Jeff Astle

Jeff Astle
Personnel
Surname	Jeffrey Astle
birthday	May 13, 1942
place of birth	Eastwood ,  England
date of death	January 19, 2002
Place of death	Burton-upon-Trent ,  England
position	Center Forward
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1959-1964	Notts County	103 0(31)
1964-1974	West Bromwich Albion	292 (137)
1974	FC Hellenic
1974	Dunstable Town
1975-1976	Weymouth FC
1976-1977	Atherstone Town
1977	→ Hillingdon Borough (loan)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1969-1970	England	5 00(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Jeffrey "Jeff" Astle (born May 13, 1942 in Eastwood , † January 19, 2002 in Burton-upon-Trent ) was an English football player . The center forward completed 361 competitive games for West Bromwich Albion in the late 1960s and early 1970s and scored 174 goals. The five-time England international is one of the most representative enigmatic figures in the club's history of "Baggies" and is still there today (German: "Der as" The King " King ") venerated.

Athletic career

Astle was born near the city of Nottingham in Eastwood and, according to his own account, grew up on the same street where the writer DH Lawrence had previously spent his childhood. At the age of 17 he became a professional footballer at his home club Notts County . Although he was only 1.80 meters tall and weighed around 70 kilograms, from then on he embodied a beefy center forward with a special weakness for header goals. He was largely promoted by the trainer of the Magpies Tommy Lawton , a former England international and representative of an “old school” attacker type.

By 1964 Astle scored 61 competitive goals for the club on Meadow Lane and moved to the first division side West Bromwich Albion after relegation to fourth division for £ 25,000. Just 24 hours after signing the contract, he made his debut there on September 30, 1964 in the 2: 4 away defeat by Leicester City . Astle, who was the Baggies' top scorer in the first two years, won the first title in 1966 with the League Cup . He scored the goal to 1: 2 in the final first leg at West Ham United , which was enough to win in view of the 4: 2 return leg success. He experienced his career high point two more years later, when he and his team reached the FA Cup final after having scored at least one goal against every opponent in the previous rounds. In the final against FC Everton , he fought a bitter duel against the tough defender Brian Labone , at whose side he later played as England international at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico . After 90 minutes without goals, the cup final went into extra time and Astle, who was the only striker who mostly came over the flank, made the decision after three minutes when he shot a previously blocked right-footer with a left from almost 16 meters over the opposing goalkeeper Gordon West raised. According to legend, on the evening of the cup success, strangers painted the words "Astle is the king" on the wall of the Primrose Bridge in the center of the Black Country , which made it into the club's history with the ennoblement and gave the building the name Astle Bridge .

Astle missed a third title in 1970 despite their own final goal to 1: 2 against Manchester City in the League Cup; with his goal, however, he became the first player to succeed in the final goals in both English cup competitions at Wembley Stadium . In the meantime, the WBA striker had also made it into the English national team and celebrated his debut on May 7, 1969 against Wales (2-1). As the top scorer in the First Division with 25 league goals in the 1969/70 season , he strongly recommended himself for the upcoming World Cup tournament in Mexico and was finally appointed to the squad by Alf Ramsey . He completed two final round games in the preliminary round and initially acted against the eventual world champions from Brazil as a substitute after a good hour. In an overall unfortunate performance, he missed a clear scoring chance when the score was 0: 1 with a miss - Astle's time in the English selection was later often associated with this scene. After another appearance in the World Cup group stage against Czechoslovakia , Astle's national team career ended. In his five international matches he was without a goal.

After 1970, Astle's shape curve was clearly downward. The increasing number of injury problems also ensured that he only had sporadic experiences of success behind his successor as top scorer Tony Brown and that his goalscoring (21 championship goals in four years) declined. He then left his long-term club in 1974. After a short South African stint at FC Hellenic , he stood at the side of George Best in the semi-professional Dunstable Town . Until his final resignation in 1977, he let his career end with the lower-class clubs Weymouth FC , Atherstone Town and Hillingdon Borough.

After the sporting career

After his active career, Astle opened his own cleaning company near Burton-upon-Trent . He remained the general public later by frequent appearances on the comedy telecast Fantasy Football League with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel known.

On January 19, 2002, Astle suddenly collapsed in his daughter's house and died a little later at the age of 59. The cause of death was considered to be brain damage that had been noticed five years earlier. The Forensic Medicine found that repetitive brain trauma were responsible for the deaths. Since Astle was famous for his headball strength and the leather balls were significantly heavier at the time (especially when wet), this causal connection found a broad media response. Eventually the case was filed as a "death from work-related accident", while Astle's widow announced in November 2002 that she would initiate legal action. The day after his death, WBA remembered him with a minute's silence before the game against FC Walsall . The creators of Fantasy Football League also responded with a series of re-broadcasts in which Jeff Astle was involved.

To this day, Astle is revered among WBA fans and sung about with the song "Astle is the king" (to the tune of Camptown Races ) in The Hawthorns Stadium - since July 2003 his image has also graced the entrance gates on Birmingham Road. Two months earlier, the Midland Metro had named a tram after him. On the occasion of an election for the 125th anniversary of West Bromwich Albion, Astle was named one of the club's “16 best players”.

The Football Association announced after Astle's death that it would conduct a ten-year long-term study of the health risks of headers, but was unable to provide any results after those ten years. In protest, West Brom supporters raise awareness in the ninth minute (Astle's shirt number) of a game.

successes

• English cup winner : 1968
• English league cup winner : 1966

literature

• Matthews, Tony: West Bromwich Albion - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-85983-565-4 , pp. 98-99 .

swell

1. ^ Long live The King: how the FA failed to address the case of Jeff Astle , Observer article , March 22, 2014

Web links

• Obituary in the Guardian (Engl.)