Maurice Norman (8 May 1934 – 27 November 2022) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played nearly 400 times in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

as a

centre half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. At international level, Norman won 23

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the England national team.

Club career

Norman was born in Mulbarton,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

. He began his career at

, and played 35 league matches for the Canaries between 1952 and 1955. Despite such a short career with the club, he was elected into the Norwich City Hall of Fame in 2002. He signed for

in November 1955 for a £28,000 transfer fee, that also included the return transfer of Ireland international striker Johnny Gavin to Norwich. Norman played his first game for his new club against

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

, and stayed at White Hart Lane until 1965, making 411 first-team appearances and scoring 19 goals for Spurs. He was an integral part of Bill Nicholson's

Double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

-winning Tottenham team of 1960–61 that went on to retain the FA Cup in

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

, and win the 1963 Cup Winners' Cup.

International career

At international level, Norman made 23 appearances for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, including in the

1962 World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place bet ...

. He was also a member of the England squad at the

1958 World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the sixth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Brazil be ...

, but did not play. He suffered a double fracture of

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it conn ...

and

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity ...

playing for Spurs against a Hungarian Select XI in November 1965, which brought a premature end to his career.

Personal life and death

In 2014, Norman was diagnosed with vascular dementia. Norman died from cancer on 27 November 2022, at the age of 88.

References

External links

A human colossus
article at MEHSTG, a Tottenham Hotspur fansite

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Norman, Maurice 1934 births 2022 deaths People from Mulbarton, Norfolk English footballers England international footballers England under-23 international footballers Association football defenders Norwich City F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players English Football League players 1958 FIFA World Cup players 1962 FIFA World Cup players London XI players English Football League representative players FA Cup Final players Footballers from Norfolk