England v Rest of the World was a 1963 association football match held at the Wembley Stadium in London. The Football Association invited FIFA to select a team to play England as part of the FA's celebration of the 100th anniversary of association football and was the first time a world team played against a single nation.
For the FA's 90th anniversary celebrations, they had also played a Rest of the World team, but this was only selected from players from Europe. Jimmy Greaves was close to scoring for England several times in the first half, but failed due to laudable saves by Lev Yashin.[1] In the second half, when Yashin was replaced by Milutin Šoškić, Greaves assisted Terry Paine to score in the 66th minute. Denis Law equalised 16 minutes later, but Greaves brought England to a last-minute victory. Greaves had the best game of his career and was considered as the best player of the match,[2][3] while Yashin's saves greatly contributed to his reputation of world's best goalkeeper and earned him the Ballon d'Or two months later.[4][5]
As promised by FIFA, all of the World XI substitutes were used in the second half, with Raymond Kopa replaced by Uwe Seeler.[6] The World XI selection committee, headed by Harry Cavan, invited Soviet-Georgian Mikheil Meskhi via the USSR Football Federation, who falsely replied he was injured and could not play—he was not informed of the invitation.[7] Santos FC refused to release Pelé and A.C. Milan also refused to release Cesare Maldini, who was replaced by Slovan Bratislava's Ján Popluhár.[6]
Match details
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      England
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    Rest of the World
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References
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- ^ England 2 Rest of the World 1 Match Summary. englandfootballonline.com
- ^ Wilson, Paul. "England vs The Rest of the World: 50 Years On". esquire.co.uk. Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^ "The Football Association Centenary 1863–1963". footysphere.com. Archived from the original on 4 December 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^ Reno, Bill (12 May 2015) Why a Goalkeeper Will Never Win Another Ballon d'Or. Paster Magazine.
- ^ European Footballer of the Year ("Ballon d'Or") 1963. rsssf.org
- ^ a b Batty, Eric (December 1963). "The Truth About Wembley". World Soccer. pp. 18–19.
- ^ "Biography of Mikheil Meskhi". youtube.com. 31 March 2015. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2020.