Harry Gregg

1952/57 Doncaster Rovers (ENG) 99 matches

(England Premier League: 94 matches)

(England Cup: 5 matches)

1957/66 Manchester United (ENG) 247 matches

(England Premier League: 210 matches)

(England Cup: 24 matches)

(England League Cup: 2 matches)

(European Champion Clubs' Cup: 9 matches)

(England Cup Winners' Cup: 2 matches)

1966/67 Stoke City (ENG) 2 matches

With the National Team :

25 caps

(Friendly match: 1 cap)

(World Cup qualifier: 5 caps)

(World Cup: 4 caps)

(British Home Championship: 16 caps)

1st cap: March 31, 1954 against Wales (2-1)

Last cap: November 20, 1963 against England (3-8)

Henry Gregg

Born October 27, 1932 in Magherafelt (NIR)

Died February 16, 2020 in Coleraine (NIR)

Northern Irish, Goalkeeper, 1m83

Harry Gregg was born on October 27, 1932 in Magherafelt in Northern Ireland. He started football at a very young age on a small football field near his home. The Doncaster Rovers team will see in this goalkeeper their potential future holder and will recruit him when he is 18 years old, but he will not make his debut with the club until 1952, at 20 years old.

At Doncaster, in the English second division, he made good performances, enough to make him sign with Manchester United in December 1957 for 23,500 pounds, a record for a goalkeeper at the time. A sum that will very quickly be repaid by his level, the Northern Irish international since 1954 will become one of the best goalkeepers in the country and the world.

However, everything could have changed for the player who is the victim of the famous crash of the Manchester United club plane on February 6, 1958. This crash which will cost the lives of 23 people including 8 players of the team will remain in the memories, just like the act of Harry Gregg.

Indeed, the player will perform a memorable act, he is the one who extracts Bobby Charlton, Dennis Viollet and Matt Busby from the plane, returning several times to the burning plane. Humble and courageous, he will prefer not to mention his heroic gesture in more detail. Apart from that, he was also known for having contributed to several intercommunity causes during the dark period of civil unrest in Northern Ireland.

A regular at Manchester United, he finished second in the championship the season after the famous crash, a great architect of Manchester United's successes during this period, he allowed the club to lift the English championship trophy in 1965.

However, if we refer to his career, it was in the Northern Irish National Team that he made an even bigger impression. During the 1958 World Cup, he had a memorable competition. Imperial against Czechoslovakia, he only conceded 6 goals in the group stage, let's remember, with Northern Ireland, in a group of death composed of Argentina, Germany and Czechoslovakia. A real surprise of the tournament, he took his team to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, where they were swept away 4-0 by Brazil, not enough to diminish his legend. He was logically voted best goalkeeper of the tournament.

His career with Northern Ireland was great, and even though he only played 25 times for his country, he is one of its greatest legends by far. After 9 years at Manchester United and aged 33, the player decided in the summer of 1966 to join Stoke City after a very good season with Manchester United where he lost in the semi-final of the Champions League. At Stoke City, the adventure was very short, after only 2 small matches, it was already the end of the adventure of the Northern Irish goalkeeper, who retired immediately afterwards.

- Voted best goalkeeper of the World Cup in 1958

- Named in the team of the tournament of the World Cup in 1958

- Appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1995

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