Martin Peters

Martin Peters (born 8 November 1943 in Plaistow, London; † 21 December 2019) was an English footballer.

Martin Peters was a winger for West Ham United. He signed his first professional contract with the London club in 1959, but did not break into the first team until 1962. He became a regular in the 1964/1965 season and won the European Cup Winners' Cup in the final against TSV 1860 Munich in the same season. In May 1966, national coach Alf Ramsey had him play for the first time in the English national team in the preparation match for the 1966 World Cup against Yugoslavia. In this 2-0 victory of the English Peters could convince and was nominated a little later in the squad for the World Cup.

Peters was still on the bench for England's opening game against Uruguay, but from the second group game of the preliminary round he played from the start until the final against Germany. He almost became the hero of the final when he scored to give England a 2-1 lead, but Wolfgang Weber equalised 2-2 shortly before the end of the match. So his West Ham colleague Geoff Hurst became a national hero with two more goals in extra time. Peters, however, was from then on also a regular player in the England national team.

In March 1970, Peters moved to local rivals Tottenham Hotspur for a then record transfer fee of £200,000. That same year he took part in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. The defending champions met Germany again in the quarter-finals and Peters scored early in the second half to give England a 2-0 lead. Coach Alf Ramsey then took his best players Peters and Bobby Charlton out of the game. A fatal mistake by the coach as England went on to lose the game 3-2 in extra time and were eliminated from the tournament.

Peters' career in the national dress was marked by disappointment from that game onwards. In 1972 he was again eliminated by Germany in the quarter-finals of the 1972 European Football Championship with England - he had played in seven matches in the European Championship qualifiers and quarter-finals, scoring one goal - and in 1973 he missed out on qualification for the 1974 World Cup against Poland. He then ended his international career after 67 caps.

At his new club Tottenham his further career was more successful. In 1972 he won the UEFA Cup in an all-English final against Wolverhampton Wanderers. In 1974 he reached the UEFA Cup final again, but this time he lost against Feyenoord Rotterdam. After that season he left Tottenham to join Norwich City. For Norwich he played over 200 times until 1980 and then became player-coach of Sheffield United. In total Martin Peters played 882 times in the then First Division until 1981 and scored 220 goals. However, he did not pursue a coaching career, instead going into the insurance business until he retired. From 1998 he was on the board of Tottenham Hotspur.

Peters most recently suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died in December 2019 at the age of 76.