Alan Gilzean: Scottish footballer who’s thrilling goals earned him the moniker ‘the King of White Hart Lane’ by Spurs fans

A striker of prodigious aerial prowess and his ability to dovetail with Jimmy Greaves led the Tottenham and England legend to describe him as ‘the greatest I ever played with’

Tottenham Hotspur forward Alan Gilzean strikes against rivals Arsenal (Getty)

Nearly 40 years after playing his final game for Tottenham Hotspur, his own testimonial match in 1974, Alan Gilzean finally returned to the club. On the pitch he once graced with thrilling goals, deft headed flicks and cunning passes with either foot, he was serenaded by the crowd as the “King of White Hart Lane”.

The crown has been bestowed on sundry successors with Spurs but Gilzean wore it first. Befitting a player of prodigious aerial ability, the title marked quite a leap for a painter and decorator’s son from the Perthshire town of Coupar Angus. But then the former Scotland centre forward, whose own working life began as a clerk for a carpet maker, was hailed by Jimmy Greaves – a royal of the game if ever there was one – as “the greatest I played with”.

Gilzean, who died aged 79, turned professional with Dundee in 1957. National Service in Hampshire, during which he turned out for Aldershot reserves, delayed his Dundee debut until 1959. He quickly made up for lost time by establishing a formidable partnership with Alan Cousin. In 1961-62 the club won what remains their only Scottish League championship, with Gilzean netting four goals in an extraordinary 5-1 rout of Rangers in Glasgow and a vital goal at St Johnstone as they sealed the title.

‘The King’ was coaxed back to work as part of Tottenham’s ‘Legends’ hospitality team (Getty)

The following season he helped Dundee reach the European Cup semi-finals. His scoring feats and ability to dovetail with another principal attacker – underlined by strong performances alongside Denis Law for Scotland – brought him to the attention of Spurs’s manager Bill Nicholson. In December 1964, weeks after Gilzean’s two-goal performance at the Lane for a Scottish Select XI in the memorial match for his roommate with the national team, lightning victim John White, Nicholson paid £72,500 for the striker he envisaged as the perfect foil for Greaves.

His predecessor, Bobby Smith, was a burly, bustling No 9. Gilzean stood six-feet tall yet was the lean, crafty antithesis of a battering ram, the epitome of the style Spurs fans demand. Patrick Barclay, the first football correspondent of The Independent and a Dundee supporter, was guilty of only slight exaggeration when he said “Gillie” passed the ball better with his head than most players could with their feet.

At Dundee he had collected an astonishing 165 goals in 185 appearances. Ten years with Spurs delivered 133 goals in 439 appearances – plus winner’s medals in the FA Cup, League Cup (twice) and Uefa Cup – while helping Greaves and later Martin Chivers score prolifically year upon year. Greaves and Gilzean socialised off the pitch, the Englishman nicknaming him “Cuba Libre” after his favourite tipple (boyhood friends had called him “Peenie” because he could reputedly pass the ball on to a pin-head). However, they did not see one another for nearly four decades after Gilzean’s testimonial.

The 1973-74 season was his last before he retired at nearly 36. His career also included 22 Scotland caps and 12 goals, including a towering header to defeat England before 134,000 at Hampden Park in 1964. He worked for a transport company, lived in Enfield and Weston-super-Mare and was true to what he told author Hunter Davies in the book based on a season behind the scenes with Spurs, The Glory Game; that he never watched football and would not miss it.

Gilzean was in his seventies, still “the King” to older fans but regarded by many old colleagues as a recluse, before he was coaxed back to work as a match day host as part of the “Legends” hospitality team. Few Tottenham players ever merited the distinction more.

Alan John Gilzean, footballer, born 22 October 1938, died 8 July 2018