The King

Born in Aberdeen in early 1940, Denis Law was the youngest child in a brood of seven. Small, scrawny and with a severe squint, he somehow grew up to become one of the greatest soccer players Scotland has ever produced. He is probably best known as a member of the great Manchester United team of the 1960s, where he played alongside, among others, Bobby Charlton and George Best. Law was the first of the three to be crowned European Footballer of the Year. Signed by the legendary Matt Busby from Torino in 1962 for a then-British record ?115,000, he also won two League Championships (64/5 and 66/7) and the F.A. Cup (62/3) with United. He played 55 times for Scotland, and is his country's joint leading scorer with Kenny Dalglish with 30 goals. Unfortunately, he missed the European Cup Final in 1968 through injury. Law, of course, played for both Manchester clubs. While United signed him from Torino, the Italian club had signed him from Manchester City. Indeed, after being given a free transfer by Tommy Docherty in 1973, he returned to City. Docherty claimed in his own autobiography that he thought 'The King' wasn't worried about how he played and had stopped trying. He decided to give Law a free transfer - Law only found out about this while watching the television in an Aberdeen pub with friends. While Alex Stepney, Law's former team-mate at United, described it as a great injustice and an insult, "The King" is a little more circumspect - though it is clear how disappointed he was. The following year, 1974, Law is widely credited with scoring the goal that relegated Docherty and United to the Second Division. United would have been relegated anyway, because of results in other games. How Law felt, however, about what he'd done is as obvious from his writing as it was from the television coverage. He finished his playing career that summer - his last professional match was for Scotland in the World Cup Finals. I'd certainly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in soccer - even more so if you follow the game in England / Europe. It's a very easily read biography, if a little too diplomatic at times, but Law did more than enough in his career to keep the reader interested. He played for two of Scotland's greatest managers (Shankley at Huddersfield and Busby at United), was one of the first British players to move to Italy (this section of the book is worth its price alone) and played alongside genuine legends such as Kopa, Puskas, di Stefano and Yashin in a 'Rest of the World' selection. At club level, he played alongside George Best - a genius on the pitch and equally as famous for his off-field antics. Best, who played in the NASL with the LA Aztecs, is the only player to merit a full chapter.