COHEN JUST HAPPY TO BE ALIVE AND JOIN THE SURVIVORS OF '66

Following on from the Parkinson interview with Johnny Haynes, and an overwhelming 4 people wanted it, here is the interview with George Cohen.

COHEN JUST HAPPY TO BE ALIVE AND JOIN THE SURVIVORS OF '66

SIR ALF RAMSEY, not a man renowned for shooting off at the mouth, described George Cohen and Ray Wilson as the greatest pair of full-backs ever to play for England. The judgement was made in 1966 and nothing that has happened since would make him change his mind.

It might be that next Tuesday they renew their partnership at a dinner in London to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of winning the World Cup. Nothing is definite because the dinner is an ad hoc affair (the Football Association seem to have forgotten the anniversary) and in any event Ray Wilson feels lost if he goes any further south than Sheffield. He lives a calm and isolated life in remote hills much like the great Wilson of the Wizard, existing, I have no doubt, on a diet of spring water and wild berries.

His partner is much more the city dweller. George Cohen was born in Fulham. He played for Fulham all his life. When Johnny Haynes ran the manor, he was one of his able lieutenants. As an England player, he liked attacking down the wing, giving the necessary width to Ramsey's wingless wonders, relying on his speed and stamina to get back quickly for defensive duties.

He played thirty-seven times for England and won the biggest medal of them all. He had thirteen seasons with his beloved Fulham and didn't win a sausage. He gave up football in 1969 because of injury. He was the last Fulham player to be capped by England.

Since then a lot has happened to George Cohen, some of it very unpleasant. In a week when a television programme revealed a muddled history of misdiagnosis and delay in treating Bobby Moore's fatal cancer, George Cohen had added reason for being thankful his illness was swiftly diagnosed and treated. He suffered cancer of the stomach ten years after playing in the World Cup final. He had two major operations and six years of treatment at the Royal Marsden. He says it was like living in a twilight world because he needed so many pain-killing injections.

When you meet George Cohen, it is hard to believe he was so ill he was twice given up for dead. He lives in Tunbridge Wells and when he walked into the lounge of the Spa Hotel he looked like a successful businessman who kept himself in shape. There was only the set of the shoulders and the balanced, slightly pigeon-toed walk on the balls of the feet, to indicate the athlete.

He is an intelligent, articulate man who makes a living as a property developer. During the recession, times were hard but he was unfazed. 'Worse things have happened to me,' he said.

Recently, during Euro'96, there was a revival of interest in the boys of '66. It was somehow reassuring when watching the black and white images of victory to be reminded of a time of modest heroes when commentators knew enough words to concoct a memorable phrase and only lions were rampant on the England shirt.

He thinks the players of the sixties were better technically than the current crop and certainly better disciplined. When I asked him about Ramsey, he immediately told me of the time Bobby Moore and six of the players sneaked out for a meal before a friendly international against Portugal. They returned to find their passports on the bed. The next day, Ramsey told them that had he been able to find replacements they would all have been on the plane home and would not have played again. 'When Alf said things like that, you didn't argue,' said Cohen.

When you ask him about the team, he feels he doesn't have to say much about the obvious heroes like Chariton and Moore -'It's all been said.' He says he doesn't think Stiles or Ball get the credit they deserve. 'Stiles against Eusebio in the semi-final was one of the greatest demonstrations of marking I have ever seen. Nobby was always there. If I made a mistake, he'd be covering, if I sat on my backside, he'd be alongside collecting the ball. As for Alan Ball, I used to say he was the best winger I've ever played in front of,' he said.

He says Ramsey's gift was to bring together a group of players who fully complemented each other. 'There was no weakness in the chain, either in terms of the way we played or the way we lived together. There was a maturity about us because Alf treated us like grown men,' he said.

As Glenn Hoddle takes over, he would do well to consider the way the '66 team have represented themselves and the game in the intervening years and wonder how he might persuade his players to see the virtue of setting an example as well as winning trophies.

George Cohen never had a problem putting fame into perspective. Playing for Fulham all his life gave him a keen insight into the transient nature of things. After the World Cup everyone wanted to know him. At one garden party he was introduced to the assembly as 'George Cohen of West Ham'. Recently displaying his World Cup memorabilia at a school fete, he was approached by a child who said, 'Excuse me, sir, but is the recipient of these caps and medals still alive?'

This is gentle stuff for anyone who played at Fulham in the sixties. 'Great place, special crowd. Those standing on the Thames side of the ground used to pee into the river at half-time. Remember?' Who could forget. In the days when Jimmy Hill sporting a little pointy beard was in the side, he once made a run and screamed at George Cohen to slip him the ball in an open space. As he became more frantic in his pleadings, a wag on the terrace shouted, 'Cohen, when the Rabbi asks for the ball, let him have it.'

He thinks John Haynes the best 'foot to ball' player he ever saw. Explain. 'It simply means he was technically perfect. It didn't matter how you hit the ball to him, he was always balanced to receive and move straightaway. To see him volley a ball was to witness perfection of technique and timing,' he said.

George Cohen was twenty-nine when a serious knee injury caused him to leave the game. He received £10,000 insurance from the club and the proceeds of a testimonial game at Fulham. He had commenced his new life away from the game when he was diagnosed as suffering from stomach cancer. Twice, his wife was told to put their effects in order. She took no notice. Why? 'She told me, "I could never see you dying,"' he said.

He went to the Royal Marsden for chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He said, 'When I was a kid growing up in Fulham, if you went to the Marsden you were a gonner. They used to have a whip round in the street for the family.'

He got better. He still has the odd bad day but has lived to see his boys grow into men and to experience the bliss of being a grandfather. He works to raise funds for a children's cancer unit at the Royal Marsden in Sutton. Next Tuesday he will meet the rest of the survivors of '66 and have a yarn.

When you say it is strange the FA seem to have ignored the anniversary, he smiles and shrugs. This is someone who has endured too much ever to be discomfited by the actions of petty and inadequate men. When you ask him what he really remembers about that July day thirty years ago, he recalls Alf Ramsey's words as they approached extra time -'You've beaten them once, now go out and do it again.' George Cohen did not fully understand the meaning of those words on that special day. He does now.

July 1996

George Cohen was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours in 2000, along with four other 'forgotten' members of England's World Cup-winning team. He works for Fulham as a matchday host, as well as retaining his property business. His cancer is still in remission