George Eastham, England’s 1966 World Cup winning team player, has died at the age of 88.
The forward made 19 international appearances and, when he was part of manager Sir Alf Ramsey’s World Cup squad 58 years ago, did not play as England won for the first time in their history.
Eastham played for Newcastle United and Arsenal before joining Stoke for £35,000 shortly after the 1966 World Cup.
He played 194 times for the Potters and scored the winning goal in the 1972 League Cup final when they beat Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley.
Eastham was also involved in the 1963 court case, out which improved the freedom of players to move between clubs in a major reform of the British transfer market and he was awarded an OBE for his services to football in 1973.
He retired from playing in 1974 and then became manager of Stoke from March 1977 to January 1978.
Stoke said, out “Deeply saddened by the death of a club legend” Eastham will wear black for their game at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday (12:30 GMT).
They also plan to pay tribute to Eastham at their home match against Leeds United on 26 December.
“Our thoughts are with George’s family and friends at this difficult time,” the club added.
