“You’d make a good little jockey,” was what Bill Ridding, the Bolton Wanderers manager of the time, patronisingly and, as it transpired, expensively told the young Alan Ball. He was also turned down by Wolverhampton Wanderers but went on to become a star of England’s World Cup-winning team at Wembley in 1966.

His temperament was hardly belied by his red hair, but he was by no means as combative as his father, Alan Sr, well known in his playing career for his explosive nature. The irony of Ball’s performance in that World Cup final was that he should do his greatest damage as what one might call an orthodox right winger in a team known by the sobriquet of Alf Ramsey’s “wingless wonders”.

No orthodox, recognised right winger, however, could have surpassed the performance given by Ball during extra time, in which he utterly dominated the experienced but heavy-footed Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, the West Germany left back.

His original instructions from Ramsey, the England manager, had, in fact, been to exploit Schnellinger’s lack of pace by drawing him into the middle and in the first half Ball had been frequently and unflaggingly pulling Schnellinger across the face of the forward line. There was one occasion when he could easily have made a goal for England by whipping the ball across a tempting open net, but on that occasion the West Germany defence escaped.

However, little Ball, still only 21, became increasingly effective and elusive as the game went on. He might have scored when Hans Tilkowski, the West Germany goalkeeper, pushed his shot over the bar. But it would be as a goal-maker that he was destined to excel in extra time.

Within 90 seconds of its beginning, he had that shot. But then he exploited his superiority in pace over Schnellinger out on the wing. After 100 minutes had been played, a long, probing pass to that right wing by Nobby Stiles, the combative England right half, was destined for him again. Once more he found the energy to race past Schnellinger, then cross on the run as a classical right winger would.

The rest is deeply disputed history. Geoff Hurst met the ball at the near post with a ferocious right-foot shot that ripped past Tilkowski, only to hit the underside of the bar and come down behind the goalkeeper. Perhaps we will never know whether or not the ball crossed the line, but Tofik Bakhramov, the silver-haired Azerbaijani linesman, believed it had, pointing towards the middle with his flag.

So England had regained the lead at 3-2 and Ramsey surely had a point when he told Ball that he would never have a better game for England.

Energy was always the essence of Ball’s game. I remember Ronnie Suart, the Blackpool manager at the time of the 1966 World Cup, assuring me that Ball “wouldn’t be going anywhere”, although he was known to have asked for a transfer. In fact, he was shortly sold to Everton for £110,000, a British record transfer fee. The record would be beaten again in 1971, when Ball moved from Everton to Arsenal for £220,000.

When he moved to Highbury, he found it difficult to settle down until Frank McLintock, the captain and a Scotland midfield player, took him aside and told him not to be impatient, explaining that Arsenal had been playing in their style for several years and were not about to change.

I well remember talking to him after England’s embarrassing European Championship quarter-final defeat by West Germany at Wembley in 1972, inspired by Günter Netzer, about the poor performance of one of his colleagues and asking what he thought they had done wrong. “I’ll tell you in one word,” he rejoined. “Character.” Ball certainly had that in plenty.

Another vivid memory is that of Ball sitting by the swimming pool in the Guadalajara Hilton Hotel the morning after England had lost 1-0 to Brazil in a 1970 World Cup group match. It was a game in which Jeff Astle, the England substitute, had blazed wide an easy chance to equalise. In his famously high voice, Ball was saying to himself: “How did Jeff miss that chance?”

I confess that I made him and his bellicose father the principal characters in a short story I wrote called Footballers Don’t Cry. Initially rejected by Radio 3, it eventually appeared in the annual collection, Winter’s Tales, then never seemed to stop being published.

It was chosen in the Reader’s Digest collection, Great Short Stories of the English-Speaking World, and was even broadcast on the BBC World Service in Mandarin. It was inspired by the relationship between the two Balls.

“Change your blanking name!” Ball Sr was said to have once told his son when he refused to become involved in a fracas. Ball Sr never stood on ceremony. The tale was told that, after his retirement, he took part in a charity match against a police team in which a large member of the opposition was giving a hard time to a young player on his side. Ball Sr warned him of the consequences if he persisted, which the man ignored, committing yet another foul. He was subsequently carried off the field.

In Footballers Don’t Cry, one was inspired, if that be the word, by the sharp contrast between the fortunes of father and son, Ball Jr rising to greater and greater heights as a player while his father’s managerial career ebbed away. Ball Jr’s managerial career was something of a thing of fits and starts. At various times he was in charge of, among others, Southampton – for whom he had played with his usual commitment and distinction – Manchester City and Portsmouth. But he could never quite achieve the heights and the consistency he had attained as a player.

Life story

1945 Born Farnworth, Lancashire, May 12.

1962 Signs for Blackpool.

1965 Makes England debut in 1-1 draw with Yugoslavia.

1966 Wins World Cup with England. Signs for Everton for record £110,000.

1970 Wins league championship. In England squad that loses in World Cup quarter-finals.

1971 Moves to Arsenal for £220,000, another record.

1975 Last of 72 England caps, in 5-1 win over Scotland at Wembley.

1976: Moves to Southampton.

1978-83: Spells with Philadelphia Fury, Vancouver Whitecaps, Blackpool, Southampton, Eastern in Hong Kong and Bristol Rovers. Retires in May 1983 after 975 first-team matches in 21 years.

1984-99: Turns to managing and coaching, with Portsmouth, Colchester United, Stoke City, Exeter City, England (under Graham Taylor), Southampton, Manchester City and Portsmouth again. Took time out of game in 1991 to work as a publican.

2007 Dies on April 25, aged 61, after suffering heart attack.

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