West Bromwich Albion legend Jeff Astle has died at the age of 59. The former England international collapsed suddenly at his daughter’s home on Saturday night and died in hospital.
Astle scored in every round during West Brom’s FA Cup-winning season of 1968, including the winning goal in extra-time against Everton in the final. He scored 174 goals in 361 appearances during his career at the Hawthorns. As a member of England's 1970 World Cup squad in Mexico, he notoriously missed a great chance to equalise against Brazil, who won 1-0 and went on to win the tournament.
Before being picked by comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel to sing on the Fantasy Football television show, Astle was working as an industrial cleaner, with the motto “Jeff Astle window cleaning services - Jeff Astle never misses the corners”. He went on to tour the Jeff Astle Roadshow, where he would sing, tell jokes and answer questions about his career.
West Brom chief executive and Astle's former team-mate John Wile described the striker as “a fantastic player and a great guy”. “Jeff was a very funny bloke. It was a laugh a minute in the dressing room and he was good for the dressing room in that respect. He always made light of the situation and he was always ready to join in any mickey-taking that was going around. The nice thing about Jeff was that he was a very humble fellow. After he finished playing, he didn't think football owed him a living. He got on with his life and made a new life,” said Wile.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
