Denis Law: My Life in Football

by Denis Law, Ivan Ponting (Primary Contributor)

When Denis Law signed for Manchester United from Torino for a British record fee of £115,000 in 1962, even at the age of 22 he had already established himself as one of the world's great forwards. No wonder his arrival at United sparked a revival in the club's fortunes, as they won the FA Cup in his first campaign. In his second season, 1963-64, he scored 46 goals - a club record that stands to this day - and became European Footballer of the Year. He then helped United to league titles in two of the next three terms, delivering 39 and 25 goals respectively.

Now, having reached 70 years old, Denis looks back on his remarkable career and reflects on both the highs and the lows from his time on the pitch and beyond, as captured in lavishly reproduced photographs, many of them in full colour.

Denis My Life in Footballis a book no true fan of football can afford to be without.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2011

About the author

Denis Law was a Scottish footballer who played as a forward. His career as a football player began at Second Division Huddersfield Town in 1956. After four years at Huddersfield, he was signed by Manchester City for an estimated transfer fee of £55,000, which set a new British record. Law spent one year there before Torino bought him for £110,000, this time setting a new record fee for a transfer involving a British player. Although he played well in Italy, he found it difficult to settle there and signed for Manchester United in 1962, setting another British record transfer fee of £115,000.
Law spent 11 years at Manchester United, where he scored 237 goals in 404 appearances. His goals tally places him third in the club's history, behind Wayne Rooney and Bobby Charlton. He was nicknamed The King and The Lawman by supporters, and Denis the Menace by opposing supporters. Law was also known as part of the "United Trinity", along with Charlton and George Best. He is the only Scottish player to have won the Ballon d'Or award, doing so in 1964, and helped his club win the First Division in 1965 and 1967, as well as the FA Cup in 1963 and two Charity Shields. He missed their European Cup final triumph in 1968 through injury.
Law left Manchester United in 1973 to return to Manchester City for a season, and represented Scotland at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He played only two competitive games in the 1974–75 season, retiring before the start of the League programme proper. Law played for Scotland a total of 55 times and jointly holds the Scottish international record goal tally with 30 goals. Law holds a Manchester United record for scoring 46 competitive goals in a single season.

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purchased for just £4, Denis Law's 'My Life In Football' just published last year is a pictorial biography that I just couldn't resist. The 'Lawman' was my soccer idol before I was ten years old, and this book brings back many glorious memories. Back in the days I saluted the King regularly as he whizzed past in his red 'jag' along Seymour Grove in Old Trafford. I would raise one arm, hold the cuff of my shirt and have one finger pointed in the air. I went on pilgrimage to his house, 80 Claude Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. He signed my copy of his 'Living for Kicks'. Saturday afternoons were spent at the court of 'The King' in that heaving, swaying mass of humanity in the Stretford End. If Law, Best and Charlton were the holy trinity, here is the testament according to Denis.
Packed with quality colour and black and white photographs, many plucked from the Law family album and covering the glittering career with Huddersfield, Manchester City (twice), Torino, Manchester United and Scotland. It's the many quotes and contributions from fellow pro's that confirm to me that I really did witness a golden time. "Anyone who has the slightest doubt about his stature in the game might care to heed the words of no less eminent a judge than Pele, who once said that the only British player who could possibly get into the Brazil team was Denis Law." (Sir Alex Ferguson.) "He could be a quiet laddie off the field, but on it the bugger looked like he owned the bloody place. He had a bit of devil about him, no one took liberties with Denis." (Ken Barnes.) "He was the most thrilling player in the game, the quickest thinker on the pitch I ever saw, and the greatest man in the penalty box. Nobody else scored so many miracle goals. When a chance was on for him, or a half-chance, or a quarter chance, or a chance that was no sort of chance at all for anybody else but him, he would have it in the net with such power and acrobatic agility that colleagues and opponents alike could only stand and gasp." (Sir Matt Busby.) "He hit Old Trafford like a flash of lightning, breathing new life into the team with his fearlessness, his unshakeable self belief and his astonishing ability to score sensational goals out of nothing." (Sir Bobby Charlton.) "One thing I'll never forget about Denis was the way he pulled his sleeves down over his hands. For a long time after I arrived in Manchester I thought his hands must be deformed." (John Connelly.) "People just couldn't take their eyes off him. I've never seen anything like Denis in the air-he would seem to hang there, then his head would snap back and the ball would flash into the net before his markers could move." (Nobby Stiles.)
Another quote from Sir Geoff Hurst's '1966 And All That' is also worth including here, "Denis did more than simply score goals. He gave a theatrical performance in which, over the course of 90 minutes, he managed to be both villain and hero. He scored goals with an unmistakable flourish that sent a tremor through the opposition and then stood, with a single arm raised above a distinctive mop of blong hair, to salute the crowd. I remember him scoring goals of quite matchless virtuosity. His bicycle kick was a speciality as was his ability to outjump taller defenders and head spectacular goals. He was, quite simply, unique among his contemporaries and, not surprisingly, is one of the few British players to have been voted European Footballer of the Year."

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

From September 2011...

http://aberdeenvoice.com/2011/09/deni...