Alf Ramsey - Later Life and Death

Later Life and Death

The later stages of his career were as a Board director and caretaker manager of Birmingham City and then as technical advisor to Panathinaikos between 1979 and 1980. He also appeared, in illustrated form, in the Roy of the Rovers comic, when he took over as caretaker manager of Melchester Rovers while Roy himself was in a coma. Sir Alf also had a sporadic column in the Daily Mirror in the late 1980s and early 1990s, his thoughts written down by Nigel Clarke.

Sir Alf Ramsey suffered a massive stroke on 9 June 1998, during the 1998 World Cup. By this stage he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He died less than a year later, in a nursing home, on 28 April 1999, at the age of 79 from a heart attack, while also suffering from prostate cancer. He was buried in a private ceremony at Old Ipswich Cemetery on 7 May 1999.

The England goalkeeper Peter Shilton said that while he and other players admired Ramsey as a manager, it was only honest to say that remarks that he made about the team in later years were less than helpful. This was notable during the tenure of Bobby Robson who lived near Ramsey in Ipswich, which prompted the former manager to expect Robson to come to him for advice on how to run the team.