Football: Greaves inducted into Spurs Hall of Fame at last

LONDON (REUTERS) - Jimmy Greaves, Tottenham Hotspur's all-time record scorer, will be inducted into the football club's Hall of Fame in May ending a long and inexplicable wait that has lasted for more than a decade.

The 75-year-old, who scored 266 goals for Spurs in 379 games in all competitions between 1961 and 1970, famously joined the north London club from AC Milan for 99,999 pounds (S$204,000 at the current exchange rate) in December 1961, a few months after they became the first team in the 20th century to win the English league and FA Cup double.

Manager Bill Nicholson insisted on the fee because he did not want Graves burdened by the pressure of becoming the first 100,000-pound English player.

Greaves, England's fourth-highest scorer with 44 goals in 57 appearances, scored seven goals in two World Cups and was a member of the triumphant 1966 team on home ground.

He went on to win the FA Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup with Spurs during his glittering White Hart Lane career.

"For all the fans who have asked me when I will be in the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame, I am delighted that we now have a date," he told the club website (www.tottenhamhotspur.com) on Monday.

"I am looking forward to returning to White Hart Lane for this very special occasion."

Since leaving in 1970, Greaves has only made occasional visits to Spurs, playing and scoring in his testimonial against Feyenoord in 1972, attending the memorial service for Nicholson in 2004 while occasionally returning as a TV pundit.

The induction to the Hall of Fame, which opened in March 2004, will take place on May 13.

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