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THE Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue” tells the tale of a man whose father gave him a girl’s name in order to toughen him up –
the reasoning being that he would be taunted mercilessly and forced to defend himself.

The former Manchester United and England footballer Nobby Stiles puts forward a similar explanation for his development as a hard man of the tough-tackling terrier variety. With a name like Norbert, he didn’t have much choice. It probably didn’t help that he was a speccy little herbert. Or, if you prefer, a four-eyed midget.

But when he was on the pitch he ditched the bins in favour of new-fangled contact lenses, and underwent a transformation along the lines of Clark Kent to Superman. This wasn’t for aesthetic reasons (he used to take his false teeth out, which didn’t improve his appearance). It was for footballing reasons, and it can’t have harmed him, because he ended up with a World Cup winner’s medal in his trophy cabinet. (Nobby created criticism throughout the tournament for his dirty play, and there were calls for him to be dropped from the team.)

All very impressive. But in Holland they went one better. In 1970 Feyenoord won the European Cup (for younger readers, that’s the big silver one they call the Champions League). Their captain, and the scorer of the winning goal in the final (pictured), was Rinus Israel. Rinus was a big lad, and he certainly wasn’t afraid to walk around in a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. He wore them on the training pitch, and he wore them for official photos, as our evidence shows.

But he didn’t wear them in actual matches, and in this respect he is put to shame by team mate Joop Van Daele, who was obviously made of sterner stuff. Joop didn’t just wear them in any old game; he wore them in the 1970 World Club Championship match against the notoriously dirty Estudiantes of Argentina. To put this in perspective, Manchester United had played Estudiantes in the 1968 World Club Championship. Nobby Stiles was sent off in the away leg and admitted being terrified by the hostility in the ground.

Joop’s bins were unceremoniously smashed by an Argentine opponent - Oscar Malbernat grabbed Van Daele’s glasses and stamped on them, offering, “You are not allowed to play with glasses. At least not in South America.”

But for the sheer foolishness and bravery of wearing them in the first place, we salute you, sir.

Update:

Joseph Armand Jurion, aka Jef Jurion, who won 64 caps for Belgium (40 as captain), between 1960 and 1967.