Sir Geoff Hurst has revealed that he was on the verge of giving up his football career to become a cricketer.
The soccer legend said that four years before the 1966 World Cup he had been playing more cricket than football, the Mirror reported.
The legend had been missing his soccer practice for cricket and said that he enjoyed playing football and cricket but in his late teens and early 20s he realized he was ‘messing about’ with both sports.
The 72-year-old said that the football had taken off, quite dramatically in the first season and in the next season he had been the top scorer, then in 64 they had won the FA Cup, in 65 they won the Cup Winners’ Cup and then in 66 the World Cup.
Hurst became the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final when England beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley in 1966.
—ANI