Denis Law: the balletic superstar who scored with an extrovert’s flourish
Denis Law: the balletic superstar who scored with an extrovert’s flourish
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A goalscorer with a courageous flamboyance, Manchester United’s ace also pioneered the signature celebration. Whoever first described football as the working man’s ballet – it may have been Tony Waddington, the long-serving Stoke City manager – they were surely thinking of Denis Law, whose balance and agility inside an opposition penalty area would have brought a cheer from Nijinsky or Baryshnikov.
![[Richard Williams]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/09/Richard-Williams,-L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Even on the sort of gloomy midwinter day when an English football stadium could seem, in the pre-modern era, to be a dark and glowering place, Law shone through the murk, and not just for the bright red of his Manchester United jersey and the white of his shorts. A shock of straw-coloured hair made him stand out in every opposing team’s penalty area even when he wasn’t spontaneously arranging his limbs to execute a spectacular aerial volley.
![[The statue of Manchester United’s holy trinity outside Old Trafford shows Denis Law with arm aloft in celebration]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e449bac1595c1dd19c496b237a35058da44fd404/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
In the days when you could arrive at any First Division ground an hour before kick-off and queue to pay a few shillings at the turnstile, Law – just as much as Bobby Charlton and George Best, the teammates with whom he is enshrined in bronze outside the Old Trafford gates – was someone you travelled to see. He drew the attention even when apparently doing nothing more than hanging around in the opposition’s half, his jersey untucked – the sign, back then, of a rebellious spirit – and the cuffs on the long sleeves of his jersey bunched in each hand.
![[Matt Busby sizes up Denis Law for his Manchester United shirt after his transfer from Torino]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6145a799d6d3be4d9eb545a6d380a8fecd36d0e7/0_533_4096_3422/master/4096.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
