England and Fulham legend George Cohen has sadly died at the age of 83
(Picture: Getty Images)I can still see George Cohen now, elbows out, galloping up the wing, a truly positive right-back in first our domestic game for Fulham – and then for England.
Cohen was a hero of England’s World Cup-winning side from that unforgettable July day in 1966, but one of Fulham’s all-time favourites will be forever remembered for a photograph taken on the Wembley pitch at the end of England’s ugly quarter-final against Argentina.
Argentina’s captain Antonio Rattin had been sent off after half an hour of an ill-tempered affair which England eventually won 1-0 thanks to a Geoff Hurst goal. At the end of the match Cohen, described by no less a player than George Best as “the best full-back I ever played against”, was in the process of swapping shirts with Argentina’s Alberto Gonzalez when England manager Alf Ramsey famously intervened, angry at the opposition’s strong-arm tactics.
The two men were pictured standing a couple of yards apart, connected only by the elongated sleeve of Cohen’s England shirt as a furious Ramsey pulled his full-back away.
Cohen went on to play both in the semi-final victory over Portugal – and the historic World Cup Final against West Germany which looked like a 90-minute triumph for Ramsey’s England until the Fulham defender’s attempted block of a Lothar Emmerich free-kick rebounded cruelly to Wolfgang Weber, who beat Gordon Banks to take the match into extra-time.
It all ended well though for Cohen, who won the first of his 37 caps in 1964, following an injury to the regular right-back Jimmy Armfield – and his last in November 1967, in a 2-0 win over Northern Ireland.
Cohen was Fulham through and through. “I was born in Cassidy Road, right opposite the police station in Fulham Road,” he once explained. “I was closer to Stamford Bridge than Craven Cottage but it was easier to bunk into Fulham than it was to get into Chelsea.”
He was a one-club man, making his senior debut for the club he supported in 1956 and his last in 1969 when he was forced to retire through injury at the early age of 29. Cohen made 459 appearances for Fulham during those 13 seasons, continuously ploughing unselfishly and committedly in support of his wingers.
When a statue of this Fulham legend was unveiled outside Craven Cottage in 2016 Cohen, with a twinkle in his eye, asked: “You sure it’s not George Clooney?”
He was also made a Freeman of the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In later life he was a regular at home matches, greeting patrons but it was as a tough-tackling, adventurous right-back, that this true gentleman of Fulham will be best known by those who saw him.
