Kobe Mainu is unlikely to need to look for work after his glittering career as a footballer – there’s no way he’ll end up running a chip shop.
Mainou has the world on his hands. Just 19 years old, the midfielder is on the verge of greatness as England face Spain in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin. Despite only having nine international caps, he has already become a vital cog in his country’s bid to win a first major tournament since 1966.
Two Manchester United players were in the starting eleven the last time England lifted the trophy under Sir Alf Ramsey and if Luke Shaw is deployed at left-back on Sunday night and joins Mainu from the start of the game, he could be the next two United stars to follow in the footsteps of Nobby Stiles and Sir Bobby Charlton.
But there was a third United player in that famous team. John Connelly played in the first match against Uruguay but was later left out as Ramsey switched to ‘Wingless Wonders’. He never kicked a ball for England again and had to wait until 2009 to receive his World Cup winners’ medal, after the Football Association petitioned FIFA to give due recognition to the whole team, not just the 11 who played in the final.
It was a bittersweet moment for Connelly. He came into the tournament in top form, playing in the first game but was unlucky to hit the goalpost twice. On another day he would have been a man-of-the-match hero but Ramsey made a change after the 0-0 draw and stuck with the same formation until the final.
Connery, who sadly passed away in 2012, insisted he had no regrets even if his life had turned out very differently.
“Uruguay didn’t come on at all in that game, they were absolutely awful,” Connelly recalled to the Lancashire Telegraph in 2010. “They marked us zonal and there was no way to escape.
“We had scored a couple of goals on our tour of Scandinavia before the tournament and were in good form but we hit the crossbar and the post. For the second goal Jimmy Greaves pulled the ball from the line and we got on and hit it at the near post.
“There’s a fine line between success and failure, and sometimes you wonder ‘what if?’
“I had a hunch that I might be excluded because I had seen the panel in the press, they were saying they might exclude certain people and include others.
“Alf came up to me and said, ‘I’m going to rule you out’ and I said, ‘You’ve always been fair with me’ and he said, ‘It’s not fair to you but this is what I have to do’.”
“We didn’t have any reserve players in those days so once you were out of the team you were out, so it was really disappointing.
“But Alf was the best manager I’ve ever worked with. He was a good tactician and a great man-manager. We owe it all to Alf to win the World Cup.”
England’s performances and results improved as the tournament progressed, as they did at this year’s Euros under manager Gareth Southgate, and in the final at Wembley, which saw England famously beat West Germany 4–2 to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy, Connelly watched from the stands as his United team-mate Styles performed his famous jig on the pitch.
“In the final we were all sitting in the stands kicking every ball,” he added. “Of course I would have liked to be on the pitch, even as a substitute.”
“It was great to win the World Cup and the atmosphere was amazing, but people remember the team and not the squad. I admit that. Sometimes I think it would have been better if I had played the second game against Uruguay instead of the first one.”
In the 1965–66 season, Connelly helped United reach the European Cup semi-finals. The season before, he had won the league title with United, earning his second Championship medal after winning it with Burnley six years earlier. In total, he made 80 appearances for United, scoring 22 goals.
He left United just after the World Cup final to join Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £40,000, and went on to make 149 appearances for the club before retiring in 1973 after a spell with Bury.
After retiring, the winger opened a fish and chip shop called Connelly’s Place in Briarfield which he ran with his wife Sandra for 31 years. Though it was a long way from the glory days of his playing days, he added that he “enjoyed every minute”.
He never took to the pitch in 1966, but he did just that, just as he had done as a footballer. “I have no regrets,” he said. “It’s been a good career. I’ve been very lucky.”
Mainoo & Co will be hoping for similar luck on Sunday night.