His most famous achievement is the hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup final, the only one so far in the title match - and “unlikely to be repeated on Sunday”, as he succinctly points out. Pictures of that match show him with a toothy grin, red-shirted, clutching the Jules Rimet trophy.

There was a certain impishness about Geoff Hurst then and, 40 years on and a knighthood to his name, he still has that Puckish behaviour.

Meeting him, even if only for 15 minutes, in the plush conference room of the Adlon Kempinski — Germany’s poshest hotel — was a strange experience; a man without airs speaking on a game without pretensions in these trappings. He was in expansive mood, though it was his 50th interview of the day, give or take a dozen. Part of that was because of the World Cup itself, a tournament that belied the ’boring’ predictions.

“It’s been great”, he said, “an open tournament. France and Italy were not among the favourites but here they are, walking out in the great arena on Sunday evening.”

Much of what he said revolved round today’s final, and much of that will be irrelevant on Monday morning when you read this, but one point he made was pertinent in the context of the tournament as a whole.

“It’s not just about technique”, he said, explaining why he favoured Italy to beat France. “Technique can take you so far but Italy have the technique and they have the fitness. In the semi-finals, they ran Germany to the ground — and that was a younger team than France will be.”

... contd.