Ray Wilkins: Encyclopedia II - Ray Wilkins - Golden era

Ray Wilkins - Golden era

Wilkins was called up to play for England for the first time in 1976 by coach Don Revie and quickly made his debut against Italy during a mini-tournament in the USA. He was to become a permanent fixture in England squads for a decade to come.

Maligned in some quarters for supposed "negative" play (he was deemed more likely to pass a ball sideways rather than forwards - earning him semi-affectionate nicknames like Squareball Wilkins and The Crab), Wilkins nevertheless became one of his country's most sought-after players and, in August 1979, Chelsea accepted an offer of 800,000 pounds from Manchester United and Wilkins headed north.

His first season was uneventful, with domestic honours continuing to elude him, but he achieved one of his career highs after helping England qualify for the 1980 European Championships in Italy - the first tournament England had reached for a decade.

During a group game against Belgium, Wilkins scored a memorable goal when he lobbed the whole Belgian defence and, in one movement, latched on to the ball (thereby breaching the Belgians obvious offside trap) and delivered a second lob, this time over the head of the goalkeeper and into the net to put England ahead. The Belgians swiftly equalised though, and a disappointing England failed to make progress from their group.

Wilkins remained a fixture for England through a successful campaign to qualify for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, which England exited at the second group stage.

In 1983, Wilkins scored in the FA Cup final for Manchester United to put them 2-1 up against Brighton and Hove Albion. It was a goal of great quality and also some rarity - it had taken Wilkins three years to get his first United goal.

A Brighton attack broke down and the ball reached United midfielder Arnold Muhren just inside his own half. Wilkins made a run to the right to give Muhren an outlet, and was forced to control the Dutchman's pass on his chest after the slippery Wembley surface caused a bad bounce.

Wilkins finally trapped the ball on the right hand side of the area and instinctively (and, some would say, typically) cut inside to look for a square pass across the 18 yard box. No team-mate had matched his run in time (even though Wilkins was a player with a quick brain rather than quick legs) so Wilkins instead curled a left-foot shot of great accuracy into the top corner of the Brighton net. He was so enthralled that he sprinted to the back of the stadium to celebrate with the United fans - something he immediately regretted as it rendered him exhausted for the rest of the game which ended 2-2 after extra-time. He got his winners' medal after a 4-0 victory in the replay.

Over the next season, Wilkins continued to play for England under new coach Bobby Robson but they failed to qualify for the 1984 European Championships. The same summer, United accepted an offer of 1.5 million pounds from Italian giants A.C. Milan. Though Wilkins and his family settled quickly in Italy, it wasn't a successful era for Milan, and Wilkins was allowed to leave in 1987 to join French outfit Paris Saint-Germain.

However, Wilkins was still an England regular and he was chosen for the squad which qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. He played in the opening defeat against Portugal but didn't last the full 90 minutes in the next group game against Morocco after receiving a red card for the first and only time in his career. In disagreeing with a decision made by the referee, Wilkins threw the ball towards the official - but hit him with it. He was suspended for the next two games and was not reinstated by the time the quarter final against Argentina came round, which England lost 2-1. Wilkins made his 84th and final England appearance in November 1986. He had scored three international goals and had been captain on ten occasions.

On leaving Paris after just four months, Wilkins joined Rangers F.C. for 250,000 pounds and won two Scottish league titles and one Scottish League Cup, as well as scoring memorable goal in an Old Firm derby against Celtic F.C. which Rangers fans continue to talk about.

Next stop for Wilkins was QPR after his family decided that a decade away from London was long enough. Wilkins spent four years with QPR before very briefly joining Crystal Palace. He returned to QPR as player-manager just months after he'd left.

Wilkins left QPR at the start of the 1996/97 after the club was bought by media tycoon Chris Wright following the relegation from the FA Premier League. There followed spells at Wycombe Wanderers, Hibernian, Millwall, and Leyton Orient before he finally retired from playing.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Golden era", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki