In 1956, Moore joined West Ham United as a player and, after advancing through their youth set-up, he played his first game on 8 September 1958 against Manchester United. In putting on the number six shirt, he replaced his mentor Malcolm Allison, who was suffering from tuberculosis.

Moore met his first wife, Tina, in 1957. They married on 30 June 1962. They lived in a house in Chigwell, Essex, that they called “Morlands”. They had a daughter, Roberta, and a son, Dean.

Alongside Geoff Hurst, both played in the 1959 FA Youth Cup final team that lost to Blackburn Rovers (1–2 on aggregate), but both were also in the team that won the Southern Junior Floodlit Cup (1–0 v Chelsea) later that year.

In 1960, Moore earned a call up to the England Under-23 squad. His form and impact on West Ham as a whole earned him a late call-up to the full England squad by Walter Winterbottom and The Football Association selection committee in 1962, when final preparations were being made for the summer’s World Cup finals in Chile. Moore was uncapped as he flew to South America with the rest of the squad, but made his début on 20 May 1962 in England’s final pre-tournament friendly – a 4–0 win over Peru in Lima. Also débuting that day was Tottenham Hotspur defender Maurice Norman. Both proved so impressive that they stayed in the team for the whole of England’s participation in the World Cup, which ended in defeat by eventual winners Brazil in the quarter finals at Viña del Mar.

Moore was sent off once over the course of his West Ham career, for a foul on Dave Wagstaffe in the final moment of a match against Manchester City in November 1961. The referee had simultaneously blown his whistle for the offence and for full-time. As red cards were not issued at that time, the dismissal didn’t become apparent until after the match.

On 29 May 1963, 22-year-old Moore captained his country for the first time in just his 12th appearance after the retirement of Johnny Haynes and an injury to his successor, Jimmy Armfield. He was the youngest man ever to captain England at the highest level. England defeated Czechoslovakia 4–2 in the game and Armfield returned to the role of captain afterwards, but new coach Alf Ramsey gave Moore the job permanently during a series of summer friendlies in 1964, organised because England had failed to reach the latter stages of the European Championships.

1964 turned out to be quite an eventful year for Moore. As well as gaining the England captaincy, he lifted the FA Cup as West Ham defeated Preston North End 3–2 in the final at Wembley, courtesy of a last-minute goal from Ronnie Boyce. On a personal level, Moore was also successfully treated for testicular cancer and was named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.

Moore’s first cancer was in 1964, two years before England’s first World Cup win— a diagnosis of testicular cancer, treated by orchidectomy of one; it had not spread. In April 1991, Moore underwent a vital operation for suspected colon cancer, when he had it just reported as an “emergency stomach operation”.

The FA Cup success would become the first of three successful Wembley finals in as many years for Moore. In 1965, he lifted the European Cup Winners Cup after West Ham defeated 1860 Munich 2–0 in the final with both goals coming from Alan Sealey. By now he was the first choice captain for England with 30 caps, and around whom Ramsey was building a team to prove correct his prediction that they would win the 1966 World Cup.

1966 had a mixed start for Moore. In January, he scored his first England goal in a 1–1 draw with Poland at Goodison Park, but two months later captained West Ham to the final of the League Cup – in its last season before its transfer to Wembley as a one-off final – which they lost 5–3 on aggregate to West Bromwich Albion. For Moore, who had scored in the first leg, and his West Ham teammates Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, considerable consolation lay ahead. Moore scored his second and ultimately final England goal in a friendly against Norway, two weeks before the World Cup would begin.

On the verge of his greatest triumph, details were released to the press in early 1966 that Moore wanted to leave West Ham. Moore had let his contract slip to termination, and only after the intervention of Sir Alf Ramsey and realisation he was technically ineligible to play, did he re-sign with West Ham to allow him to captain the England team of 1966. Ramsey had summoned West Ham manager Ron Greenwood to England’s hotel and told the two of them to resolve their differences and get a contract signed up. Moore was the leader of the World Cup winning side and established himself as a world-class player and sporting icon. With all their games at Wembley, England had got through their group with little trouble, they then beat Argentina in their quarter final and a Eusébio-led Portugal team in the semi-finals. West Germany awaited in the final.

The year 1970 was a bittersweet, mixed and eventful one for Moore. Retained as captain for the 1970 World Cup, there was however heavy disruption to preparations when an attempt was made to implicate Moore in the theft of a bracelet from a jeweller in Bogotá, Colombia, where England were involved in a warm-up game. A young assistant had claimed that Moore had removed the bracelet from the hotel shop without paying for it. While Moore had been in the shop (having entered with Bobby Charlton to look for a gift for Charlton’s wife, Norma), no proof was offered to support the accusations. Moore was arrested and then released. He then travelled with the England team to play another match against Ecuador in Quito. He played, winning his 80th cap, and England were 2–0 victors, but when the team plane stopped back in Colombia on the return to Mexico, Moore was detained and placed under four days of house arrest. Diplomatic pressure, plus the obvious weakness of the evidence, eventually saw the case dropped entirely, and an exonerated Moore returned to Mexico to rejoin the squad and prepare for the World Cup. He received a guard of honour from his squad when he arrived at the team hotel.

On 10 August 1970, Moore received an anonymous threat to kidnap his wife and hold her to a £10,000 ransom. This caused him to pull out of pre-season friendlies against Bristol City and Bournemouth. However, his services to West Ham were rewarded with a testimonial match against Celtic at the end of 1970.

Although Moore was seen as an icon and a perfect influence on the game, he was not without his faults or controversies. On 7 January 1971, he and three West Ham teammates, Jimmy Greaves, Brian Dear and Clyde Best, were all fined by West Ham manager Greenwood after going out drinking in a nightclub until the early hours of the morning prior to an FA Cup third round tie against Blackpool. The nightclub in Blackpool was owned by Moore’s friend, boxer Brian London. West Ham lost the tie 4–0. They were all fined a week’s wages. Blackpool were the bottom of Division one at the time, and were relegated at the end of the season. Coincidentally, Moore was featured on TV as the subject on This Is Your Life the night before. Brian Glanville stated that it was not uncommon for Moore to drink heavily, but he was often seen training with West Ham the next day, working off the alcohol he had consumed the night before.

Moore surpassed West Ham’s appearances record in 1973 when he played for the club for the 509th time. Three days earlier, on Valentine’s Day 1973, he won his 100th cap for England in a comprehensive 5–0 win over Scotland at Hampden Park By this stage, only Peters and Alan Ball from the 1966 squad were also still involved with the England team. Later the same year, Moore was exposed defensively by Poland in a qualifier for the 1974 World Cup in Chorzów, deflecting a free kick past goalkeeper Peter Shilton to put the home side ahead, and then losing possession to Wlodzimierz Lubanski, who scored the second.

Moore won his 108th and final cap in the next game, a 1–0 friendly defeat to Italy on 14 November 1973. He became England’s most capped player, beating Bobby Charlton’s record by two appearances, and equalled Billy Wright’s record of 90 appearances as captain. Peter Shilton, David Beckham and Steven Gerrard have since overtaken the caps record, but the joint captaincy record remains.

Moore played his last game for West Ham in an FA Cup tie against Hereford United in January 1974. He was injured in the match. On 14 March the same year, he was allowed to leave West Ham after more than 15 years, taking with him the club record for appearances (since overtaken by Billy Bonds) and the most international caps for an outfield player.

Moore played his final professional game in England for Fulham on 14 May 1977 against Blackburn Rovers. He played for two teams in the North American Soccer League – San Antonio Thunder in 1976 (24 games, 1 goal) and Seattle Sounders in 1978 (7 games). During 1976, there was also a final appearance on the international field for Team USA in games against Italy, Brazil and an England team captained by Gerry Francis. This was the U.S.A. Bicentennial Cup Tournament, which capitalised on NASL and more importantly England and Italy both failing to qualify for the European Championships that year. In April 1978 he signed his very last contract as a professional player, when he joined Danish side Herning Fremad to promote Danish football’s new transition to professional football, playing 9 games for the club before he retired.

Moore retired from playing professionally in 1978, and had a short relatively unsuccessful spell in football management at Eastern AA in Hong Kong, Oxford City and Southend United. Moore publicly supported Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 General Election.

Moore appeared in the 1981 film Escape to Victory, as Terry Brady, and in cameo roles, as himself, in several episodes of Till Death Do Us Part, including one of its spin-off films The Alf Garnett Saga.

In 1983, Moore appeared in 8 games for the now-defunct Carolina Lightnin’, after injuries left the club without cover.

He became manager of Southend United in 1984. In his first full season, 1984–85, Southend narrowly avoided having to apply for re-election to the Football League amid severe financial difficulties. However, the side was gradually rebuilt and in the 1985–86 season Southend started well and were in the promotion race until the new year before eventually finishing 9th. His successor, David Webb built upon those foundations to win promotion the following year. Moore agreed to serve on the board of the club and held this role until his death. Moore joined London radio station Capital Gold as a football analyst and commentator in 1990.

They separated in 1984, and divorced in 1986. A relationship developed with Stephanie Parlane (eight years his junior)—they married on 4 December 1991 but Moore died on 24 February 1993, 14 ⁄2 months later.

On 14 February 1993, he announced he was suffering from bowel and liver cancer; by this stage it had spread. Three days later, he commentated on an England match against San Marino at Wembley, alongside his friend Jonathan Pearce. That was to be his final public act; seven days later on 24 February, at 6:36 am, he died at the age of 51.

The first West Ham home game after his death was on 6 March 1993, against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Boleyn Ground was awash with floral tributes, scarves and other football memorabilia from West Ham fans and those of other clubs. Fellow 1966 World Cup winners Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters placed a floral replica of a West Ham shirt, showing Moore’s number, 6, on the back, on the centre spot before the game. West Ham rested the No. 6 for the game, with the regular No. 6, Ian Bishop, wearing No. 12. The game was won by West Ham 3–1: Trevor Morley, Julian Dicks and Matty Holmes as to the trio, Steve Bull as to the reply.

On 28 June 1993, a public service was held in Westminster Abbey, attended by all the other members of the 1966 World Cup team. He was only the second sportsman to be so honoured, the first being West Indies cricketer Sir Frank Worrell.

The Bobby Moore Fund is a charity in the United Kingdom, formed in 1993 by Stephanie Moore, and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) in memory of her late husband to raise money for research into bowel cancer and also public awareness of the disease. A campaign, Make Bobby Proud was initiated in 2013 to fundraise. As of February 2013 the Bobby Moore Fund had raised £18.8m towards bowel cancer research.

He was the first member of the England World Cup winning side to die, the next being Alan Ball 14 years later. Moore was outlived by the squad’s trainer, Harold Shepherdson, who died in September 1995, and manager, Alf Ramsey, who died in April 1999. John Connelly in October 2012, Ron Springett in September 2015, Gerry Byrne in November 2015, Jimmy Armfield in January 2018, Ray Wilson in May 2018, Gordon Banks in February 2019, Martin Peters in December 2019, Peter Bonetti and Norman Hunter in April 2020, Jack Charlton in July 2020 and Nobby Stiles in October 2020. Moore’s funeral was held on 2 March 1993 at Putney Vale crematorium and his ashes kept in the plot of his father, Robert Edward (died 1978) and his mother, Doris Joyce (died 1977) at City of London Cemetery and Crematorium.

In 1996, comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel used the line “But I still see that tackle by Moore” in the lyrics to their song “Three Lions”, which was the England team’s official song at the 1996 European Championships, which was adopted by fans rather than the tournament’s official song We’re In This Together by Simply Red. It referred to the famous incident with Jairzinho in 1970, and was re-created by Baddiel, Skinner and England left back Stuart Pearce for the video. It was written in the context of a list of great England moments of the past as proof that England could win a tournament again.

Moore was made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as a player. The same year he was named in the BBC’s list of the 100 Greatest Britons. In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA’s Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of England by The Football Association as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years.

On 28 April 2003, Prince Andrew as president of The Football Association unveiled the World Cup Sculpture (also called The Champions) in a prominent place near the Boleyn Ground, at the junction of Barking Road and Green Street. It depicts Moore holding the Jules Rimet Trophy aloft, on the shoulders of Geoff Hurst and Ray Wilson, together with Martin Peters. The one and a half-size bronze was sculpted by Philip Jackson after a famous photograph taken just after the 1966 final at the old Wembley. The south bank at West Ham’s ground up until 2016, the Boleyn Ground in Upton Park, was named the Bobby Moore Stand shortly after Moore’s death.

In August 2008 West Ham United officially retired the number 6 shirt as a mark of respect, 15 years after his death. On 26 July 2016, Moore became the first footballer to be honoured with an English Heritage Blue Plaque outside his home. The plaque was unveiled on a brick wall at Moore’s childhood home in Waverley Gardens, Barking in a ceremony attended by his daughter, Roberta. In April 2017 airline Norwegian announced Moore’s image would appear on the tail fin one of their Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Moore is one of the company’s six “British tail fin heroes”, joining Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, children’s author Roald Dahl, pioneering pilot Amy Johnson, novelist Jane Austen and aviation entrepreneur Freddie Laker. In 2018, Moore was added as an icon to the Ultimate Team in EA Sports’ FIFA video game FIFA 19.

His son, Dean, died, aged 43, in his flat on 28 July 2011, attributed to a medical condition and natural causes.

Tina and Bobby, a television drama series about Tina and Bobby Moore’s relationship, was broadcast on ITV in January 2017, and repeated in August 2020. The part of Bobby Moore is played by Lorne MacFadyen.