[Legend] Denis Law

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Ternyata selama ini belum ada thread khusus Denis Law yach ??? Yuuk share segala hal berkaitan dengan salah satu striker legendaris United asal Scotlandia tersebut disini ...

Denis Law

Denis Law (born 24 February 1940) is a retired Scottish football player, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a striker from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Law's career as a football player began at Second Division Huddersfield Town in 1956. After four years at Huddersfield, Manchester City signed him for a transfer fee of £55,000, setting 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 between an English and an Italian club. 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.

He is best known for the eleven years that he spent at United, where he scored 237 goals in 409 appearances and was nicknamed The King and The Lawman by supporters. He is the only Scottish player in history to have won the prestigious European Footballer of the Year award, doing so in 1964, and helped his club win the First Division in 1965 and 1967. Law left Manchester United in 1973 and returned to Manchester City for a season, then represented Scotland in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. Law played for Scotland a total of 55 times and jointly holds the Scottish international record goal tally with 30 goals. Law is also United's second highest goalscorer behind Bobby Charlton. Law holds a United record for scoring 46 goals in a single season.

Early life

Law was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, to George Law, a fisherman, and his wife Robina, and was the youngest of seven children. The Laws were a poor family, living in a council tenement in Aberdeen. He went barefoot until he was 12 years old, and wore handed-down shoes until well into adulthood; his first pair of football boots was a birthday present from a neighbour, which he received at 16 years of age.

He supported Aberdeen and watched them when he had enough money to do so, watching local non-league teams when he did not. His obsession with football led to him turning down a place at Aberdeen Grammar School, as he would have had to play rugby there instead. Instead, he attended Powis Academy (now St. Machar Academy) in Aberdeen. Despite having a serious squint, he showed great promise once he was moved from full back to inside-left, and was selected for Scotland Schoolboys.

Club career

Huddersfield Town
In the 1954–55 season, he was spotted by Archie Beattie, a scout for Huddersfield Town, who invited him to go for a trial. When he got there, the manager said, "The boy's a freak. Never did I see a less likely football prospect — weak, puny and bespectacled." However, to Law's surprise, they signed him on 3 April 1955. While he was at Huddersfield, he had an operation to correct his squint, which greatly enhanced his self confidence.

Huddersfield's relegation to what was then the Second Division made it easier for Law to get a game, and he made his debut on 24 December 1956, aged only sixteen, in a 2–0 win over Notts County.Manchester United's manager Matt Busby shortly offered Huddersfield £10,000 for Law, a substantial amount of money for a footballer at that time, but the club turned the offer down. Bill Shankly was manager of Huddersfield between 1957 and 1959, and when he left for Liverpool he wanted to take Law with him, but Liverpool were unable to afford him at that time.[8]Over the next decade or so, Liverpool would emerge as one of England's top club sides, rivalling and often eclipsing the Manchester United side that Law would by that stage be turning out for.

Manchester City
In March 1960, Law signed for Manchester City for what was then a British record transfer fee of £55,000, although Law's share of the fee was "precisely nothing". Once again, Matt Busby had attempted to sign Law for Manchester United, but United's cross city rivals beat them to Law's signature.

Although a First Division side, City had narrowly avoided relegation the previous season, and he genuinely felt that Huddersfield had a better team at the time. Law made his debut on 19 March, scoring in a 4–3 defeat to Leeds United. In April 1961, he scored two goals in a 4–1 win over Aston Villa that ensured City's survival in Division One.

Although he had thought about leaving, he was playing well and in 1961 Law scored an incredible six goals in an FA Cup tie against Luton Town. Unfortunately for him, the match was abandoned with twenty minutes to go, so his six goals didn't count. To make matters worse for him, Luton won the replay 3–1, and City were knocked out of the Cup.

Although he enjoyed his time at City, he wanted to play in a more successful side and was sold to the Italian club Torino in the summer of 1961.

Torino
Law's time in Italy did not go according to plan. Another Italian club, Internazionale, tried to prevent him becoming a Torino player as soon as he arrived, claiming he had signed a pre-contract agreement with them, although they dropped this claim before the season started.

Players in the UK were not treated well at the time, and the maximum wage for footballers had only recently been abolished there, so he was pleasantly surprised to find that pre-season training was based in a luxury hotel in the Alps. However, Torino took performance-related pay to something of an extreme, giving the players bags full of money when the team won but little, if anything, when they lost. Like many British footballers who have gone to play in Italy, Law did not like the style of football and found adapting to it difficult. The ultra-defensive catenaccio system was popular there at the time, so forwards did not get many chances to score.

On 7 February 1962, he was injured in a car crash when his teammate Joe Baker drove the wrong way around a roundabout and clipped the curb as he tried to turn the car around, flipping it over. Baker was almost killed, but Law's injuries were not life-threatening.

By April, he had put in a transfer request, which was ignored. The final straw for Law came in a match against Napoli when he was sent off. After the match, he was told that Torino's coach, Beniamino Santos, had instructed the referee to send him off because he was angry at Law for taking a throw in, which he had been told not to do. Law walked out, and was told that he would be transferred to Manchester United. A few days later, however, he was told that he was being sold to Juventus and that the small print in his contract committed him to going there whether he wanted to or not. He responded by flying home to Aberdeen, knowing that Torino would not get a penny in transfer fees if he refused to play at Juventus.

He eventually signed for United on 10 July 1962, for a new British record fee of £115,000.

Manchester United
Glory years

Law moved back to Manchester, boarding with the same landlady that he had lived with during his time as a City player. His first match for United was against West Bromwich Albion on 18 August 1962, and he made an excellent start, scoring after only seven minutes. The match finished in a 2–2 draw. However, United's form had been erratic since the Munich air disaster in 1958, and because of their inconsistency they spent the season fighting relegation. In a league match against Leicester City Law scored a hat trick but United still lost. They found form in the FA Cup though, with Law scoring another hat trick in a 5–0 win against his old club Huddersfield, and they went on to reach the final against Leicester City. Leicester were strong favourites, having finished fourth in the league, but Law scored the first goal as United won 3–1 in what turned out to be the only FA Cup final of his career. He also married his wife Diana that season, on 11 December 1962.

Unfortunately, an incident had taken place that season which Law felt had repercussions in years to come. In a match against West Brom on 15 December 1962, the referee Gilbert Pullin consistently goaded Law with taunts such as "Oh, you clever so and so, you can't play", and after the match, Law and his manager Matt Busby reported the matter to the Football Association. A disciplinary committee decided that Pullin should be severely censured, but he did not accept their verdict and quit the game. Law later claimed that "in the eyes of some referees, [Law] was a marked man" and blamed the incident for the "staggeringly heavy punishments" that he received later in his career.

Law scored a number of goals early in the 1963–64 season and was selected to play for a Rest of the World side against England at Wembley, scoring their goal in a 2–1 defeat. He later described this as the greatest honour of his career. His season was interrupted by a 28-day suspension for a sending off that he received against Aston Villa. The unusually cold winter forced United to play many of their fixtures in a short space of time, and their results suffered. Law later blamed this for United's failure to win a trophy in that season.

In 1964–65, Law won the European Footballer of the Year award, and Manchester United won their first league title since Munich. Law's 28 league goals that season made him the First Division's top scorer.

The following season, Law injured his right knee while playing for Scotland against Poland on 21 October 1965. He had previously had an operation on the same knee while at Huddersfield, and the injury was to trouble him for the rest of his career.

In 1966, Law asked United's manager Matt Busby to give him a pay rise at his next contract renewal, and threatened to leave the club if he did not get one. Busby immediately placed Law on the transfer list, announcing that "no player will hold this club to ransom, no player". When Law went to see him, Busby pulled out a written apology for him to sign, showing it to the press once he had done so. Law later claimed that Busby had used the incident to warn other players not to do the same thing, but had secretly given him the pay rise.

In 1968, United won the European Cup for the first time, but Law's knee injury was causing him serious problems and he missed both the semi-final and the final as a result. He was regularly given cortisone injections to ease the pain, but playing while the knee was still injured was causing long-term damage. He visited a specialist in January 1968 who wrote to United claiming that a previous operation to remove the cartilage from the knee had failed and recommending that a second operation be performed, but Law was not shown the report for several years and had to continue full training.

In 1968–69, United reached the semi-final of the European Cup, playing AC Milan. United lost the first leg in the San Siro 2–0, winning the second leg at Old Trafford 1–0 with a Bobby Charlton goal. Law put the ball over the line only to see it kicked away by a Milan defender. Law claimed a goal but the referee waved play on and United went out on aggregate. Busby, who had now been knighted, resigned at the end of the season and United's decline began.

Decline
Wilf McGuinness took over as first team coach at the start of the 1969–70 season. United finished eighth in the league, but Law missed almost all of the season through injury, and in April 1970 he was transfer listed for £60,000. Nobody made a bid for him, so he stayed at United.

After a poor 1970–71 season, Frank O'Farrell took over as United manager. They made a good start to the 1971–72 season and finished 1971 five points clear at the top of the league, with Law having scored twelve goals. However, results deteriorated and they finished the season in eighth place. Law scored in the first match of the following season, 1972–73, but his knee injury was troubling him again, and he failed to score for the rest of the season. The poor results continued and O'Farrell was sacked.

Law recommended that United replace O'Farrell with Tommy Docherty, having known him from his time playing with the Scottish national side. The club followed his recommendation, and things started well with the team's improved results lifting them into mid-table.

Return to City
Docherty gave Law a free transfer in the summer of 1973, after 11 years at the club during which he had scored a total of 237 goals in 404 games in all competitions, as well as collecting two league title medals and an FA Cup winner's medal. Only Bobby Charlton (who retired in 1972) had scored more goals for United.

He moved back to Manchester City. He played in City's 2–1 defeat in the League Cup final against Wolves. In City's last game of the 1973–74 season against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Law's back-heel gave City a 1–0 win but, thinking his goal had relegated United, he did not celebrate it (it turned out they would have been relegated even if the match had been drawn but Law did not know this at the time), walking off the pitch with his head down as he was substituted immediately afterwards. This game was the last club match of his professional career, as he retired that summer after appearing for Scotland in the 1974 World Cup, not wanting to be confined to the reserve team of a City side who were bringing in younger players.

Law still had a contract with Manchester City but their manager Tony Book told him that he would only be playing reserve team football if he stayed. He did not want to end his career in this way, so he retired from professional football in the summer of 1974.

International career
Law was not chosen to play for Scotland in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but scored on his debut against Wales on 18 October 1958 and quickly established himself as a first choice player. He played but did not score in Scotland's match against England on 15 April 1961. Scotland lost the match 9–3, and Law described it as his "blackest day".

While with Torino, Law continued to play for Scotland, although the club were not keen to release him for international matches and had put a clause into his contract stating that they were not obliged to do so.

Law was chosen for the Rest of the World team that faced England in the FA Centenary match in 1963

Law injured his right knee while playing for Scotland against Poland on 21 October 1965. Law scored in Scotland's famous 3–2 victory over England on 15 April 1967 in the 1967 British Home Championship, less than a year after England had become world champions. Manchester United won the league that season, but Law felt that the victory over England was even more satisfying.

Scotland reached the World Cup finals in the summer of 1974, for the first time since 1958. Although he had not played much first team football in the preceding season, Law was included in the squad and played in their first match, against Zaire. He didn't score, but Scotland won 2–0. Law was "very disappointed" not to be picked for the following match against Brazil, and was not selected for the following match against Yugoslavia either. Although Scotland were not defeated in any of their matches, they did not qualify for the second phase and were out of the World Cup.

Personal life

Since then, Law has often worked on radio and television summarising and presenting games.

He appeared as a special guest on the TV guest show This Is Your Life on 19 February 1975, months after retiring as a player.

As of July 2005, he is still married to Diana, and they still live in the Manchester area. They have five children, and their daughter, also called Diana, works as a press officer for Manchester United.

Law was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game.

On 23 February 2002, a statue of Law was unveiled at Old Trafford, in the part of the stadium known as the Stretford End. He had a successful operation to treat prostate cancer in November 2003 and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen on 5 July 2005.

The emergence of Dutch international Dennis Bergkamp in the 1990s uncovered a story that the player's parents, who were fans of Manchester United in the 1960s, named their son after Law. However, Dutch authorities refused to recognise the name unless it was spelt with two n's as they felt it was otherwise too similar to the female name Denise.

On 25 November 2005, Law was at the bedside of former United team-mate George Best as he died of multiple organ failure.

In May 2008 at the Manchester City ground, Law (with UEFA President Michel Platini) presented the medals to the winners of the UEFA Cup, Zenit St. Petersburg, and their opponents, Scottish side Rangers.

In February 2010, Law was named as Patron of the UK based charity Football Aid, taking over from the late Sir Bobby Robson.

Career summary

Clubs:

* Huddersfield Town (1956–1960)
* Manchester City (1960–1961)
* Torino (1961–1962)
* Manchester United (1962–1973)
* Manchester City (1973–1974)

Honours:

* FA Cup (1963)
* English Football League First Division (1965, 1967)
* European Footballer of the Year (1964)

(Law was a Manchester United player when the team won the European Cup in 1968, but he missed the match through injury).

* Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame (2002)
* Scotland's Golden Player (most outstanding player of the past 50 years) by the Scottish Football Association (November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee)

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org

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Future King: Denis Law backs Wayne Rooney to become Manchester United's top scorer of all time
James Robson

Denis Law and Wayne Rooney

Denis Law is backing Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney to become the all-time king of Old Trafford.

And he believes the England striker’s quest to be ranked alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player in the world will see United close the gap on European champions, Barcelona.

Legendary striker Law has been nicknamed the king by United supporters ever since his incredible goal-scoring exploits in Sir Matt Busby’s all-conquering team of the ’60s.

He scored 237 goals in 404 appearances and was named European Footballer of the Year in 1964.

As part of the famous ‘Holy Trinity’ with Bobby Charlton and George Best he won two league titles, but was injured for the European Cup triumph over Benfica in ‘68.

Law has been immortalised in the form of a bronze statue alongside Charlton and Best, which sits proudly outside Old Trafford, which is a measure of the esteem in which he is held by the club.

But he is convinced Rooney is on the way to eclipsing every United legend from Duncan Edwards to Eric Cantona.

“He could be the top – the greatest of them all,” said Law. “I said when he first came to the club that if he stays away from injury he will probably turn out to be United’s highest scorer ever.

“This year he’s got off to a flying start and he looks like he’s going to get a hat-trick every game. When you’re in that form and scoring goals, you feel like you can’t miss.”

That’s bad news for Norwich tomorrow, with Rooney expected to return from the hamstring strain that ruled him out of United’s draws with Stoke and Basle.

Before that injury he was in the form of his life with nine goals in his first six games of the season – including two hat-tricks in successive games, against Arsenal and Bolton.

That has seen him move to within 11 of Law’s all-time United record of 18 hat-tricks – which is yet another target he expects Rooney to surpass.

“At this rate, that doesn’t seem like a great deal given the way he’s playing,” said the 71-year-old.

“Football is like that. He’s got so much confidence at the moment.

“When you think about last season, he’d had an ankle injury and he wasn’t at the top of his game. I went through the same myself as a player. But when it’s going well, the confidence goes through the entire team.

“It is difficult to explain it but you just feel as though he is going to score every game.” Apart from being a United icon, Law is also Ferguson’s all-time favourite player.

“As far as I’m concerned, Denis Law is the best Scottish player of all time, bar nobody,” writes Ferguson in Law’s new book, ‘My Life in Football.’

“Anyone who has the slightest doubt about his stature in the game might care to heed the words of no less eminent judge than Pele, who once said that the only British player who could possibly get into the Brazil team was Denis Law.”

Just this month the United manager compared Rooney to Pele.

But the striker, who has scored 156 goals in 328 games for United, has more immediate rivals in the form of Messi and Ronaldo. Law sees comparisons with his own bid to emulate the greats of his day – Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas – and Busby’s pursuit of the great Real Madrid side of that time.

Busby eventually led United to the European Cup. Now if Ferguson is to win a third Champions League trophy before he retires, he must rise to the challenge of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, who defeated United in last season’s final.

“You can already see with some of United’s passing this season, they are trying to copy Barcelona,” said Law.

“It will be difficult to do, but we did the same thing in our day in trying to copy Real Madrid.

“They were dominating European football too. My favourite players were Di Stefano and Puskas. We all wanted to be like Real.

“They were everybody’s favourite team. Barcelona are the same now and the way they played in the final just shows you how football can be played.

“I was at Wembley and I know there won’t have been any neutrals there. But even Manchester United fans would have to watch and admire this team.

“I presented Messi with the European Player of the Year trophy a couple of years ago. I couldn’t believe the size of him. I’m not big, but he came up to about my chin. What a fantastic player.

“In that final against United, he, Xavi and Andres Iniesta were just fantastic. That’s the way the game should be played.

“When you talk about Messi and Ronaldo, you are talking about the two most exclusive, outstanding players in the world,” added Law. “But when you look back to the Champions League final – the one part where United looked like Barcelona was Rooney’s goal.

“It was one of Barcelona’s goals. It was one-two and then in the back of the net.

“He will be in that category of the best players in the world if he keeps doing it at that level.”

:: DENIS Law will be signing copies of his book: My Life in Football on Saturday at Waterstones in the Arndale Centre at noon.

Source : http://menmedia.co.uk

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Bagi yang belum tahu, Denis Law juga terpilih sebagai salah satu dari 3 pemain legendaris Manchester United yang diabadikan dalam bentuk patung di depan stadion Old Trafford :


ki-ka : George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton

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Denis Law di masa-masa akhir karirnya di United ...

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Benar-benar seorang legenda United !

Denis Law - Stretford End King!
by Ian Cruise



There's plenty of great footage of the legendary Manchester United team of Best, Law, Charlton - but there's not much better than this stunning goal from the Scottish striker, which is straight off the training ground.

Check it out for yourself... it's 18 seconds into this compilation video...



Source : http://www.talksport.co.uk

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Face to Face: Denis Law
Teddy Jamieson

ASK Denis Law a question, almost any question, and he’ll start talking about football.



The beautiful game is his default setting. Raise his childhood and he talks about football. Discuss his parents and he talks about football.

Maybe it’s because he’s got a new book to promote. Maybe it’s because he thinks that’s what we want to hear (which we do, of course). Maybe, most likely, because the residual heat of his days in the sun warms him still.

And so it should. In his new book, Denis Law My Life In Football, there is image upon image of him wearing the glowing red of Manchester United or the dark blue of Scotland, black and white reminders of how much colour he gave to football. (The colour photographs are even better.) Sir Alex Ferguson, no less, has said Law was the greatest ever Scottish player. He’s certainly the only Scot to be named European Player of the Year (in 1964). No wonder then that football is central to him and his image of himself.

“It gives a lot of happiness and you meet great people. I was lucky. I played under two great managers and travelled the world,” he tells me as we sit in a bland office surrounded by copies of his book in Bishopbriggs. “I went to Italy and I thoroughly enjoyed everything bar the football and unfortunately that was what I went there for. I loved the food, I loved the wine. I was single in those days and the ladies were quite nice. But the football was rubbish.”

And so it goes, a constant circling back to the sport that made his name, even though it is now the best part of three decades since he finished his football career. He’s not sure the game has improved since his day. “I think money has taken over, you’ve got to say that. There’s an area where you get to a certain stage where you’re not hungry any more because you’ve got plenty.”

Law has now entered his eighth decade though he’s not showing his age especially. There’s the familiar Chuckle Brothers bogbrush of a haircut that gives him a cartoon outline. Underneath it, his face is pure animation. It’s a face you can recognise even in the book’s oldest images, of a teenage Law as an Aberdeen schoolboy, and in the back row a Scotland Under-15 team photo. “When you think of that time there was nothing else to do other than play football,” he recalls. “That’s what we did every day. There was no television as such. You were out playing football in the street and unknown to yourself then you were learning your trade. You didn’t realise that. You were just enjoying football.

“You were proud on a Friday when the teacher came round with your shirt because you were in the school team for the game tomorrow. You had to supply your own shorts, of course, and your own socks. There were all different colours of socks.”

The war was not long over at the time and Scotland, like the rest of Britain, was feeling the chill of austerity. “Nobody had anything. We weren’t any different from anybody else. I remember all that.”

Law’s dad was a trawlerman with little time for football. “He was out on Monday morning, didn’t come home to Saturday lunchtime so he was not into it. I used to think my old man was an alcoholic because he came home on a Saturday and that was him in the pub Saturday night and then he slept all day Sunday and then he was back to sea and it wasn’t until later in life I realised that was the only time to drink on a Saturday because they weren’t allowed to on the boat.”

Growing up, Law says he didn’t think of himself as a potential football professional (difficult as that might be to believe). “I was quite good at technical drawing so I fancied myself as a bit of an architect really but football came.” Even when he went to Huddersfield as a teenager he went thinking he was going to be a member of the ground staff first and foremost. “I wasn’t going to be there too long and then of course Bill Shankly, who was assistant manager, took over and then the whole world changed.”

He was in the first team at 16. “You couldn’t be a professional until you were 17, so out of the blue I became a professional footballer. I never intended that to happen.”

Those first years playing football were hard. He was homesick all the time. In the close season he would return to Aberdeen and not want to go back. But he was lucky that Shankly was his manager. He could see Law’s talent. More than that, though, Law says, he was a father figure, perhaps a replacement for the father who he rarely saw growing up. From Huddersfield he went to Manchester City, then Torino, before returning, for a record fee of £115,000, to Manchester – to the very same digs he was in while playing for City – to join Matt Busby’s reconstruction of Man United. He was 22.

“I was part of the team that was recovering from the Munich air disaster and when you think of what they achieved in that short time after that, it was really good. I knew Sir Matt from Scotland days. He selected me to play for Scotland when I was only 18 so I knew him then. It was just a lovely time.”

He won two league titles with United but missed his chance to play in the European Cup final in 1968 because of injury. His biggest regret?

“Absolutely yes, but even then though we’d get there again because we had a very good team and really in ’69 we should have got back. We were robbed. We played Milan at Old Trafford in the semi-final and I scored a goal which was about … I’m not exaggerating, it was a good two feet over the line. That would have been the equalising goal because we’d already been beaten 1-0 in Milan. The referee didn’t allow it and they went on to qualify.”

We can romanticise the era, seeing it in the glow of old photos and blurry TV footage. But football was a more brutal profession in some ways then. Denis, I say, I counted at least two punches thrown in the book. “Given to me?” No, thrown by you. Did you ever throw a punch off the pitch? “Nah, nah, nah. I was a coward off the field, didn’t want to get involved in anything like that.

“I think the philosophy was then if somebody kicked you on the field and you don’t do anything back then they’ll keep kicking you. It’s the same off the field, of course, too. Right, if you kick me I’m going to kick you back.” Or punch you back?

“Yeah whatever. That’s what you call bullies, isn’t it? If you don’t hit back at them they’ll keep hitting you, so no way. I don’t care how big you are or whatever … I didn’t always come off best but at least I showed that you’re not going to get away with it.”

The game was certainly more brutal in terms of medical treatment. Law’s problematic knee that kept him out of the 1968 European Cup final would finally go under the knife. “The treatment you got in those days was not like it is today. It was cut your leg open. It was not good surgery. If I had to look back on it now and I had any say I wouldn’t have had it done.”

He played on until 1974, returning to Man City where his most famous goal was the one he scored against United that helped condemn them to relegation. He didn’t celebrate. He even made it to the World Cup for the first time, though he says now he was taken as a token gesture. His time on the field had run out.

Of course life went on off the field as well as on through the good years and bad. He met his wife Di, had five children, became a family man. Was he a good parent? “I hope so. Well, I’ll just phone the children and see.” I ask, I say, because it doesn’t sound as if he had a role model. “No, no. I think you’ve got to put it down to your good lady.”

Did he ever change a nappy? “I changed one nappy one time and that was the only one I ever did. My wife and her sister went out shopping and left me with the babe and he’d done the business in the nappy. It was like Maltesers in the nappy and for some reason – I don’t know why – I put it under the hot tap thinking it would melt. That’s how naive I was at the time.”

Ask him what he’s proudest of in his life and he says playing for his country. But then he reconsiders. “My family. Yeah, family more than anything. I’ve got five great children. Well they’re not children any more.”

Law laments the fact there are not the Scottish players now that there were when he was in his pomp. If you offered him, he’d take another 50 caps playing for his country in return for those two league medals he won with United. He still hasn’t watched the 1966 World Cup final. He remains what he always was, a football man, and a Scottish one to boot. He talks about football because football has been his life. It still is.

Denis Law: My Life In Football is published by Simon & Schuster, priced £25.

Source : http://www.heraldscotland.com

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Scotland ace Denis Law tips Huddersfield Town striker Jordan Rhodes to be a hit on the international stage
by Mel Booth, Huddersfield Daily Examiner


Jordan Rhodes celebrates after scoring for Scotland U-21's against Austria

JORDAN RHODES was today tipped to become a successful Scotland sharp-shooter by the greatest of them all – Denis Law.

Now 71, Law was the last Town player to win a full Scotland cap and the 21-year-old Rhodes is almost certain to follow suit a week tomorrow in Cyprus.

Manchester United legend Law – who bagged 30 Scotland goals in 55 appearances – has been following the fortunes of Town’s current hot-shot and believes he’s exactly what the national side need right now.

“I’m delighted Jordan is getting his chance because he’s a goalscorer and all international sides need them,” said Law, who found out about his own first call-up in 1958 from the Examiner newspaper seller in St George’s Square!

“His scoring record is excellent, he has done really well for the Under 21s and I’m surprised he hasn’t been mentioned much before for the senior squad.

“He will definitely play in Cyprus, I’ve no doubt about that, and it will be really interesting to see how he goes on because I’m sure he’ll perform extremely well at that level.”

Law still keeps tabs on Town, the club he made his debut for under Bill Shankly in 1956, and as one of the game’s all-time greatest frontmen he has noted Rhodes’ progress since he signed from Ipswich.

“Getting my first call-up and cap for Scotland is the greatest honour I am ever going to have, I’ll remember it for the rest of my life, and I’m sure Jordan is feeling exactly the same at this moment,” said Law.

“It’s obviously a step up from the league and the Under 21s, but Jordan has made those steps before and he’s been selected to represent his country on what he’s done for Huddersfield Town.

“If he didn’t have the ability he wouldn’t have been picked and everyone is after people who can score goals. Jordan has proved he can find the net and all he needs to do next week is exactly what he’s been doing up to this point.

“His experience with the Under 21s will help him and he’s done terrifically well. When I got called up to play against Wales I was only 18 and most of the Scotland team were household names and I didn’t know any of them personally.

“Jordan will know some of the current guys already and the manager, and I’m sure he’ll take to it straight away, because he’s playing really well and his scoring record is very, very good.”

Son of an Aberdeen fisherman and the only Scottish player ever to be voted European Footballer of the Year (1964), Law scored on his international debut against Wales on October 18, 1958. He hadn’t been selected for the World Cup that year, but went on to firmly establish himself and played in the World Cup 16 years later.

“I was told I’d been selected by the guy who used to sell the Examiner in St George’s Square!” he explained.

“We had been training one morning and I was walking up town to get my paper in the afternoon and he just said ‘hey, Denis, you’ve been selected to play for your country’.

“Nobody had telephones in those days and the Scottish FA just used to notify your club, so that’s how I found out, but it was a great feeling and it’s lovely that Huddersfield have got someone in the senior side again.

“It was Sir Matt Busby who picked me. He was manager of Scotland as well as Manchester United and he had just recovered after the Munich air crash. the fact he selected me to play in the game was the greatest honour I ever had in my life.”

Law, who had two spells with Manchester City and a stint in Italy with Torino, is best known for his 11 years with Manchester United, where he scored 237 goals in 409 appearances.

But he has never lost touch with Town, meeting up with old playing colleagues on a regular basis until the last couple of years and always checking on results.

“I always look to see how they have gone on and it’s great to see Town doing so well at the moment,” he added. “Hopefully they are going to have some very good years ahead.”

Source : http://www.examiner.co.uk

[troy andreas]

comment terbaru opa Denis

http://http://www.manutd.com/en/News...pa-league.aspx

[Andi Istiabudi]

Berbeda dengan Sir Bobby Charlton yang sudah beberapa kali datang ke Indonesia mewakili United, Dennis Law sepertinya belum pernah datang secara resmi ke Indonesia. Semoga saja suatu saat Law bisa mengunjungi Indonesia secara resmi

[troy andreas]

Law: FA Cup still special

United's record FA Cup scorers:

1. Denis Law (34)
2. Jack Rowley (26)
3. George Best (21)
3. Stan Pearson (21)
5. Bobby Charlton (19)
6. Mark Hughes (17)
6. Wayne Rooney (17)

Manchester United legend Denis Law believes David Moyes’ Reds will be fired up to win the FA Cup for the first time in 10 years as the road to Wembley starts with a testing home encounter against Swansea City on Sunday.

The prolific marksman had a remarkable strike-rate in the famous competition, netting a record 34 times for United alone – eight clear of the next best in Jack Rowley and double the amount of the leading current scorer in Wayne Rooney.

If you consider that the Scot once scored six goals in a fourth-round tie at Luton Town for Manchester City, only for the game to be abandoned at Kenilworth Road, and also added another seven strikes for the Blues and Huddersfield Town, it is easy to see why he has such an affinity with the trophy.

When asked recently by ManUtd.com if 2014 would be an ideal year to scoop the prize for the first time since the defeat of Millwall a decade ago, Law replied: "Absolutely. I would think the FA Cup since that particular time has not lost its glamour but has maybe lost a wee bit of importance because of the Champions League.

"Not just the European competition itself but also the fact that it’s important to get into the Champions League via your position in the Premier League as well. But the FA Cup is always a huge trophy anyway. No matter what you say about teams winning the league or the Champions League, they want to win the FA Cup as well.

"Even though at times, with some clubs, it might not look like it, they all want to play at Wembley and win it. We have got a fairly big squad as well and I am sure they would all love to win it."

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Football-News/2014/Jan/denis-law-thinks-fa-cup-is-still-special-for-manchester-united.aspx