Peter Osgood, one of Chelsea’s greatest strikers who helped the club win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, died on Wednesday at the age of 59 while attending a funeral, the club announced.
Osgood, who won FA Cups with Chelsea and Southampton and played four times for England between 1970 and 1974, collapsed at the funeral at Slough, west of London. The cause of his death was not immediately known.
Skilful with the ball and strong in the air, Osgood scored 150 goals in 380 games for the Blues and was nicknamed the ”King of Stamford Bridge”.
He played in the stormy FA Cup final victory over Leeds United, scoring Chelsea’s first goal with a diving header in a 2-1 victory in a replay. That goal meant he was the last player to score in every round.
Osgood made two appearances as a substitute for England at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico against Czechoslovakia and Romania.
The following season, he helped the Blues beat Real Madrid 2-1 in a replayed Cup Winners’ Cup final in Athens.
Osgood moved to Southampton in 1974, scoring 36 times in 161 games. He was on the line-up that upset Manchester United 1-0 in the 1976 FA Cup final when Southampton was a division-two side.
Osgood took the famous trophy home after the post-game victory banquet and slept with it.
He moved to Philadelphia Fury in the North American Soccer League before returning briefly to Chelsea in 1978. — Sapa-AP