Paul

A reminder to the football community that it was old mate’s birthday today, Laszlo Urge, perhaps better known as Les Murray. Still missed by all who knew him. Sorely missed in Australian football, that’s for sure. A voice of passion, education, ambition, reason and accountability over many decades. It was a great pleasure to spend many hours of a Sunday, and countless in between, as well as memorable World Cup journeys for Korea/Japan 2002, and in Germany 06, South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014 chatting all things football. He was one of the best of his time, anywhere, and Australian football was fortunate to have him. On his final World Cup show in 2014 in our studio on Copacabana beach where jogo bonito was born, as his eyes filled with memories, emotions and tears, I presented him with a Garrincha Botafogo shirt, his favourite player, the ‘little bird’ who played to thrill the fans and danced and swayed his way to two FIFA mundials. Les never forgot those times, or those feelings, and wanted Australia to understand and fully embrace the beautiful game, or world game, as he called it. The game would do very well to understand the past, those that came before, and to live up to this legacy. RIP old mate.