Alf Ramsey

Sacked as England Manager in 1974 following the team's failure to qualify for that year's World Cup Finals.

Knighted in 1967, in honour of his World Cup triumph.

Football player who went on to become the most legendary manager in the history of the English game, when he guided England to World Cup victory for the first and only time in 1966. Playing career: Portsmouth FC (amateur) 1940-1943; Southampton FC (amateur) 1943-1944, professional 1944-1949; Tottenham Hotspur FC 1949-1954; won 32 England caps. Managerial career: Eton Manor (part-time) 1954-1955; Ipswich Town FC 1955-1963; England 1963-1974; Birmingham City FC (caretaker) 1977-1978.

Appointed England manager following his distinguished tenure at Ipswich Town, whom he had taken from Division Three (South) in 1955 to the Division One Championship in 1962.

As a defender at Southampton FC in the immediate postwar years, Ramsey was initially unable to break into the first team thanks to the form of regular right-back Bill Ellerington. Ramsey's big break came when, in January 1947 prior to a 4th round FA Cup-tie away to Newcastle United (on the North Sea coast), Ellerington neglected to wear a jersey when the squad went playing golf (in winter conditions), causing him to be hospitalised with pneumonia for 3 months, and kept out of the first team for 10 months. Ramsey immediately seized the opportunity to prove himself, leading to his first England appearance in December 1948. Although an injury sustained in January 1949 meant that he lost his Southampton and England positions to Ellerington, Ramsey's transfer to Tottenham Hotspur spectacularly revived his career at both levels. One can only wonder how different postwar English football might have been were it not for that moment of self-neglect on the part of one Southampton defender.

Alf Ramsey was born on January 22, 1920 in Dagenham, Essex, England as Alfred Ernest Ramsey.