Mike Summerbee (born 15 December 1942 in Preston) is an English former footballer, who played in the successful Manchester City side of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Raised in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire where he attended Nauton Park Secondary M<odern School Summerbee made his league debut playing for Swindon Town in 1959 at the age of 16. He made more than 200 appearances for the Wiltshire club, scoring 38 goals. In 1965 Manchester City manager Joe Mercer signed Summerbee for a fee of £35,000. In his first Manchester City season Summerbee started every single match, the only Manchester City player to do so that season.
Playing on the right wing, Summerbee was one of the most influential players in the Manchester City side which won four trophies in three seasons from 1968–70. Something of a practical joker, Summerbee (or "Buzzer" as teammates nicknamed him) was also known for a fiery temperament, a trait described by teammate Francis Lee as "retaliating first". Summerbee left Manchester City in June 1975, moving to Burnley, for a £25,000 fee, after making more than 400 appearances for City.
George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. In 1968 he won the European Cup with United, and was named the European Footballer of the Year and Football Writers' Association Player of the Year. He is described by the national team's governing body, the Irish Football Association, as the "greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland".
Born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Best began his club career in England with Manchester United, who had spotted his talent at the age of 15. He went on to see success with United scoring 179 goals from 470 appearances over 11 years. His playing style combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders. Best unexpectedly quit United relatively early in 1974 at age 27, but returned to football for a number of clubs around the world in short spells, until finally retiring in 1983, age 37. In international football, he was an automatic choice when fit, being capped 37 times and scoring nine goals from 1964 to 1977, although the team's performance never allowed his talent to be displayed in the finals of a European Championship or World Cup.
Anthony Richard "Tony" Cottee (born 11 July 1965 in Plaistow, England) is an English former professional footballer and manager who now works as a television football commentator.
As a player he was a striker from 1982 until 2001, notably playing in the top flight of English football for West Ham United, Everton and Leicester City. He was capped seven times by England, and played in the Football League for Birmingham City, Norwich City and Millwall. He also had a spell in Malaysia with Selangor and spent a season as player/manager of Barnet.
He played in the 1989 FA Cup Final for Everton and won the League Cup with Leicester City in 2000. His final career tally was 579 league games and 226 goals. In all competitions, he managed 712 games and 293 goals. He exceed his ambition to score 200 league goals in his career, but fell just short of his target of 300 goals in all competitions. Still, he was one of the most prolific goalscorers that English football saw during the 1980s and 1990s.
Cottee began his career at West Ham, where he made his first team debut in the First Division against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 January 1983, at the age of 17, scoring in the process. He played a total of eight games in the 1982–83 season, scoring five goals. He established himself in the first team during the 1983–84 season, when still only 18, and scored 15 times in the league. He did even better in 1984–85, when he scored 17 First Division goals. By the age of 20, he had already managed an impressive 37 league goals.
Francis Henry "Franny" Lee (born 29 April 1944 in Westhoughton, in Bolton, Lancashire) is a former professional footballer, who played in the 1960s and 1970s, including 27 appearances for the England national team. Lee played for Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City, and Derby County. A stocky forward, he won League Championship medals with both Manchester City and Derby, and scored more than 200 goals in his career. In 2010, he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame.
He holds the English record for the greatest number of penalties scored in a season, a feat which earned him the nickname Lee Won Pen, and sometimes led to accusations of diving. One such accusation, from Leeds United's Norman Hunter, led to an on-pitch fight, which The Observer later named as sport's most spectacular dismissal.
After retiring from football, Lee entered business, the success of his paper recycling business (in fact exclusively involved in toilet rolls) F.H. Lee Ltd making him a millionaire. In 1994 he became the major shareholder and chairman of his former club Manchester City, but stepped down four years later.
Peter Bolesław Schmeichel MBE (Danish pronunciation: [ped̥ɐ ˈsmɑɪ̯ˀɡ̊l̩]; born 18 November 1963) is a retired Danish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and was voted the "World's Best Goalkeeper" in 1992 and 1993. He is best remembered for his most successful years at English club Manchester United, whom he captained to the 1999 UEFA Champions League to complete the Treble, and for winning UEFA Euro 1992 with Denmark.
Born in Gladsaxe, Copenhagen, Schmeichel was famous for his intimidating physique (he is 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) tall and weighed about 105 kg (16 st 7 lb) during his playing days. He wore specially made size XXXL football shirts. Unusual for a goalkeeper, Schmeichel scored 11 goals during his career, including one for the national team. He is also the most capped player for the Denmark national team, with 129 games between 1987 and 2001. In addition to Euro 92, he played for his country at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and three additional European Championship tournaments. He captained the national team in 30 matches.