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RON DAVIES FUNDRAISER
Please help Saints legend Ron Davies
06-10-06
Plans are being made for a testimonial event in tribute to Ron Davies, arguably Saints' greatest ever centre-forward.
Davies has lost touch with many of his old Southampton team-mates but he has been tracked down by Jeremy Wilson to a mobile residential vehicle in New Mexico where he is working for a construction company. Now 64, Davies' body has been ravaged by football and he is desperate for a hip replacement operation.
Saints fans have pledged to do what they can to help to help a player who was once described by an envious Sir Matt Busby as "the finest centre-forward in Europe". Speaking from Albuquerque in the United States, Davies and his wife Chris said they greatly appreciated the concern of Saints fans. "The fans were always very nice to me," said Davies, "they don't forget and I would like to thank the fans. Southampton Football Club wouldn't exist without these people. It would be fantastic if some sort of match or something could be arranged. I would like to be able to retire soon and I would love to enrol in Art School at the University of New Mexico. My hip problem means that I can't continue in construction too much longer."
Chris Davies added: "He really needs a hip transplant otherwise he will be crippled. I would like him to get his hip done, retire and get his social security. He gave his all to soccer, but he has got nothing now."
Davies, who was a regular in the Wales team, was signed by Ted Bates in 1966 for a club record £55,000 and took the old First Division by storm, out-scoring the likes of George Best, Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law. In his first three seasons at Saints, he scored an incredible 85 top-flight goals in just 119 league appearances and was twice Division One's leading scorer. He even scored four goals (click and scroll down to Man Utd 1 Saints 4 video) for Saints at Old Trafford in August 1969 and Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler, lists him as his one of his all-time favourite players.
He was known for his phenomenal heading ability and eventually left Saints in 1973, playing at Portsmouth and Manchester United before moving to the United States where he coached in Florida.
Davies was tracked down to feature in the new book Southampton's Cult Heroes, written by Jeremy Wilson, which charts the careers of Saints' 20 greatest icons and is published next week. In the book, Davies gives his first interview for almost ten years.
If you are interested in becoming part of a committee to organise a fundraiser for Ron, please email Jeremy Wilson on jeremywilson1976@yahoo.co.uk or the Echo Sport section on echosport@soton-echo.co.uk
In case you didn't know that much about Ron Davies, the following has been written by Duncan Holley, Saints' official historian:
"Ask any 50-something Saints supporter who was his schoolboy football idol and you only ever get one answer - Ron Davies. Throughout the second half of the 1960's Ron was simply the best centre-forward in British football - he had it all. Famous for his spectacular heading ability his prowess on the ground was sometimes overlooked, but he was no slouch with the ball at his feet and just as many of his goals originated from his boots as his forehead. Blonde, good-looking (he regularly topped the polls for best-looking footballer) and blessed with a superb physique, Ron was simply worshipped by all Dell regulars and was in fact one of the original prototypes for today's superstar footballers.
"How Ted Bates managed to hold on to his star player thoughout his prime is a mystery for Ron was courted by the land's top clubs but he remained a Saint and how grateful we all were. He could literally leap like a River Test salmon (he had trained as a youngster by hurdling while wearing army boots) and one of the finest and most common of all sights was the spectacle of Ron rising head and shoulders above opposition defences to powerfully meet one of Terry Paine's precision crosses into the back of the net. No defence could cope with that and quite simply Ron's goals saved Saints season on season as we struggled to acclimatise to life in the top flight.
"Ron also possesed a great temperament - a hard man who took his knocks without complaint. An artist with the ball (and the pencil) the city of Southampton literally took Ron to their hearts and there wasn't a wall in the vicinity of the Dell that didn't have 'Ron is King' daubed somewhere on it. He was the best, he was the King."
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