Denis Law was an extraordinary Scottish footballer. But Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish would make a legitimate and irrefutable claim to be the greatest of all time.
The Lawman, Scotland's joint top scorer, scored 30 goals in 55 internationals, compared to Dalglish's 30 in 102.
In an era rich in world-class players (Baxter, Greig, Henderson, Johnstone, McNeill, Murdoch and others), Law was 'The King'.
The only British player who would have been good enough to get a game for the great Brazilian team of his era, claimed Pelé.
While he spent most of his club career in England, most famously with Matt Busby's Manchester United, he was a proud and patriotic Scot, famous for playing golf on an otherwise deserted course as England triumphed in the final. of the 1966 World Cup.
Interestingly, the love for his homeland was not always reciprocated by the people who lived there. Because he left so young, generations of Scots grew up feeling like they never *really* knew him.
Manchester United and Scotland legend Denis Law dies aged 84
Law is Scotland's top scorer, having found the net on 30 occasions in 55 appearances.
The striker is widely regarded as one of the best to ever wear the Scotland shirt.
At the age of 15, the Aberdeen boy stood on the platform at Huddersfield station. Wimpy, pencil-thin, and bespectacled, the squinty kid was not anyone's idea of a predatory scorer.
A year after his first-team debut for Huddersfield, Manchester City paid a British record transfer fee of £55,000 for his services before Law became the first British player sold for a six-figure sum when Torino signed him for £100,000. .
The move provoked a dismissive reaction from his compatriots who never forgave him for leaving in the first place.
“Denis had challenged their little minds by not only moving to English clubs, but also moving for a time to Italy,” recalls his Manchester United team-mate Paddy Crerand in his autobiography. “He was one of the best players in the world, so why shouldn't he have played for the best clubs in the world?”
The dismal defensive tactics adopted in Italy at the time quickly made Law long for home. Busby offered him the escape he desperately sought and he returned to Manchester to sign for United in the summer of 1962.
When FIFA chose a team from the rest of the world to play England in 1963, Law was one of two Scots on the team. A year later, he was named European Footballer of the Year, the only Scot to win that honour.
At Old Trafford he won an FA Cup and two league titles. The combination of Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best proved to be a perfect match, culminating in victory in the 1968 European Cup Final, in which Law agonizingly missed out due to injury.
As for his country, if he had played in the current era of ten caps a season, he would surely have won 100 caps like Dalglish.
Law (right) starred in the great Manchester United team of the 1960s alongside George Best.
Law was delighted to be inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
The youngest player to cap for Scotland in 60 years, Law made his international debut at the age of 18. Needless to say, he scored in the 3-0 win over Wales. He scored four goals in one game in the 5-1 rout of Northern Ireland on November 7, 1962.
Incredibly, he repeated the feat precisely a year later, when Norway was put to the sword at Hampden.
Despite scoring in a famous 3-2 victory over newly crowned world champions England in 1967, he became frustrated with team-mate Jim Baxter when Slim Jim began doing maintenance on the pitch. He wanted England to suffer as much as Law had 12 months earlier.
“Jim wanted to play in front of the crowd at 3-1 when we could have scored five or six,” Law recalled. “When I yelled, 'Let's give them a chance,' Jim would smile that infuriating smile of his and say, 'No, let's beat their asses.'”
Despite his patriotic streak, Law was always greatly annoyed that the praise of his fellow Scots tended to be muttered through clenched teeth.
The so-called 'Anglos' of the time felt they were judged to a different standard to players who plied their trade at Celtic, Rangers or other Scottish clubs. Despite his excellent career, Law was no exception.
“The selectors made sure that most of the team was based in Scotland,” wrote Old Trafford teammate Crerand.
“It was almost as if they held a grudge against players like Denis and myself for having the audacity to leave Scotland.
“You can guarantee that the guys who played in England would be singled out in the media a lot harder if Scotland didn't play well. It drove Denis crazy because he got more criticism than me.
When he finally took part in a major tournament for Scotland, the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, he was 34 and no longer the speedy killer of yesteryear.
His last appearance came in the 2-0 win over Zaire, which ultimately cost the Scots a place in the second phase on goal difference.
The thanks and appreciation of his own people finally came in 2018, when he was granted the freedom of Aberdeen.
Previous recipients of the honor have included Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson and Winnie Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Sir Alex Ferguson. Fifteen thousand people lined the streets of Granite City to greet one of their own.
In an era when Steve Clarke couldn't find a goalscoring centre-forward for love or money, Denis Law was a throwback to an era when Scotland produced extraordinarily good footballers. None more exceptional than The Lawman.