Walk of Fame set to honour Alan Ball at Bloomfield Road

The family of Blackpool legend Alan Ball are to be presented with his '˜Walk of Fame' plaque from the National Football Museum in Manchester.
Alan Ball lining up for Blackpool in 1981.Alan Ball lining up for Blackpool in 1981.
Alan Ball lining up for Blackpool in 1981.

On June 24 this year, the National Football Museum in Manchester in association with NFM Artist in Residence, Paul Trevillion and You Are the Ref.com, launched the world’s first Football Walk of Fame on the walkway outside the museum – a permanent tribute to the legends of the beautiful game.

To celebrate the 50-year anniversary of England’s World Cup win, the boys of ’66 were among the first inductees to be honored.

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Their portraits by world renowned iconic sports artist Paul Trevillion have been immortalized in bronze plaques; among them former Blackpool player and national hero Alan Ball.

On November 26, when Blackpool take on Newport County at Bloomfield Road, members of the National Football Museum team and ‘master of movement’ Paul Trevillion will present Alan’s Daughters Keely and Mandy along with Blackpool F.C with their own Walk of Fame plaque.

Artist Paul Trevillion said: “It is an honour, as it was a privilege to become a great friend of Alan Ball.

“I met Keely when she was a little girl, and I always remember how Alan talked so fondly about his family with a very special place in his heart for his wife Lesley.

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“It was in the tangerine shirt of Blackpool, not the blue of Everton or the red of Arsenal that Alan became a World Cup ’66 hero.”

Ball won 72 caps for his country in a 10-year career and he made a total of 743 league appearances for Blackpool, Everton, Arsenal and Southampton.

He later managed seven clubs including Blackpool, Manchester City, Southampton and Portsmouth.

National Football Museum Director Dr Kevin Moore added: “Alan is part of an elite group of people who have won football’s greatest prize, it’s natural that he should be one of the first to be presented with a place on the nationwide Football Walk of Fame.”

The public presentation will take place on the pitch at Bloomfield Road at half time of the game with the plaque to then reside by a portrait of Alan in the Bloomfield Road Reception Area.

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