Roger Hunt, Liverpool’s record league goalscorer who won the World Cup with England – obituary

Roger Hunt, who has died aged 83, was Liverpool’s record league goalscorer, and centre-forward in the England team that won the World Cup in 1966.

Hunt made his debut for England in 1962, and went to the World Cup in Chile that year as a promising young member of the squad. Thereafter, however, he seemed to be in and out of Alf Ramsey’s plans, and although he had a healthy scoring record at international level, in the immediate run-up to the 1966 tournament it was Geoff Hurst whom the England manager seemed to be favouring as a striking partner for Jimmy Greaves.

Then, in July, Hurst had a shocking game in a friendly against Denmark, and when Hunt was summoned for the next match, against Poland in Katowice, he seized his chance by scoring with a fulminating half-volley from 25 yards. When England’s World Cup began six days later, against Uruguay at Wembley, it was Hunt and Greaves who were paired together up front, with John Connelly as the wide man in what was still an orthodox 4-3-3 formation.

It is usually forgotten that England’s victory in the competition was not the result of a string of majestic displays that ensured an orderly procession to the final. In fact England played very moderately in their opening round of matches, and progressed thanks in part to a goal by Hunt against Mexico – the Liverpool player tucking in a rebound from a Greaves effort – and a further brace of his against France.

At that stage, of the attacking players he seemed to be the only one in form, his three goals lengthening his streak to 15 in 16 international games.

It was Greaves – England’s classiest player and the crowd’s favourite – who was most out of sorts, and the gashed shin he received against France provided Ramsey with the excuse to drop him. In came Hurst, who in turn took his opportunity against Portugal and Argentina. Come the final, he was playing too well to be left out and with Greaves ready to return, it was for Ramsey (now settled on just two men up front) to decide whether the mercurial Tottenham striker should displace the more workmanlike Hunt.

The manager decided to stick with a winning side, much to Greaves’s – and the fans’ – disappointment. Although in effect it was Hurst who had replaced Greaves, for some years it was Hunt who was the target of abuse from supporters convinced that he had prevented their idol from enjoying the greatest moment of his career.

Despite Ramsey keeping faith with him, the fair-haired Hunt actually had his poorest match of the tournament in the final. He missed a clear chance at the end of the first half, hitting his shot straight at the West German goalkeeper Hans Tilkowski, and four minutes from time, with England leading 2-1, wasted a three-on-one opportunity by passing much too early to Bobby Charlton. Three minutes later, West Germany equalised.

Hunt did, however, prove to be a key figure in what was probably the game’s decisive moment, Hurst’s shot in extra time that cannoned down from the underside of the German crossbar. As the ball came back down, Hunt was the nearest player to it; assuming that it was going to cross the line, he turned away from it instead of completing the goal, arms aloft in celebration.

In fact, it has since been shown that not all of the ball crossed the goal line when it touched the ground, but Hunt’s assumption that it would was enough to persuade the Soviet linesman, Tofik Bahramov, to signal a goal. England led 3-2, and never looked like anything but victors thereafter.

Roger Hunt was born at Golborne, near Manchester, on July 20 1938. His family ran a transport business, and as a young man he worked as a lorry driver. He got his break as footballer in 1959, when he was turning out for the amateur side Stockton Heath in the Mid-Cheshire league. A Liverpool scout came to watch a player from another team, but instead noticed Hunt’s talents.

He was quickly signed by Liverpool, then languishing in the Second Division, and after only five outings in the reserves was promoted to the first team. He scored on his league debut, against Scunthorpe, and for the next 10 years was the club’s first-choice striker.

Bill Shankly had been appointed Liverpool’s manager shortly before Hunt arrived at Anfield, and together the pair began to bring the team greater success than any it had yet known. In 1962 the side won the Second Division title, with Hunt scoring 41 goals, still a club record. Two years later they won the First Division championship, and the year after that the FA Cup for the first time in their history, Hunt claiming the first of the team’s goals in their 2-1 victory over Leeds.

The next season, 1965-66, the club again won the League title, but despite a goal from Hunt lost to Borussia Dortmund in the final of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup.

Much of Hunt’s success at club level was due to his striking partnership with Ian St John, but he was a more skilful player than he was often given credit for. Certainly, his principal assets were his stamina and his sturdy frame, but at 5ft 9in he was no burly giant in the John Charles mould, and many of his goals were the result of his anticipation and good touch.

Admittedly he was not in the same class as Greaves as a taker of half-chances, but he was a better team player – indeed a quieter individual altogether – and not incapable of scoring memorable goals, notably at Anfield against Inter Milan in the semi-final of the 1965 European Cup. In 492 games for the team he scored 286 goals, a tally only surpassed among Liverpool players by Ian Rush; his total of 244 league goals remains the club record. For his goalscoring feats, and his gentlemanly conduct on the pitch, he was dubbed “Sir Roger” in the chants of the fans on the Kop.

In 1969 Hunt, then 31, moved from Liverpool to Bolton Wanderers – the team he had supported as a boy – as Shankly began to rebuild his side. In 76 league appearances for the Trotters Hunt scored 24 times, before retiring in 1972. He had scored, on average, 5.8 goals for every 10 games that he had played in his career.

Hunt was capped 34 times by England, scoring 18 times. He made his last appearance for the national side against Sweden in 1968, thereafter declaring himself unavailable for selection, a decision some attributed to his feeling that many fans still resented him for having kept Greaves out of the side in 1966.

At the age of 34, Hunt took over the management of his family’s haulage business near Manchester, retiring from that in 1995. He was also a long-serving member of the Pools Panel, which adjudicates on the results of matches for the benefit of pools coupons when league fixtures are postponed because of bad weather.

In common with four other members of the 1966 side who had not previously been honoured, Hunt was – belatedly – appointed MBE in 2000.

Roger Hunt married, first, in 1959, Patricia O’Brien; they had a daughter and a son. He married, secondly, Rowan Green; she survives him, along with his children.

Roger Hunt, born July 20 1938, died September 27 2021