"He was God yet he was in my kitchen having a cup of tea with my Dad."
Sports presenter and West Ham fan Matthew Lorenzo grew up knowing one of the greatest footballers in English history - Sir Bobby Moore - who also happened to be a very close friend of his father.
Now the 57-year-old has produced a documentary film, Bobby, which will premiere at Wembley Stadium to coincide with the 50th anniversary of when the central defender lifted the World Cup trophy in 1966.
The film tells the story of Bobby Moore's life - the triumph and the tragedy.
"Although he was our greatest ever defender and arguably our greatest footballer and the only man to lift the World Cup for England, he suffered a lot in later life and wasn't given the respect he deserved. I wanted to readdress that balance," says Matt, who began his career in sports journalism aged 18 on the Waltham Forest Guardian.
He became the youngest sports editor in the country in 1978 and spent five years at the paper before joining the BBC. He went on to work as part of the Grandstand, Match of the Day, Sportsnight, and Breakfast Time teams.
He recalls: "Once when I was at Sky in the early days, they were looking for someone to preview the weekend fixtures… I suggested Bobby Moore and my boss said, 'Bobby Moore, he’s bit of an old hat', which annoyed me greatly.
"He died pretty much forgotten. Yet three weeks later we were all at Westminster Abbey celebrating his life."
Bobby battled with cancer twice and died at the age of 51 in 1993.
"The thing about Bobby," Matt explains, "is that he never spoke to anybody, he always kept his innermost feelings to himself and was always charming in person. He only ever opened up to the two women he married and both are in the film. I grew up with is first wife Tina and worked with his second wife Stephanie and it's their contribution that's the most important and sets the film apart."
Matt spent just under three years making the film, which cost him over £1.3 million. He carried out 33 interviews many of them exclusive with famous players such as Wayne Rooney, Sir Geoff Hurst, Paul Gascoigne, Frank Lampard junior and senior, Harry Redknapp and Gordon Banks. While researching Bobby's life, much of which he knew, there were a few things that came as a surprise.
"While the film talks about his football career, it tells stuff about his private life that people would not have known before. And it will appeal to all sorts, not just football fans.
"For example; when he was diagnosed with bowl cancer, which eventually killed him – for the first couple of years he was told he was eating too much spicy food. By the time they realised what it was it was too late.
"He knew he was dying but continued to fly up to Edinburgh to see his oncologist to do research for other people where they might survive, when he wasn’t going to. Such a terrific example of the sort of man he was."
The film also has some unseen footage from the 1966 World Cup final - this archival footage Matt admits was expensive, costing him around £300,000 to use. He also explains that he has had to seek funding to make the film himself, asking friends, family and even using his pension, which was challenging, but worth it.
Fame never changed Bobby, Matt goes on to tell me, saying that he was always a nice man who would be willing to make the time to talk to people.
Speaking about his favourite memories of the heroic footballer, Matt, who was the youngest person to ever host the World Cup in 1994, adds: "On the pitch: I think the game at Mexico in 1970 against the Brazilians is probably the best, even after 1966.
"Off the pitch: I remember that every year we would go away. And every year we would bump into famous footballers, almost as though my Dad had been planning it, which of course he had.
"One morning we drove off and said, ‘oh crikey, would you believe it there is Bobby Moore’ – so he left me, my brother and two sisters in the car with my Mum and went off to have a chat with Bobby Moore.
"They went off into a bar together and then Bobby came running out and said he didn’t say you were here, and said ‘come on kids, come and have a drink’, which is a mark of the man he was, he was a gentleman. He always looked after other people.
"I got a few of his shirts, which annoyed my school friends greatly and when I became a journalist, his name became the uppermost in my contacts book."
Matt admits the whole process of creating this film about Bobby was emotional at times. "A hero on and off the pitch," is how the producer and those he interviewed describe the late 1966 England Captain.
"He was my friend. It was more difficult for his wives, because they had to relive it – their life with him, which is always very difficult when you have buried someone a number of years ago. But they both came on board and the thing driving it was that he deserved more than he got in life."
The world premiere takes place at Wembley Stadium on May 23, 8.15pm. Details: wembleystadium.com/Events
The film will be out in selected cinemas on May 27.
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