had for some time and the team spirit is very good.
"We're favourites, that doesn't mean we're going to win, but we're favourites. So it is about time. I'd like to see us win a major trophy in my lifetime. I'm 82 now, so I never thought we'd be talking about this 60 years after winning it."
