Few footballers will ever match up to Denis Law (Image: Getty)
Few British footballers have ever matched Denis Law’s capacity to inspire hero worship.
To the faithful at Old Trafford, the home of where he performed many of his greatest deeds, he was known simply as “the King”.
To the followers of his native Scotland, he brought the national team to new heights of competitiveness.
Even someone as rugged as Sir Alex Ferguson, his fellow Scot, admitted that in the sixties: “Denis Law was my hero as a player. I idolised him.”
That kind of reverence was based partly on his dazzling skills as a player, including his electric pace, his uncanny awareness in the penalty box and his astonishing athleticism.
“No other player scores as many miracle goals as Denis. He is the quickest-thinking player I have ever seen,” said Sir Matt Busby, who brought him to Old Trafford in 1962 from the Italian club Torino for a British record fee of £115,000.
The unprecedented sum was worth it.
During his 11 years at the club, he scored 237 goals in 404 appearances, playing up front alongside those two other legends, George Best and Bobby Charlton, as part of probably the greatest forward line in history.
He also scored 30 goals in 55 games for Scotland which still stands as the record aggregate more than 50 years after he retired.
His goals were delivered with the swagger of a true showman. He lit up stadiums with his charisma, mesmerised spectators with his self-confidence.
An engaging, often charming off the field, once described by George Best as “the nicest man I have ever known”, he brought an explosive sense of passionate commitment to his play.
It was a whole-hearted, uncompromising style that led to numerous confrontations with referees and opponents, as in 1967 when he was banned for nine weeks for fighting with Arsenal’s Ian Ure.
“I learned to look after myself,” he said of his early days as a professional. Though the authorities disapproved of such an attitude, his followers adored him for it.
“What the fans loved most about Denis Law was his incredible aggression and self-belief,” wrote Bobby Charlton. The same ferocious intensity applied to his patriotism, for his devotion to Scotland was matched by a profound hostility to England.
This trait ran so deep that on the day of the World Cup final in 1966, he refused to watch the match but instead went for a long round of golf.
Law’s ascent to the pantheon of sporting greatness was all the more remarkable given the two serious obstacles he had to overcome in his youth.
One was the extreme poverty he endured growing up in Aberdeen. The youngest of seven children, he was born in 1940 the son of a trawlerman who was away from home throughout the week.
His modest home had no hot water or inside toilet, while Denis did not even own a pair of shoes in his childhood and had to go to school barefoot.
His precocious talent for football seemed to offer him an escape route out of poverty.
Recommended to Huddersfield Town by a scout who happened to be the brother of the club’s manager Andy Beattie, he was signed for £5-a-week, and made his league debut at the age of just 16.
But despite his juvenile talent, his progress looked likely to be hindered by a serious disability.
For Law suffered from a visual impairment that gave him a pronounced squint and meant that he had to play with one eye closed.
Yet Huddersfield were so impressed with his early performances that the club paid for him to undergo major surgery which gave him normal vision.
There was no stopping Law after that. Having first played for Scotland when he was just 18, he moved from Huddersfield to in 1960 for a British transfer fee record of £55,000.
That record was smashed the following year when Torino paid £110,000 for him, though he never settled in Italy.
He found the defensive style of Italian domestic football too restrictive, clashed badly with management and was involved in a serious car accident that nearly killed the driver, fellow British footballing export Joe Baker.
His return to England heralded his golden years at United, epitomised by his award as European Footballer of the Year in 1964.
This sporting success was accompanied by domestic contentment when he married Diana Thompson, a solicitor’s secretary who worked in Aberdeen.
Theirs was a long, happy marriage that produced three sons and a daughter, who became a press officer at Old Trafford.
To his regret, because of a knee injury, Law had to miss the glorious 1968 Wembley final when United won the European Cup for the first time. It was a portent of things to come.
Law’s last years at Old Trafford were hampered by injuries until, much to his bitterness, he was given a free transfer in 1973. He spent one last season in the English first division with , then retired in 1974.
He then worked in the print industry and occasionally as a media pundit. Though his final years were clouded by dementia and battles against cancer, he was comforted by the strength – and the affection of the football fans he had captivated.