page_title: Jimmy Greaves
section_title: International career
hierarchical_section_title: Jimmy Greaves / International career
caption_attribution_description: English: Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Charlton.
context_page_description: James Peter Greaves is a former England international footballer who played as a forward. He is England's fourth highest international goalscorer, Tottenham Hotspur's highest ever goalscorer, the highest goalscorer in the history of English top-flight football, and has also scored more hat-tricks for England than anyone else. He finished as the First Division's top scorer in six seasons. He is a member of the English Football Hall of Fame.
  Greaves began his professional career at Chelsea in 1957, and played in the following year's FA Youth Cup final. He scored 124 First Division goals in just four seasons before being sold on to Italian club A.C. Milan for £80,000 in April 1961. His stay in Italy was not a happy one and he returned to England with Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £99,999 in December 1961. Whilst with Spurs he won the FA Cup in 1961–62 and 1966–67, the Charity Shield in 1962 and 1967, and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1962–63; he never won a league title but did help Spurs to a second-place finish in 1962–63. He moved to West Ham United in a player-exchange in March 1970 and retired the following year.
context_section_description: Greaves made his debut for the England under-23 team in a 6–2 win over Bulgaria at Stamford Bridge on 25 September 1957; he scored two goals, and missed out on a hat-trick after failing to convert a penalty.
  Greaves won his first England cap on 17 May 1959 against Peru at the Estadio Nacional, scoring England's only goal in a 4–1 defeat. The tour of the American continents was not considered a success by the British media, as England also lost to Brazil and Mexico, but Greaves mostly escaped criticism in the press as he was still a teenager and showed promise with his performances. He scored consecutive hat-tricks on 8 October 1960 and 19 October, in victories at Northern Ireland and Luxembourg. On 15 April 1961, Greaves scored another hat-trick in a 9–3 victory over Scotland at Wembley, and also had a fourth goal disallowed for offside.
  He played in all four of England's games at the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile, scoring one goal in the 3–1 victory over Argentina before playing in the quarter-final defeat to Brazil. During the defeat to Brazil a stray dog ran onto the pitch and evaded all of the players' efforts to catch it until Greaves got down on all fours to beckon the animal. The Brazilian player Garrincha thought the incident was so amusing that he took the dog home as a pet.
  On 20 November 1963, he scored four goals in an 8–3 win over Northern Ireland. The following year, on 3 October, he scored another hat-trick against the same team making him England's all-time top goalscorer with 35 goals. He scored four goals again on 29 June 1966, in a 6–1 friendly win over Norway, bringing his tally to 43 goals and in doing so ensured himself a starting place in the 1966 FIFA World Cup.
  At the World Cup he played all three group games against Uruguay, Mexico and France, however, in the win against France, midfielder Joseph Bonnel raked his studs down Greaves's shin, causing a wound that required 14 stitches and left a permanent scar. His replacement for the quarter-final against Argentina, Geoff Hurst, scored the only goal of the game and kept his place all the way to the final, where Hurst scored a hat-trick as England won the tournament. Greaves was fit to play in the final, but manager Alf Ramsey opted against changing a winning team. Only the 11 players on the pitch at the end of the 4–2 win over West Germany received medals. Following a Football Association-led campaign to persuade FIFA to award medals to all the winners' squad members, Greaves was presented with his medal by Gordon Brown at a ceremony at 10 Downing Street on 10 June 2009. In November 2014, Greaves's medal was sold at auction for £44,000.
  Greaves played only three more times for England after the 1966 World Cup, scoring a single goal. His final cap came in a 1–0 win over Austria on 27 May 1967. At the time, he was England's all-time top goalscorer but was succeeded the following year by Bobby Charlton. Although Greaves was called up for UEFA Euro 1968, he remained an unused substitute throughout the tournament, as the team finished in third place. He retired from international football early the following year after telling Ramsey that he had no intention of becoming a bit-part player in the England squad. In total he scored 44 goals in 57 appearances for England. He is currently in fourth place on the all-time list of England goalscorers, behind Wayne Rooney, Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker. Greaves holds the record for most hat-tricks for England – six in all.
caption: Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Charlton, December 1964
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