Liverpool's 'Anfield Iron' Tommy Smith dies

Smith, who is better known as the ‘Anfield Iron’, played 638 games for Liverpool, leading the club to four league titles, a European Cup, two FA Cups and two UEFA Cups in his time at the club.

London: Former Liverpool captain Tommy Smith, who led the Reds to domestic and European success and gained a reputation as one of the games' toughest tacklers, has died at the age 74 on Friday.

Smith, who is better known as the ‘Anfield Iron’, played 638 games for Liverpool, leading the club to four league titles, a European Cup, two FA Cups and two UEFA Cups in his time at the club.

He held the position of captain for three years and scored 48 goals between 1962 and 1978 including one in the 1977 European Cup final when Liverpool beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-1 to lift the trophy for the first time.

Smith joined the club as a schoolboy. He was first brought into the senior team by former manager Bill Shankly and swiftly gained a reputation as one of football’s most fearsome defenders.

Shankly once famously said of Smith — a true hard man in an era when tough tackling was encouraged and admired — that he “was not born, he was quarried”. Liverpool said in a statement on their website that they were “deeply saddened” by the news.

In 2014, Smith was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease after caring for his wife Susanne who died after suffering from the same condition.