Denis Law: The squinting kid who grew into giant of global game

Denis Law stood on the platform of Huddersfield train station, a skinny, bespectacled 15-year-old, looking so small and insignificant that the new club officials who were there to meet him didn't recognize him in the crowd. "Are you Law?" one of them eventually realized, "Really?"

Really. That young lad grew into a giant of world football, known as "The King." Pelé said he was the only British player who would have been good enough to get into Brazil's team at the time. Bill Shankly called him "the most intelligent footballer I've ever seen." Sir Alex Ferguson called him "my hero."

The "Lawman" has gone, but what a life he had, and what a player he was. He scored a phenomenal number of goals for club and country, but he was more than just a finisher. He was graceful, charismatic, and courageous. He was a creator as well as a scorer, a complete footballer who was adored by his teammates.

He was aggressive, explosive, acrobatic, and deadly in front of goal, whether with his feet or his head. He was both brave and selfless, often unplayable. What a story for this footballing giant from Aberdeen. His early life was startling, one of seven children growing up in a council flat two miles from Pittodrie, and watching Aberdeen whenever he had the money.

The football giant's beginnings were challenging. He suffered from a squint, making it difficult to focus on objects, and was mercilessly taunted by his peers. As a child, he wore thick glasses and was known as "Cock-eye." He didn't get his first pair of football boots until he was a teenager, and he felt like he had gone to heaven.

On the pitch, he was small in stature but big in heart. He would close one eye to help his vision, and then get on with it. No one described him as a physically imposing athlete, but as a player? Oh, he was a player. So, in the mid-1950s, he got off the train and arrived in Huddersfield to begin his football adventure.

His coach was Andy Beattie, a former Scotland player and national team manager. "This lad is a freak," Beattie declared, "I've never seen such an unlikely footballer. Weak and small." However, they saw something in him: desire, skill, speed. They performed surgery to correct his eye condition.

When Beattie left and Shankly took over, the future Liverpool manager took Law under his wing, feeding him up to build his physique and overseeing all aspects of his physical development. When we think of Law, we naturally think of Sir Matt Busby, but another great Scot helped him first.

He made his debut in 1956 at the age of 16. Two years later, he was a full international, the youngest Scottish international in 60 years. He scored goals naturally. Law was talented, and he was feisty. He had an aggression that made some uncomfortable. "If he's like this at 18, I wouldn't want to play against him when he's 24," said one opponent, referring to Law's brilliance and aggression.

"Scotland's selectors may have found an inside forward, but at the same time, they have given themselves a little bit of trouble," reported The Observer. When Shankly moved to Liverpool in 1959, he wanted to take Law with him, but couldn't afford his asking price. Busby wanted him at Manchester United, but Law moved to Manchester City in 1960 for a British record transfer fee of £55,000.

He stayed there for a season, scoring 21 goals in 44 games, and would have had more but for an FA Cup tie against Luton being abandoned with 20 minutes to go. Law had already scored six. Then he moved to Torino for £110,000, again a record fee for a British player.

He was treated like a hero in Turin, but the atmosphere there was too stifling for such a free spirit. The club restricted his freedom, the media were too intrusive, and the opponents were brutal in their tackling, usually reserved for the players they feared most. Eventually, he felt like a prisoner, a marked man in every way. After a season, he escaped and forced Torino to sell him to Manchester United. That was 1962, and his greatest years were about to begin. He was 22.

In his first training session at Manchester United, Bobby Charlton approached him and told Law how delighted he was to see him at the club. As Charlton recalled: "He gave me that sidelong, slightly quizzical smile that became so familiar in later years. It was as if the magic and the aura of the old United team had been summoned in an instant."

George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton - the holy trinity of the Theatre of Dreams. Best recalled that Law could score from a one-in-a-hundred chance, never mind a half-chance. He scored 29 goals in 44 games in his first season, including one in an FA Cup final he dominated. The next season he scored 46 goals in 42 games and won the Ballon d'Or. The season after that he scored 28 goals, helping Manchester United win the league title for the first time since the Munich air disaster.

By then, Law was one of the most respected players in the world, and one of the most adored in his homeland. Scotland was not short of footballing icons at the time – the Lisbon Lions had just become immortal – but a day at Wembley in 1967 added even more to the Law legend. He elevated himself to a new level in inspiring his team to victory against the then-reigning world champions. Law didn't just want to beat England, he wanted to put them to the sword, and he made no secret of it.

In his 16-year Scotland career, he played 55 times and scored 30 goals, and that day will always be remembered. Manchester United won the league again in 1967, a mere warm-up for what was to come in 1968. Tragically, Law missed the glory of Wembley and the emotional moment when Busby's team won the European Cup ten years after Munich.

He missed both the semi-final and the final through injury. His body was starting to fail him. He needed more and more cortisone injections to keep playing. On the night of the final, he was in a Manchester hospital recovering from knee surgery. The next day, Busby came to his bedside with the trophy. Law recovered, scoring 30 goals in 45 games in 1968-69, but the great Manchester United side was about to fall apart.

Busby left and was replaced by Wilf McGuinness. McGuinness left and was replaced by Frank O'Farrell. O'Farrell left and was replaced by Tommy Docherty. The good times were over. Soon, Law would leave too. It hurt him, no doubt. He rejoined Manchester City, although he was at the end of his career.

In the final game of the 1973-74 season, playing for City against a Manchester United side deep in relegation trouble at Old Trafford, Law famously scored a back-heeled goal to put City 1-0 up with nine minutes to go. United were relegated. The story has been told so many times in almost poetic language, of how Law decided the fate of the club he loved the most, but he didn't.

Results elsewhere meant they would have been relegated regardless of what Law did, but it still troubled him. "I have seldom felt so depressed as I did that weekend," he said later. Law played at the 1974 World Cup and started that season as a Manchester City player, but retired almost immediately on August 10. His body could take no more. His greatness was assured long before he kicked his last ball, and it will live on for generations to come.