THE DARK BLUE DESTROYER

A famous miss by the only Scot to win the Ballon d’Or against the Auld Enemy at Wembley spurred the fiercely patriotic Law on to score in a historic victory against the World Cup champions

The finest Scottish one player of the and the world greatest ever has seen

18 Jan 2025 - Daily Record

By DAVID McCARTHY

SIR ALEX TRIBUTE FERGUSON TO LAW

THERE’S a famous photo of Denis Law stretching every sinew in his left leg to volley goalwards on the day Scotland dethroned the world champions in their own Wembley back yard.

Martin Peters looks on helplessly, reduced to hoping that just for once The Lawman would miss the target.

And he did. Law’s shot rippled the side netting with Gordon Banks posted missing and the goal gaping.

It was a collector’s item; the one that got away.

The Scot pounded the turf in frustration, but not in despair.

Law knew another chance would come and a lack of self belief was never an accusation that could be hurled at the Aberdonian.

When it did, he struck with the venom of a rattlesnake in the packed penalty box when Banks spilled Willie Wallace’s shot.

It was Law’s 27th goal of his international career in only his 37th appearance for his country.

It set Scotland on their way to a 3-2 victory over the English that would have been far greater had those in dark blue jersey decided to humiliate the opposition on the scoreboard rather than by playing keepy uppy, as Jim Baxter did, or by using all their flicks and tricks that left Alf Ramsay’s men chasing shadows.

Law later admitted he wasn’t happy about that. Six years earlier he had played in the 9-3 humbling of Scotland at the hands of the Auld Enemy at the same venue.

He described that one as the “blackest day of my career” and he wasn’t so chuffed at England winning the World Cup either.

In fact, on the day of the final, he took himself to a golf course in Manchester to get away from it all and only knew the score when the delighted members of the club were standing on the 18th green waiting to gleefully greet him. Little did those English golfers know that they were merely fuelling a fire that never failed to burn fiercely inside this patriotic Law, who would go onto score 30 goals for his country in 55 games.

Kenny Dalglish, with whom he played six internationals as their careers overlapped, would go on to equal his tally but it took the Celtic and Liverpool legend 102 games to do it.

Law actually hit his 30th and final Scotland goal in only his 44th game; against Northern Ireland at Hampden in 1972 in a match that was switched to Hampden because of The Troubles across the water.

The former Huddersfield, Manchester United, Torino and Manchester City attacker had peaked by then, reaching heights that few, if any, have touched either before or after. The only Scotsman to have won the Ballon d’Or, in 1964, his reaction was so self-effacing that it appeared at odds with the gallusness he wore like a badge of honour on the pitch.

His ability had already been recognised the year before when was named in a World XI to face England, to mark the FA’s centenary.

Alongside him were the likes of Lev Yashin, Alfredo Di Stefano and Eusebio. Ferenc Puskas was on the bench; Law was on the pitch and scored in the 2-1 defeat.

“I knew I was playing well around that time, but the Ballon d’Or never so much as came into my head,” he said in an interview with FIFA.

“I honestly didn’t even think about it; didn’t consider that I could possibly be in the reckoning with Di Stefano and the like. It was a wonderful surprise and I think the biggest pleasure of all came from knowing the fantastic players I was up against.

“I’d had a really great thrill playing in that World XI beside two of my heroes in Di Stefano and Puskas. To me, those were the kind of guys who won the big awards. They were the superstars.

“Even when I looked around Britain, I would see one of my all-time favourite players, John Charles, and a magnificent goalscorer in Jimmy Greaves. And in Scotland, I knew from the national team that we had two real geniuses playing at Celtic and Rangers in Jimmy Johnstone and Jim Baxter.

“Then there’s Bobby Charlton across the dressing room from me at Man United and, a bit later, Besty (George Best). And that’s before you even start on all the other greats who won it around the same time.”

Sir Alex Ferguson has no doubt Law belonged in exalted company.

Helping to unveil the striker’s statue in the Granite City in 2021, Fergie said: “He was the finest player that Scotland has ever produced and one of the greatest the world has ever seen.” It was another legendary Manchester United manager, Sir Matt Busby, who handed the 18-year-old Law his Scotland debut against Wales at Ninian Park in 1958. He scored in a 3-0 win and never looked back. But despite his goalscoring feats and the plethora of talent available to Scotland during the 60s, he never made a major tournament and for all the world it looked like Law would never grace one – until, in the dying embers of his career, he – and Scotland – got there in 1974. Fifteen years and 239 days after winning his first cap, he donned the Scotland shirt for the final time in the World Cup opener against Zaire in Dortmund’s Westfalen Stadion in a front line that read Law, Dalglish and Jordan. What would that trio be worth in the current market? The game was won 2-0 but Willie Ormond didn’t select the then 34-year-old for their two following draws with Brazil and Yugoslavia and shortly after returning from Germany, Law hung up his boots. That was 50 years ago, but the memories lived on. That unruly mop of blond hair rising higher than taller defenders to bullet the ball home. That electrifying pace and razor sharp instincts that had him burying chances before his markers could blink. And the celebration. Always the celebration. Long sleeved shirt, cuff curled up in his right hand with one finger pointing to the heavens as he wheeled away in delight. When Denis Law smiled a nation smiled with him. Today, that same nation sheds tears for one of their own; one of a kind.

The finest Scottish one player of the and the world greatest ever has seen

SIR ALEX TRIBUTE FERGUSON TO LAW

***

I was more nervous meeting Denis for the first time than I was playing at Wembley.. he was & always will be my hero

18 Jan 2025 - Daily Record

BY ANDY NEWPORT

Scotland star Jim McCalliog scored one of our most memorable goals against England in 1967 but meeting and playing beside his idol remains among his proudest achievements

NEVER meet your heroes. It’s a principle dished out to those keen to avoid being let down by the icons they’ve placed on a pedestal.

But if Jim McCalliog was going to make an exception for that rule, it had to be for Denis Law.

Former Chelsea, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves and Manchester United star McCalliog has a special place carved out in Scottish football’s history books.

It was his debut strike at Wembley in 1967 which sent the Scots on their way to the nation’s most cherished ever victory over England.

But it was not the prospect of facing the then world champions which had McCalliog, then 20, breaking out in a sweat, rather a staged photo op with a man he’d grown up idolising.

Tearfully, he said: “If you were a football fan growing up in my day, you loved Denis Law. We all did.

“He looked different with that shock of blonde hair. But it wasn’t just how he looked, it was how he played. He was fearless, ferocious.

“I can remember going to Hampden in 1961 to see him play for Scotland against Czechoslovakia.

“He scored two goals that day which almost put Scotland into the World Cup.

“Later, once I became a professional myself, it was fantastic to go to England and play against him.

“Watching him on the pitch was like watching a brilliant piece of theatre. He was so captivating with how he moved his arms and the way he’d attack the ball.

“He was an amazing footballer, he had everything.

“He’s the only Scot to win European Footballer of the Year and for me he’s up there with Kenny Dalglish and Jim Baxter as the best this country has ever produced.

“But there’s this saying you should never meet your heroes because you’ll end up disappointed. Nothing could be further from the truth where Denis was concerned.

“He was an amazing, humble guy. Yet he was such a role model for anybody like me aspiring to play the game.

“Playing against him was one thing. Playing alongside him was ever better.

“I was playing for Sheffield Wednesday when I got my first call up to face England.

“The match at Wembley was on Saturday but the week before, Wednesday had a game against United.

“The press boys wanted a photograph of me and Denis together before we set off to London. I remember being asked if was up for it? I said, ‘You must be joking!’

“But it was set up and we met outside the dressing rooms before the game.

“That was the first time I’d met him properly. I was more nervous meeting Denis than playing against the world champions in front of 99,000.

“But that was how highly I rated Denis Law. He was and always will be my hero.”

That meeting was the start of a life long friendship. But McCalliog was gutted to miss out on the chance to team up again when he joined United in 1974.

By that point, Law had crossed Manchester to join City. It was a move which saw his Old Trafford reputation sullied in the eyes of some Red Devils fans, who wrongly accused the Lawman of relegating his old side when he netted in a final-day derby clash.

It’s a fallacy McCalliog is keen to put straight. “Some people still saying that Denis relegated United – that’s simply not true,” he insisted.

“It was Birmingham who sent us down. They won their games and got the points which meant they stayed up.”

It might not have been his fault, but McAlliog says his friend struggled to shake the sense of responsibility.

He added: “Denis didn’t celebrate his goal, he just walked off the pitch because there was a fan invasion and the game was abandoned.

“I was one of the first back to the United dressing room – and there in the corner still in his City strip was Denis. In the United dressing room!

“He was sat with his head on his knees. I said, ‘Are you ok?’ He said, ‘No’. I was trying my best to console him when in walked our boss Tommy Docherty.

“I thought he’d go mad finding Denis there but he walked up and shook hands with Denis. It was an amazing gesture.”

But it was an act of kindness returned by Law that will live with McCalliog forever.

He said: “The biggest thrill was when I rang Denis and I asked if he would do the foreword for my book.

“He said to me, ‘no problem Kiddo’. When he said that, I burst out in tears.

“It meant so much to have someone like Denis say the things he said about me. I’ll treasure those words.”