Helmut Haller, who scored the first goal in the 1966 World Cup final, has had a heart attack and is in intensive care in a hospital.

Haller had played for Juventus in Malta's old Gzira Stadium in the UEFA Cup first leg match against Marsa in September of season 1971-72. It was he who remained well known for a comment that "a good footballer could play well anywhere, where it was on a turf surface or one covered with sand" (a reference to the old Gzira Stadium's infamous surface).

"My father is not well at all," his son Juergen told reporters yesterday.

Haller, 67, played 33 games for Germany, including the 4-2 defeat to England in the 1966 final.

He was one of the first Germans to play abroad and won three Italian championships – with Bologna in 1964 and two with Juventus in 1972 and '73.