City helped shape Law for greatness

18 Jan 2025

The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)

BY MARC THOMSON

THE PEOPLE OF ABERDEEN HOLD DENIS LAW 

VERY CLOSE TO THEIR HEARTS. 

DENIS IS A REMARKABLE MAN.

   - former Lord Provost Barney Crockett

Seven decades ago, Denis Law left his beloved Aberdeen to begin his path to international superstardom, but in truth he never really left the city behind.

 

Denis Law gleefully receives a football trophy during schooldays.

Law was a frequent visitor home, both at the height of and after his footballing career – whether to catch up with family and friends or perform good deeds for the city.

A picture taken of the then-rising star during many of his trips back to Aberdeen highlights what Law was really all about.

It shows him smartly turned out in a suit enjoying a kickabout in the street with four awestruck boys.

There is a childlike, and almost mischievous, glee etched on his face as he wrongfoots the first youngster bold enough to make an attempt to tackle him.

It is a throwback to his days growing up in Printfield where Law would spend hours playing football in the street, often barefoot.

It was probably this education in ‘street soccer’ that reportedly led Pele to once declare: “Denis Law is the only British player good enough to play for Brazil.”

But his humble upbringing in Aberdeen didn’t just help forge Law as a player, it also defined him as a person.

Born in Bucksburn on February 24 1940, he was the youngest of seven children to trawlerman George Law and his wife Robina.

In a 1989 TV documentary, A Portrait of Denis Law, the football idol was taken back to Aberdeen to discuss his time growing up there with brothers George, Joe and John and sisters Frances, Georgina and Robina.

He admitted: “I didn’t really know my dad, because in those days my father would go to sea on a Monday morning and wouldn’t come back till the Saturday morning.

“My mother really led a particularly hard life in that she had to keep seven kids, there were three brothers and three sisters, and it was during and just after the war as well.”

Law explained how his very first pair of shoes were bought “on the slate”.

He added: “My dad didn’t know about that. When he came home from sea they got tucked away hidden under the bed and then came back out again on the Monday morning.”

One of his sisters, Georgina, also told programme makers how Denis was destined for greatness from a very young age. She explained how she and her siblings would tie a ball of wool to a clothes pulley in the kitchen so their little brother could leap up and head it.

Georgina added: “He was just crazy about football.”

Law’s childhood friend and neighbour George Geddis provided the promising young player with his first pair of football boots, hand-me-downs with wooden studs that were a couple of sizes too big. Law treasured them.

He said: “My young life revolved around playing football. There was no television then and people lived by their radio sets.

“All the kids did was play in the streets. You kicked a ball against the wall all the way to school, then you had a game when you got there.

“At the mid-morning break, you had another game and you kicked a ball home at lunchtime and so it went on and on. It was just a massive part of my life and I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with football.”

The young Law also had to overcome a squint that meant he had to wear glasses, a defect that was later corrected in an operation paid for by Huddersfield Town.

Law explained: “I couldn’t wear glasses to play in a proper match, so I developed a unique system for coping with it. I learned to play football with one eye closed.

“And I kept my glasses on for as long as I could, while I put on my jersey and socks and boots. Then, when the moment came to go on to the pitch, I used to close my right eye and keep it closed for the whole of the match.

“I learned to play through an entire match using only one eye and I went on doing it for years. The bottom line is that it’s a simple game – there’s you and a football and your team-mates.

“If you all train together and love it, you soon get to know what you and the guys around you are doing.”

As bright as he was on the pitch for his school teams and Aberdeen Lads Club colts, Law was no slouch academically either. Educated at Hilton Primary School, Kittybrewster Primary School and Powis Academy (now St Machar), he excelled at technical drawing and mathematics and had aspirations of becoming an architect before Huddersfield made his dream of becoming a professional footballer a reality in 1955.

And while a young Law packed his bags and left Aberdeen behind, a return to the Granite City was never usually far off – especially at Christmas time.

Fellow Old Trafford great Sir Bobby Charlton once pointed out the timings of Law’s sendings-off and record suspensions, saying: “He used to get sent off for some horrendous things. I think he was the first off for four weeks and then six weeks.

“We used to joke about it because it always seemed to coincide with the Christmas and New Year holidays.”

Law also cheekily admitted himself: “I was unfortunate to get sent off three times but the good thing about it was I got suspended a month, and it was always at Christmas and New Year. So I had Christmas and New Year at home in Aberdeen for three years on the bounce. 

“The rest of the lads were in Manchester playing in two feet of snow, while I was at home in Aberdeen cosy by the fire. Lovely.”

***

Legend drinks to CBE honour

Humble trawlerman’s son Denis was honoured by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2016 when he was awarded a CBE for services to football and charity.

And the goalscoring legend enjoyed some terrace-style banter at the Buckingham Palace investiture with Prince William, an avid Aston Villa supporter.

After being presented with his award by the prince, Law told reporters afterwards: “The conversation was a bit short because they (Aston Villa) are bottom of the league and things are not going well but the thing is, when you’re a supporter, you will support your team wherever they are. So I was glad that he supports them, because that’s his team.”

In typical Law style, he added that he, wife Diana, son Andrew and daughter Diana jnr would be celebrating with a pub lunch.

The prostate cancer survivor received the accolade thanks, in part, to his fundraising efforts with Cancer Research UK and for his role as a patron of the Meningitis Now charity – as well as his exploits on the pitch.

He said: “I just think this is the type of honour that goes to other people. You don’t expect to get something like this.”