William Cobbold
 |
|||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | William Nevill Cobbold | ||
| Date of birth | 4 February 1863 | ||
| Place of birth | Long Melford, England | ||
| Date of death | 8 April 1922 (aged 59) | ||
| Place of death | West Wratting, England | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Long Melford | |||
| 1883–1886 | Cambridge University | ||
| Old Carthusians | |||
| 1885–1888 | Corinthians | ||
| National team | |||
| 1883–1887 | England | 9 | (6) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
William Nevill Cobbold (4 February 1863 – 8 April 1922), familiarly known as Nevill or "Nuts" Cobbold, was one of the leading footballers of the Victorian era and on several occasions a member of the England national football team. As late as 1922, at the time of his death, he could be described as "the most famous association football forward of all time", and certainly – in the words of his Times obituary – "the most individually brilliant dribbler, the player who could most often put in those thrusts that no skill could parry".
Born in Long Melford, England, the son of a vicar, "Nuts" was educated at Charterhouse School, one of the great nurseries of the association game, and Jesus College, Cambridge. As well as playing for the village team, he represented Cambridge University, Old Carthusians, and the Corinthians. While at university, Cobbold played in four consecutive varsity matches against Oxford University, winning each of them. His nickname, given to him during his time at school, was awarded – thought C.B. Fry – "possibly because he was the very best Kentish cob quality, all kernel and extremely hard to crack."
Cobbold starred on his international debut in England's 7–0 demolition of Ireland in February 1883, scoring twice in three minutes, and was frequently described as the trickiest and most elegant forward in the world at this time. "If one were to ask, Who were the three greatest forwards of all time?" wrote William Pickford and Alfred Gibson in 1906, "no matter what other two were named, W.N. Cobbold would perhaps come first to the lips."
Playing generally at inside left, "Nuts" was considered to have the ideal build for a striker of his period. "The best type of forward player," wrote Montague Shearman in 1887, "is the fast, sturdy man of medium height, like W.N. Cobbold the Cantab." It was true, Pickford and Gibson went on, that Cobbold was pre-eminently an old-style dribbling forward, who had learned his football in the years before the advent of the "combination" (passing) game at the end of the 1870s: "In those days 'dribbling' was the great game, and one only passed the ball when one was completely hemmed in, and not always even then." But "Nuts" was far more than a mere dribbler, the authors stressed:
...
Wikipedia