Former New Zealand soccer captain Tom McNab has died at the age of 72.
McNab was a professional player in Scotland before emigrating in the early 1960s, and played eight games for New Zealand between 1967 and 1969, captaining the team twice.
One of his greatest moments was as captain of Auckland, when he played against Manchester United in front of 26,000 fans at Auckland's Carlaw Park on May 28, 1967.
United featured players including George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton, who would all go on to win the European Cup the next year with the side.
A tradesman, McNab was paralysed in a building site accident soon after he retired from the game and spent the last 20 years of his life in a wheelchair.
The Tom McNab Trophy was first played for in 1983 between Counties Manukau and Auckland and is now played for as an inter-club trophy.
Trevor Gill, the chief executive of SOCCER2 -- the amalgamated body of Soccer Auckland and Counties Manukau Soccer -- recalled sitting beside McNab at the Tom McNab Trophy in Papakura last year.
"Tom had one regret: he vividly remembered the time and the place and the name of the referee who had booked him (with a yellow card) almost 40 years earlier.
"That referee has the dubious honour of being the only referee to have written the name of T McNab in his notebook for misconduct."
McNab passed away on Wednesday.
- NZPA
Former NZ soccer captain Tom McNab dies
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