Alan Hinton considers himself a survivor. He and his wife Joy mourned the death of their young son to an incurable form of cancer four decades ago and Hinton himself has fought and beaten the disease.

Yet he is much more than that. To many, Hinton is a hero, a record- and trendsetter, and a legend on both sides of the Atlantic.

Barely out of his teens, he led Wolverhampton Wanderers in scoring as his side finished fifth in 1963. Not only did he play a role as a graceful, playmaking left winger in Derby County’s promotion to the old English First Division, he also helped the Rams win two championships. He also earned an endearing nickname from club’s supporters as one of the first players to wear white boots.

Retiring after his son Matthew’s death, Hinton kicked off a second act in North America. While playing only two seasons, he set an assist record that has not been equaled. He even helped revive the Seattle Sounders.

Little wonder why he is called Mr Soccer in the Pacific Northwest.

Hinton’s story is one about the triumph of the human spirit, making the best of situations and taking advantage of others when offered. You can feel Hinton’s enthusiasm when he speaks.

“I’ve been blessed,” he says. “I’ve had a great wife who became a very successful real estate agent. We have three grandchildren. Our daughter lives about 10 minutes away. We have a very nice life.”

Growing up in England’s West Midlands, football was part of his DNA – so much so that he rooted for two clubs.

“One week West Bromwich, one week Wolves. I lived in Wednesbury, halfway between those two teams,” he says. “I supported West Brom and Wolves. You tell people that today and they don’t believe you, because how can you support two teams?

“I loved the Albion. They won the cup in ‘54, just before I went to Wolves as an apprentice. All of a sudden, at 15, I’m in the locker room with Sir Billy Wright, Peter Broadbent, Bill Slater and Ron Flowers, my heroes as a boy. It was like: wow!”

Hinton worked his way into the Wolves line-up and produced some wow moments of his own, tallying 19 goals in 1962-63. During his three-year tenure, he scored 29 goals in 75 appearances, a sizable number for a winger. He had many assists, but they weren’t counted then.

He admitted he wasn’t a complete player. “I wasn’t known as a good tackler,” Hinton says. “In fact, I was terrible. I wasn’t afraid, because I proved I wasn’t with the way I crossed the ball as people were trying to break your leg half the time. When I was at Derby, some players were not happy I wasn’t tackling. So Peter Taylor, brilliantly, said: ‘Hey, I’ll tell you about courage: this man has more courage than most. He goes down the wing. He crosses the ball when they’re snapping at him and trying to get at his shin. That’s courage.’”

Hinton scored 63 goals for Derby – but missed a crucial penalty against Juventus in the 1972-73 European Cup. Photograph: Colorsport/Rex/Shutterstock

Three days before his 20th birthday and after only 26 games of First Division experience, Hinton was called up for a European Championship qualifier against France on 3 October 1962.

“I never saw the first 20 minutes because I was so damn nervous,” he says, adding that Wolves manager Stan Cullis wouldn’t shake his hand when he was called in.

“He said I wasn’t ready, and he was right.”

When Hinton got his second chance as a Nottingham Forest player, he faced a dilemma. England boss Sir Alf Ramsey, who was putting together the squad that would win the 1966 World Cup, gave him a shot in a friendly against Belgium at Wembley in 1964.

You know the song from My Fair Lady, Get Me to the Church on Time? The theme of Hinton’s wedding day was Get Me From the Church on Time.

“You scheduled the wedding several months before the date,” Hinton says. “You didn’t get married on a Saturday because there were games. You didn’t get married on a Sunday because nobody did in those days. You always got married on a Monday, so Joy and I decided we’d get married on Monday, 19 October at 11am in Wednesbury.

“I got picked for England. I’ve got to be careful because if I said the wrong things to Alf Ramsey – he would have said forget about it, because that’s what they did in those days.”

“I called him up and I said: ‘Mr Ramsey, I’m really looking forward to the game on Wednesday, but I have something that I’ve got to discuss with you. I’m scheduled to get married on Monday at 11 o’clock.’

“He said: ‘Congratulations. I’ll see you at the Hendon Hall hotel at seven on Monday night.’

“It became a big story on the front page of every newspaper: the loneliest bride in Britain. All of a sudden, this little church, this little wedding … we had to send the police out to control the traffic. It was on television. But it all worked out.”

Including on the field. Hinton scored his lone international goal in a 2-2 draw.

“[The] England players were great. They never stopped laughing at me and making fun,” he says. “My Nottingham Forest players were making fun. ‘We’ll take care of her when you’re gone’ and all this stuff.”

Eventually, Taylor lured Hinton to Derby. He played a key role in the Rams’ promotion to the top-flight, and helped them secure titles in 1971-72 and 1974-75, the first under Brian Clough, the second under Dave Mackay. Hinton scored 63 goals in 253 matches over eight seasons, with a boatload of assists.

“Cloughie was an absolute dynamo, [and] got away with stuff he wouldn’t get away with today. But we totally believed in him,” Hinton says. “It took me a while to understand his methods but I realized the guy was driven for success. He would pick on you, and all of sudden you got smarter. Taylor was the magician when it came to finding the talent.”

Hinton also caused a stir, wearing white boots when dark ones were more common. Combined with his blond perm and elegant play, supporters dubbed him “Gladys.”

“I looked like an old granny if you look at the old pictures,” he says. “But I was proud of that, because one of my favorites at the old Wolves was Dennis Wilshaw. When they called me Gladys I was very proud of that.”

Hinton was paid £1,000 to wear those boots.

“You could buy a house in those days for £2,000, so I was very pleased to take the money,” he says. “Did I get some harassment on the road? Absolutely. I am convinced that Clough and Taylor told [Derby] players: ‘Alan’s wearing the white boots. Leave him alone. Don’t get taking the mickey out of him because he’s a bit sensitive and we need him.’ None of the players ever second-guessed me.”

But when Matthew died at age nine in 1976, a part of Alan and Joy Hinton also died. He gave up playing. Then the North American Soccer League came calling in the form of Dallas Tornado coach Al Miller.

“Al Miller, bless him, convinced us to go to Dallas,” Hinton says. “We agreed to do that to get out of our lovely village with all the memories of our son.”

Little did the Hintons and their seven-year-old daughter Tonya realize that their lives were going to change dramatically in 1977.

“We just fell in love. I went to play hard, getting rid of my frustrations and disappointment with our loss. They made me captain and I didn’t want to be. I didn’t think wingers deserved the right to be captain, but Al Miller insisted.

“In America, if you can’t talk to the media, you have no chance. Coming to America really brought me out of my shell.”

Hinton moved to the Vancouver Whitecaps in 1978. As a 36-year-old, he recorded an astounding 30 assists, the most ever in a North American first division league. Some came from open play, others off free and corner kicks.

He says that the record “means a lot to me, because I am still a great believer of the wide player getting behind the defender and crossing the ball from the sides. Sadly, when you watch the game today, it’s much more about possession. They get into positions that I love to get into myself 30 yards from goal, but they go backwards much more than I like.

“I was still able to go by the full-backs. A lot of them they were young American kids who didn’t know how to play full-back. They used to dive in and I used to say thank you very much.”

During that run, Hinton was approached by the Tulsa Roughnecks about becoming their head coach that season. While walking off the field after a game in Tulsa, Roughnecks goalkeeper Colin Bolton asked his former Derby teammate: “Do you want this job?”

Hinton met general manager Noel Lemon the next morning. “His passion for the game was greater than anybody I’ve ever met, but he was crazy,” Hinton says. “He said: ‘Would you like the job now?’”

After weighing the pros and cons, Hinton decided against it.

“We [Vancouver] had a superb team that was playing attractive soccer and winning,” he says. “I should have said to the head coach: ‘I’ve got this offer from Tulsa. What do you think?’ I guarantee there would have been a panic through the club and they probably would have thrown a lot of money at me. I wasn’t in it for the money.”

Hinton became Tulsa coach in 1979, leaving to direct the Sounders in 1980. He guided Seattle to the 1982 Soccer Bowl, losing to the New York Cosmos 1-0 in Carlos Alberto’s final competitive match.

When the NASL went under in 1984, Hinton’s passion didn’t flicker out. As coach of the Crossfire Sounders youth team, Neil Farnsworth, then a top executive with Microsoft and a player’s parent, approached him about coaching in the pros again. Hinton decided that the old A-League would the perfect venue, directing the reconstituted Sounders to the regular-season crown in its 1994 maiden season and to the 1995 championship.

When the Sounders joined MLS, he became a TV analyst, endearing himself to a new generation of fans, before being replaced in 2014.

Cancer rose its ugly head again in November 2014 and Hinton had his bladder removed.

“I had no choice,” he says. “They told me if I wouldn’t be here two years if I didn’t have the bladder out. I would have been on chemotherapy, struggling and almost dead I suppose. I’m cancer free. I went public with it so the people need to go to the damn doctor and get a test.

“A lot of soccer players don’t go to doctors. I get so damn mad because if they had gone to the doctor instead of being big shots they’d still be alive. I’ve lost several friends with prostate cancer.”

At 73, Hinton enjoys life as one of the Sounders’ biggest supporters. He watches road matches with fans at pubs.

“I just love being around people. I love what the Sounders are doing, and I am proud of my involvement with them and my contribution,” he says. “It’s just a fantastic feeling.”

Sometimes he will sit behind a goal at CenturyLink Field and sing with the fans “We’ve got the best team in the land,” before they serenade him with “Alan Hinton, legend.”

If you follow Hinton on social media, you can’t help but notice that his sentences end with a question mark.

“I left school at 15. I was top of the school in math,” he says. “When it came to grammar and punctuation I have no clue. I don’t know why I do it. I just felt that if at the end of every [sentence] I put a question mark then people will debate.”

No need for a question mark to describe Hinton’s career in the beautiful game. An exclamation point will do quite nicely, thank you.