Covid sceptic John Magufuli, the President of Tanzania has died of Covid.
F1 driver Johnny Dumfries
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Frank Worthington. An absolute legend off the field R.I.P.
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He was brilliant on it too at times. Some collection of âmavericksâ playing in those days in England. Bowles, Hudson, Currie, Frank Worthington RIP forgot he made 2 (two) appearances for Galway United
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As Rodney Marsh said about Stan Bowles, if he could pass a betting shop half as well as he could pass a football heâd be the richest man alive.
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His book was a classic
Robin Friday
Charlie George at Arsenal.
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Frank Worthington, supremely talented footballer and one of the gameâs great entertainers â obituary
A maverick presence in the English game of the 1970s, he was adored by fans and renowned for his love of partying
ByTelegraph Obituaries23 March 2021 ⢠5:53pm
Frank Worthington on England duty: though he won only eight caps, many observers of the game felt there should have been many more CREDIT: Colorsport/Shutterstock
Frank Worthington, who has died aged 72, was one of the great showmen of the English game during the 1970s; dubbed âthe working manâs George Bestâ, he was as well-known for his uninhibited enjoyment of life off the pitch as he was for the skill he showed gracing it for two decades with some 11 league clubs, notably Leicester City and Bolton Wanderers.
He won caps for England, almost signed for Bill Shanklyâs Liverpool and came close to claiming a league title with Southampton, though ultimately won no major medals. Arguably, however, in common with the likes of Stan Bowles and Alan Hudson in that era, his gifts (and self-confident attitude) were under-appreciated at the top level.
Mike Summerbee, the Manchester City winger, thought Worthington should have played 90 times as a forward for England instead of just eight. As it was, Don Revie and his successors preferred less maverick individuals in their squads, not ones who disdained shinpads and refused to roll up their socks. Worthingtonâs chief legacy, accordingly, was fleeting moments of magic which still warmed the memory of fans years later.
The most celebrated of these came at Burnden Park in 1979. Playing for Bolton against Ipswich, Worthington juggled the ball on the edge of the area with his back to goal before flicking it over Terry Butcher behind him, turning as he did so past the wrong-footed defender. Worthington then volleyed home with his favoured left foot. That season, he finished as top scorer in the First Division with 24 goals, ahead of Kenny Dalglish and Frank Stapleton.
It was talent such as this which had in 1972 prompted Shankly to bid a club record of ÂŁ150,000 for Worthington, then with Huddersfield. Worthington later identified the decade as the moment when footballers began to behave like pop stars â he himself had a fixation with Elvis Presley, as was evidenced by his sideburns â and he fully shared the lairy, hairy attitudes of many men of the day. Accordingly, high blood pressure caused by overdoing the fun led him to fail the medical at Anfield.
In action for Huddersfield Town against Manchester United in 1972 CREDIT: Bob Thomas Sports Photography via Getty Images
Undeterred, Shankly sent him to Majorca for a fortnight to relax. Worthington was then seeing Miss Great Britain, but in his memoir â entitled One Hump or Two â he recalled chatting up another woman on the flight before enjoying the attentions in the Balearics of a Swedish woman and her daughter, and later a Belgian admirer. He duly failed a second medical on his return and moved instead to Leicester.
Worthington was not one for regrets, but had he gone to Liverpool he might have scaled still greater heights. As it was, he played more than 200 times for the Foxes and scored 74 goals for them. It was while he was at Filbert Street in 1974 that he won his England caps under Joe Mercer, netting twice.
He had earlier been called into an Under-23 squad by Alf Ramsey, whose reaction to seeing Worthington arrive clad in a lime velvet jacket, red floral silk shirt, leather trousers and high-heeled cowboy boots was tersely unprintable.
Worthington, playing for Leicester at Highbury in 1975, leaves Arsenalâs Liam Brady, left, and George Armstrong in his wake CREDIT: Central Press/Getty Images
Worthington liked to boast of having been kissed by Raquel Welch on the dance floor â for some years the Hollywood star attended matches at Chelsea â as well as having joined the âMile Highâ club 20 minutes after meeting a French woman on a flight to Los Angeles.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, by the mid-1970s his marriage to his first wife, Birgitta, a Swedish beauty queen â he once nominated her his toughest opponent â was under strain. He had also publicly labelled some of his less naturally talented team-mates as âworkersâ.
His former manager at Huddersfield, Ian Greaves, took him to Bolton, again for a club record of ÂŁ90,000, where he was to score 35 goals in 84 games. The team won promotion to the First Division, although Worthington spent the night before their final match in prison.
With the singer Linda Lewis in 1974 CREDIT: Doreen Spooner/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
Matters came to a head when, having been made to listen to nine hours straight of Elvis on a tour to Germany, Greaves threw the cassette out of the coach window. Worthington subsequently credited his manager with improving his focus and reducing the excesses of his social life once he turned 30. âI admit I used to get about a bit, but I am quieter these days,â he said in 1978. âInstead of going out seven nights a week, I keep it to six.â
One of four children, Frank Stewart Worthington was born at Shelf, near Halifax, on November 23 1948. His father Eric had been on Manchester Unitedâs books before the war and after it played for Halifax Town as an inside forward. Frankâs mother Alice, meanwhile, had been centre forward for the WAAFâs wartime team.
Eric Worthington taught his son to aim for the corners of the goal in kickabouts in the streets. Yet Frank recalled that he was shaped more by playing against his older brothers, David and Bob, both of whom also went on to careers in the game. Since they were bigger, he could not outmuscle them, but he could be more skilful.
One of Worthingtonâs eight England displays, against Argentina at Wembley in 1974 CREDIT: Colorsport/Shutterstock
Worthington joined Huddersfield Town at 14, making his debut in the Second Division four years later. He remembered practising for hours pelting balls at a shooting board in the club car park, although his wayward streak was already apparent. On one occasion, he was fined after several women were found in his wardrobe before an away match.
Greaves told of how he had tried to reprimand Worthington as the player flicked the ball up to himself, catching it on his head, neck or thigh some 47 times, all the while not taking his eyes off the manager. âHow do you give him a telling-off when heâs doing that?â reasoned Greaves.
In 1970, the Terriers won promotion as champions, with Worthington having scored 19 times. They survived for two seasons in the top flight before suffering relegation.
After a stint in America pursuing his obsession with Presley, he was sold by Bolton to Birmingham in 1979 and helped the Blues gain promotion to the First Division. Spells in Sweden and at Leeds followed before he was snapped up by Southampton in 1983 in the wake of Kevin Keeganâs departure. In his sole season at the Dell, the Saints finished runners-up to Liverpool in the league, although Worthington scored just four times in 34 appearances.
Worthington as his hero Elvis Presley CREDIT: ANL/Shutterstock
He then had two years as player-manager of Tranmere Rovers in the Fourth Division. Worthington said that he hoped to bring more artistry to Prenton Park but was sacked when the club ran into financial trouble. After a time at Preston, he turned out for a dozen more clubs, mainly at non-league level, over the next few years, before returning home to Halifax Town in 1991.
By then he was in his mid-forties and the move proved unsuccessful, although Worthington continued to play for the clubâs reserves just for the joy of it. Altogether in his career, he had scored 266 goals in 882 matches.
âI have never made excuses for anything because that is a weakness,â Worthington observed with characteristic positivity. âI have always known what I was about and where I was going.â Latterly he had been suffering from dementia.
He is survived by his second wife, Carol, whom he married in 1986, and by a son and daughter of his first marriage.
Frank Worthington, born November 23 1948, died March 22 2021
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Taking it seriously and knuckling down meant going out six nights a week instead of seven 
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Thereâs a woman called Helen OâRahilly who has been tweeting (to a massive audience) throughout the pandemic about caring for her elderly aunt, usually an attempt at humour through misunderstandings or old age etc.
Well it seems the aunt has passed away.
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She released a book of the stories about the aunt⌠My mother got 2 of them for Xmas
This lady Helen was v senior in RTĂ in the past and then the Beeb I believe
Some entertaining tweets all the same. The aunt was a mini celeb.
She was. Sheâs given RTĂ a fair bit of criticism over the years too
Gonna be a fair hole in her life now youâd have to feel. Bed of heaven.
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True but there must be some fulfillment out of it too. I think the niece was on the back of a long term relationship breakup so it was probably a welcome distraction too.
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Poor 'oul Claude what was on the Arsenal tv.
He just couldnât take no more, Robbie.
RIP
A sad end. He was a gas man.