"Let me take you back forty years to 1966. The Beatles begin early recording sessions for their landmark album Revolver, and - later in the year - play their last major concert, in San Francisco's Candlestick Park. Back in London, the newly-formed Jimi Hendrix Experience get together for their first rehearsal. Harold Wilson is the man at the desk of 10 Downing Street. On black and white television sets, Britain watches a 6-year-old Coronation Street, and the BBC announces that it will begin broadcasting in colour from the following year.

30th July 1966: 93, 000 spectators squeeze into London's Wembley Stadium for the FIFA World Cup Final, which pits the host nation, England, against surprise finalists West Germany. England, managed by Alf Ramsey and captained by Bobby Moore, win the toss, and choose to kick off. Only twelve minutes have passed when Helmut Haller gives West Germany the lead, though it takes only seven minutes for Geoff Hurst to bring England level, seizing his chance with great opportunism from a Bobby Moore free kick. The teams go in level at 1-1 when the half time whistle sounds.

With thirteen minutes of the game remaining, Martin Peters gives the hosts a 2-1 lead. Picture the scene: 2-1 England, the host nation - in their own stadium - leading in the biggest football match of their lives. With 15 seconds remaining, Jackie Charlton concedes a free kick, from which Wolfgang Weber slides the ball beyond a sprawling Gordon Banks. England were simply 15 seconds from victory. 2-2: the game moves to extra time.

In the crucial minutes before the decisive half hour of extra time England manager Alf Ramsey is heard to rally his team, saying: "All right. You let it slip. Now start again." This would need effort of monumental proportions: persistence, determination, and courage. Eleven minutes of extra time have passed when Alan Ball sends an inviting cross in the direction of Geoff Hurst, whose shot from close range strikes the underside of the crossbar, bounces down - apparently on or just over the line - and is cleared. The referee, uncertain whether the goal should stand, consults his Russian linesman. 400 million television viewers worldwide hold their breath, and the 93, 000 spectators in the stadium are silenced. The Russian linesman, in a moment of high drama, debate, and controversy, indicates that the ball had crossed the line. The referee awards the goal. 3-2 England.

In the final minute, a desperate West Germany send their players forward in search of an equaliser. Winning the ball, Bobby Moore picks out Geoff Hurst with an inch-perfect cross-field pass. Hurst carries the ball forward, beyond the racing defenders, beyond his team-mates, and beyond all expectation, and buries his shot in the top corner. 4-2 England. England, only 36 years after the first World Cup, are champions of the world. Determination, persistence, and courage showcased in an electrifying 120 minutes. Bobby Moore leads his team to the royal box to collect the solid gold Jules Rimet trophy from Queen Elizabeth II, and parades it - together with his team-mates - around the Wembley pitch. Of many timeless images from that day, one is of Moore gallantly wiping his hands clean of mud on a velvet platform before shaking the hand of Queen Elizabeth II as she presents him with the World Cup.

There's one name you'll notice repeats itself within the success of that day: Bobby Moore. So what do we know of him? And how did he come to be the man leading his country out at the World Cup final? According to Bobby Moore Online, Bobby always considered himself chubby. In fact, one of his early nicknames was "Tubby" Moore. He was never considered a skilful player, but a strong, hardworking one.

At school, he wasn't the world's greatest scholar. In fact, when he joined West Ham as a teenager, he was considered the least naturally talented of 13 other apprentices. Most of the other boys had represented Essex or London schoolboys, and some of them had even had trials for England schoolboys. A person with a weaker personality and desire may have been overawed by this, but - although he felt out of place - he decided to work harder than anyone else.

The senior professionals believed that he knew he had a lot to learn, was very willing to listen and that he worked hard to improve. From his teenage years, Moore pursued not the luxuries of Ferraris, but perfection. It was this dedication and sheer tenacity that saw Bobby Moore captain West Ham, and become England's youngest ever captain at the age of just 22.

By the age of 25, Moore was a world champion. He was a hero to millions of children, and that was a role he took seriously. His understanding and patience with the crowds of jostling children waiting for an autograph was quite remarkable. He would on every occasion insist on a queue being formed, and he would stay until everyone had been satisfied.

On the pitch, Moore played for England 108 times, captaining them in a record 90 matches. Aside from winning the prestigious Football Writers' Player of the Year award for 1964, Moore won everything domestically except for a league championship.

Bobby Moore was a born leader; just looking at him instilled confidence. His appearance was always immaculate and he never seemed to be under pressure. He was calmness personified, a man whose solidity and leadership earned the respect of those who played with him throughout his career.

You could not meet Moore without being conscious of his acute level of awareness. In conversation, he looked straight at you, missing nothing, with those deep-set eyes never far from a warm smile. From the outset, he was intent on growing up as a person, as well as a footballer, of maximising every experience. Here was a man who, like Dave Mackay of Tottenham, would be last out of the bar after a few lagers and reminiscences and unfailingly first in for training next morning.

On 24th February 1993, Bobby Moore died of bowel cancer. He'd succumbed to an illness he'd been fighting for just over two years, and - in that modesty that so characterised him - had fought the illness without complaint. In the same way as he conducted himself on the pitch, he just got on with it. No complaints, and no bitterness. As somebody observed at his death: "God can tell Heaven's XI to start getting changed - the captain's arrived."

In his memory, his widow Stephanie Moore created the Bobby Moore Fund, a branch of Cancer Research UK, aiming to help in the fight against bowel cancer."