Jimmy Greaves is an eternal name that'll continue to shine in the history books of the beautiful game, as the former Striker still remains the highest goalscorer in the history of English top-flight football with 357 goals.
He had a legendary career both at club and international level. His greatest phase in club football came with Tottenham Hotspur, with the Englishman being their second-highest all-time top goalscorer. Greaves was excellent for the England national side as well, as his 44 goals place him as the country's fifth-highest goal poacher.
We will be looking back at his time with Chelsea in this article, which was where England's future superstar began his rise to legendary status.
Made in Chelsea
It was Chelsea scout Jimmy Thompson that discovered a young Greaves, who was eventually signed in 1955 as an apprentice to become one of "Drake's Ducklings" (named after manager Ted Drake in response to Manchester United's legendary "Busby Babes").
Graves began to shine in the youth side, scoring 51 goals in the 1955–56 season and an astonishing 122 goals in the 1956–57 season under youth coach Dick Foss. He managed to score for Chelsea in the 1958 FA Youth Cup final as well, but they ultimately lost the two-legged tie 7–6 on aggregate to Wolves.
The summer of 1957 saw Greaves promoted as a professional. Despite this promotion, he spent eight weeks working at a steel company to supplement his income during the summer break.
Rise to superstardom
A 17-year old Greaves scored on his First Division debut on 24th August 1957, ironically against Tottenham Hotspur to help Chelsea earn a 1–1 draw. He quickly rose to fame at the club, with his talent being praised immensely by the fans and media.
Chelsea played an aggressive attacking style of football during the 1957–58 campaign, which saw Greaves end the season as the club's top scorer with 22 goals in 37 appearances. Surprisingly, Chelsea manager Drake rested him for six weeks from mid-November as he did not want all the success to go to his head.
Greaves made his return in the most remarkable manner though, as he scored 4 goals in Chelsea's 7-4 victory over Portsmouth on Christmas day.
Despite scoring five goals in a 6–2 win over eventual League Champions Wolves during the 1958–59 season, Chelsea failed to perform convincingly as a team and ended the campaign in 14th place. Greaves was spectacular yet again, as he scored 32 goals in 44 league games to finish as the First Division's top scorer.
The same pattern continued in the following season as well, with Chelsea faltering while Greaves kept on delivering. Greaves managed to score 29 goals in 40 league matches, and yet Chelsea only managed to finish 18th in the league. The Blues were only 3 points behind relegation that season, and the outcome would've been more catastrophic if not for Greaves.
The superstar leaves
Greaves continued his excellent form for Chelsea, and ultimately became the youngest player to pass the 100-goal mark at the age of 20 years and 290 days. However, Chelsea's inability to perform as a team and his brilliant individual efforts going in vain started to disillusion Greaves. The club were also in need of extra funds at the time, and thus Chelsea chairman Joe Mears agreed to sell Greaves.
Chelsea's legendary striker was made captain in his final game against Nottingham Forest on 29th April during the 1960–61 campaign. He left as a hero with a sensational performance that saw him score 4 goals to help Chelsea beat Nottingham Forest 4-3.
He left by scoring a club record 41 goals in 40 league games that season, also finishing as the division top scorer. Greaves was also Chelsea's second highest goalscorer ever at the time with 132 goals. He eventually departed to AC Milan, as his beautiful chapter at Chelsea finally came to an end.
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