Geoffrey Green
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Geoffrey Green OBE (12 May 1911 – 9 May 1990) was an English football writer. Geoffrey Green was educated at Shrewsbury School,[1] where he played football. He started writing about football for The Times in the 1930s.[2] He is considered to be the godfather of football reporting, although he remained anonymous in the paper until 23 January 1967. He also broadcast on football for BBC Radio.
Green was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1946 Birthday Honours, and promoted to Officer (OBE) in the 1976 New Year Honours.[3][4]
Most noteworthy of his work was covering the "Match of the Century" on 25 November 1953, wherein Hungary beat England by the 6-3 scoreline under the heading "A New Conception of Football".[5] It was England's first defeat at Wembley, and the inventors of football were described by him as "strangers in a strange world."
The best goal of the game was scored by Ferenc Puskas; having received the ball from Czibor on the right near the six-yard box when the England captain Billy Wright went towards him for the tackle, Puskas drew the ball back as Wright charged past "like a fire engine going to the wrong fire" leaving the Hungarian captain free to score from his powerful left-foot.[6]
Green retired from The Times in 1976 after nearly 40 years of distinguished service.
