Jeff Whitefoot, talented wing-half who became one of the last of the Busby Babes – obituary

Jeff Whitefoot, who has died aged 90, was a footballer who shone at wing-half in Matt Busby’s great Manchester United side of the 1950s; though he left Old Trafford before the Munich disaster and went on to win the FA Cup with Nottingham Forest, he was often referred to, alongside Wilf McGuinness, as “the last of the Busby Babes”.

Jeffrey Whitefoot was born on New Year’s Eve 1933 in suburban Cheadle, Cheshire, a few miles from Old Trafford; his father was a builder’s labourer. He showed early footballing talent and was scouted by several clubs, including Wolves, Bolton Wanderers and Burnley, while Manchester City had (illegally) offered his father a job in return for his signature.

But the United scout Joe Armstrong, Whitefoot recalled, “came to the house and took the trouble to convince my old man that I should go to United”. Young Jeff accordingly signed for the Red Devils and, when he was not training, worked in the ticket office at Old Trafford – until one day in April 1950 he was called into Busby’s office and told that due to international call-ups he was playing for the first team against Portsmouth on the Saturday. “I couldn’t believe it,” he recalled. “When I went home and told my mother and father they looked at me as if I was mad.”

To settle his nerves, on the eve of the match he stayed with United’s assistant manager Jimmy Murphy and his family: “He had five children, so you can imagine how peaceful it was. They tried to relax me by taking me and Dennis Viollet to the Hippodrome [a variety theatre in Hulme] but I don’t think I got much sleep.”

The next day Whitefoot became United’s youngest league player up until then at 16 years 105 days (goalkeeper David Gaskell would break his record by 86 days in 1956). Portsmouth were a point behind United, in second place, and it was a tough debut: “In those days a wing-half was supposed not only to look after the opposing inside-forward but to get up and support the attack, and after 20 minutes I thought I was going to explode.”

United lost 2-0, but Whitefoot gradually played his way into a regular spot – as well as winning an England Under-23 cap –though he was not always first choice, appearing in 93 League games in his seven years at Old Trafford. He won the League title with United in 1956, but found his place increasingly under threat from the rise of Eddie Colman, one of the eight Babes who would die at Munich in February 1958.

By then, Whitefoot had signed for Grimsby Town of the Second Division, for £8,000. “When we heard the terrible news, my wife Nell and myself were hanging curtains in our new home. We had only just moved, it was just weeks since we had left United, and it shook me to my bones.”

He was deeply unhappy at Grimsby, however – “The training was terrible and nobody seemed to be bothered, and after a while I wasn’t either” – and he soon secured a transfer to Nottingham Forest for £11,000.

His determination to move down south had its rewards the following year when Forest beat Luton Town 2-1 in the FA Cup final. “There was glamour attached to it,” he recalled, “not only the day, but the build-up, being taken away to a hotel on the Wednesday to a supposedly secret location – even if every man and his dog knew where we were staying!”

Whitefoot played more than 250 league games for Forest, retiring in 1967. During his playing days he had run a bookie’s with his wife Nell, with whom he had a daughter and son. In retirement he had a spell as a greengrocer before running pubs in East Leake, Nottinghamshire, and Oakham in Rutland.

Jeff Whitefoot, born December 31 1933, died July 2 2024