Former Tottenham and England playmaker has come through his 2018 cardiac arrest and still loves the ‘beautiful game’
“It’s easy to say it was winning. I was born winning, I wanted to win tiddlywinks against my dad at home, so I had that in me. But I think the thing I enjoyed most about playing football was being able to express myself and be creative. From when I was a kid in the garden with my own imagination to when I was playing at Wembley in a cup final, that was really what I wanted to do, create.”
There aren’t many football players who can be said to have a clear association with an idea, but Glenn Hoddle and creativity is surely one. The Spurs icon played slowly in an era of harum-scarum, he charmed the ball while others attacked it, and he did so not just deliberately but assertively, in a way that Brian Clough said required “moral courage”.
