Name: Bobby Charlton
Birthday: 11 October, 1937
Place: Ashington, England
Weight: 69 kg
Height: 175 cm
Position: Forward
Team: Manchester United
Appearances with MU: 754
Goals scored with MU: 247
Biography of Bobby Charlton
Had he not been so modest, there was a time when Bobby Charlton could
have claimed, with some justification, that he was the most famous
living Englishman.
He never did, of course, but others, such as TV soccer pundit Jimmy Hill,
said it for him. It was the late 1960s. England had won the World Cup
and Manchester United the European Cup. All over the world there were
children who could speak only two words of English. One was "Bobby", the
other was "Charlton", such was the esteem in which he was held.
It was more than just his tremendous achievements that sparked instant
recognition, though he won everything the game has to offer.
Championships, Cup winner's medals, a record number of international
caps and goals.
Nor was it solely his exquisite skills - grace, speed, athleticism and a
thunderbolt shot that made him dangerous even 30 yards from goal.
No, Charlton stood for something that the world admired. He was a
gentleman, the ultimate in old-fashioned sporting heroes. He was never
in trouble, never argued with referees, showed honesty and respect to
opponents. It made him a perfect role model, the essence of the
Corinthian ideal. His status as the greatest ambassador in the history
of British sport rested unequivocally on his unrivaled sense of fair
play.
Charlton was born in October, 1937, into a football family in the
Northumberland mining village of Ashington. His mother Cissie was a
Milburn, his grandfather and four of his uncles were professional
footballers and one of those uncles was the legendary "Wor" Jackie
Milburn, Newcastle United and England centre forward.
Cissie was a football fanatic who taught Bobby and his elder brother
Jack how to play. She once said: "I never had a doll. I just wanted to
play football with the lads. It's in my blood." Even in her seventies,
she was still coaching children at the local primary school.
Bobby was chosen to play for England Schools against Wales in the days
when 93,000 people would pack the stadium to watch boys play. Word soon
went round that here was a special talent and scouts from 18 leading
clubs made their way to the Charltons' colliery-owned terrace home.
Cissie said: "I'd be cleaning the fireplace in the morning and I'd look
round and there'd be another one standing behind me. There were times
when we had one in the front room and one in the kitchen.
"They were offering us the world. One fellow offered £800 (a huge sum
then). Another said he'd double whatever was the highest offer we'd had.
He didn't even ask what it was." Charlton's idols were Newcastle United,
but he would go to St James's Park in anticipation of seeing the great
players from other famous clubs. His favourite was Stanley Matthews,
from whom he learned the importance of speed off the mark.
It was the late 1940s and Matthews was at his peak. Charlton recalled: "You
could stand on the cinders in front of the terracing. The men used to
pass you down over their heads. "Stan was magic. We all like dribblers
and he was the wizard. I would study him and think: 'What makes him
better than anybody else?' My uncles said: 'Just watch his first 10
yards.'
"After that I practised sprinting with my grandad, who trained
professional sprinters. But the motivation came from Stan." It was to
pay off. Later, at the peak of his game, there was no one quicker over
those first 10 yards. Charlton goes further: "It was from Stan that I
learned how to find space, how to beat an opponent, how to put defenders
off balance and how to time my runs."
Bobby was still a schoolboy when he decided to join Manchester United.
They were to be his only club. Former United captain Billy Foulkes, with
whom Charlton played for 15 years, remembered seeing him at Old Trafford
in 1953.
"He had this mop of blond hair which stood up in the wind," said Foulkes.
"I bet he wishes he had it now." Charlton's hair, or lack of it as the
years went by, became almost as legendary as its owner. The less of it
he had, the longer it seemed to get until he had one long strand
famously described as "hanging like a rope over his collar."
Charlton and Foulkes were bonded together as members of the "Busby Babes."
The Old Trafford at which they arrived was not the impregnable citadel
it became. The club was undergoing a transformation fashioned by Matt
Busby, that most illustrious of soccer managers.
When Busby came to United in 1945, the ground was a wreck, victim of
wartime German bombing. The club had, for a long time, been the weaker
of the city's teams. They hadn't won the League since 1910-11, nor the
FA Cup since 1909. Busby set about changing all that.
United won the FA Cup in 1948, but Busby saw that two things were
necessary to turn them into a side which could win honours regularly.
The first was to pioneer a youth system, the second to learn from the
advances being made in Continental football. The policies soon began to
work. United won the First Division title in 1951-52 and again in
1955-56.
The European Cup had begun in 1955, but the English authorities had
adopted a sniffy attitude towards it. Chelsea, the previous year's
English Champions, had been told not to compete and they complied. But
Busby was having none of it. Manchester United would play.
And so the great adventure began in the season that Charlton began to
establish himself as an Old Trafford regular. He had made his debut
against Charlton (who else?) and scored two goals.
United reached the semi-final of the European Cup at their first attempt
in 1956-57, losing to the eventual winners Real Madrid. They were beaten
in that year's FA Cup Final 2-1 by Aston Villa, a controversial match in
which United's goalkeeper Ray Wood left the field with a fractured
cheekbone after being charged by Peter McParland.
However, they had retained their League title and all was set for
another crack at the European Cup. They were not to know that disaster
was lurking in the shadows.
It was 3.04 on a snowbound Friday afternoon. The date was February 6,
1958. The day a team died.
United had drawn 3-3 against Red Star in Belgrade and were through to
the semi-finals of the European Cup. The plane in which they were flying
home, a British European Airways Elizabethan, had stopped at Munich to
refuel.
There was slush on the runway as it took off. The Elizabethan never made
it off the ground. Just 54 seconds after the pilot opened the throttle,
the plane hit the airport's perimeter fence, slithered 200 yards across
a frozen field and burst into flames.
A wing had been torn off and the tail section had broken away,
scattering bodies into the snow. Twenty-one people died, among them
seven of Busby's Babes - Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor, Mark Jones, David
Pegg, Geoff Bent, Eddie Colman and Billy Whelan. Busby survived,
clinging to life in an oxygen tent. So did another young man, one who
symbolised the brilliance of the Babes. His name was Duncan Edwards,
arguably the greatest footballer Manchester United ever produced.
After 15 days, Edwards died from his injuries. He was 21. A truly
world-class talent had been lost.
Charlton, just 20, had been thrown 40 yards clear of the wreckage and
escaped with a cut head. Busby came home and with his assistant Jimmy
Murphy, who had not been on the flight, set about rebuilding his
shattered team. Charlton was to be the player central to his plans.
Three months after the Munich tragedy, United had bravely reached the FA
Cup Final with a patched up side. The nation's hearts were with them,
but they went down to Bolton 2-1. Again, it was a match marred by
controversy, Bolton's Nat Lofthouse scoring his second goal by bundling
United goalkeeper Harry Gregg over the line.
The previous month Charlton had gained the first of his record 106
England caps, scoring in the defeat of Scotland at Hampden. He shot on
the run from a pass by Tom Finney before a 134,000 partisan crowd. "I
can still hear the sound of the ball lashing against the net," recalled
Charlton. "After that, all you could hear was the silence."
Charlton's incredible modesty shines through the memory. "I'd probably
been picked for England too soon," he said. "I think they felt sorry for
me because of Munich." He was selected for England's World Cup campaign
that summer in Sweden, but remained on the bench as his team-mates drew
all three group matches and then failed to qualify for the
quarter-finals by losing to Russia 1-0 in a play-off. Charlton's day
would come . . .
At this time, Charlton played on the left-wing. It was much later that
he was to move, first to inside forward and then into the deep-lying
centre forward role, the equivalent of today's central attacking
midfielder. But he was anxious to move inside, to make a greater
contribution to the game. In a 1961 football annual he wrote of "wanting
to create something, something that might be remembered." It was only
five years away.
Even so, he had scored in England's historic 9-3 thrashing of Scotland
that season against the likes of Denis Law and Dave McKay.
And in 1962 he went to his second World Cup, this time in Chile and as a
first-choice player. England qualified for the quarter-finals, thanks to
a 3-1 defeat of Argentina in which Charlton scored. But the Brazil of
Garrincha, Didi and Amarildo were too good for England and they were
knocked out 3-1.
Back at Old Trafford, United's rebuilding was taking shape. The team
included Albert Quixall, British record signing at £45,000 from
Sheffield Wednesday, Maurice Setters from West Brom and Johnny Giles had
been discovered in Ireland. By 1960-61 Nobby Stiles had made his debut
and Charlton was United's leading scorer that season with 20 goals.
These players were followed by David Herd from Arsenal, Noel Cantwell
from West Ham, Denis Law, a record £115,000 signing from Torino, and Pat
Crerand from Celtic. Busby was assembling another team of all the
talents.
It was 1962-63 and Busby had said after Munich that it would take five
years to recover. How right he was. United reached the FA Cup Final
against Leicester. The match took place on Saturday, May 25 at Wembley.
A ground ticket cost 17/6 (88p) and the souvenir programme was a
shilling (5p).
United's team was the most expensive up to then to appear in a Cup
Final, yet Leicester were the favourites. The reason was United's
wayward League form in these years. They had finished 19th out of 24 in
the First Division, but in the Cup they had scored 12 goals, conceding
only one.
It was one of the most one-sided Finals ever seen. United won 3-1,
Charlton setting up the second goal when he let rip with a flier that
Leicester keeper Gordon Banks couldn't hold and Herd knocked in the
rebound.
For those like Charlton who had been through Munich, it was an
overwhelming occasion. United were back in business, but there was
better to come.
The season of 1963-64 was memorable for two reasons. First, against West
Brom, the triumvirate of Law-Charlton-Best played together for the first
time. Significantly, they all scored in a 4-1 victory.
The second was that United were back in Europe for the first time since
Munich, this time in the European Cup Winners' Cup. Charlton, now coming
inside more often, had scored a spectacular acrobatic goal in the 7-2
aggregate demolition of Dutch part-timers Willem II Tilburg. But the
next round pitted them against Tottenham Hotspur, holders of the Cup
Winners' Cup.
They lost the first leg 2-0 at White Hart Lane and faced a seemingly
uphill task. United were 2-1 ahead in the second leg at Old Trafford,
but trailing on aggregate, when Charlton scored twice to put them
through to a quarter-final against Sporting Lisbon.
The first leg was at home and Charlton scored again in an impressive 4-1
victory.. The away match was a nightmare, United suffering their worst
defeat in Europe 5-0. Some of United's League form was bizarre that year.
For example, they lost 6-1 at Burnley and yet took the return fixture
5-1. These were the days of attacking football, however, and big scores
were not unusual. Despite the inconsistency, they finished runners-up to
Liverpool in the Championship.
The turning point came in 1964-65. United won the League and reached the
semi-finals of the FA Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the forerunner
of today's UEFA Cup. Charlton was in tremendous form that season as
United inflicted heavy defeats on some good teams. They beat Liverpool
3-0, Aston Villa 7-0 and Blackburn 5-0 at Ewood Park. Charlton got a
hat-trick against Rovers and, as Nobby Stiles said, "played them on his
own."
But the most impressive performance was a 6-1 hammering of Borussia
Dortmund in Germany in the second round of the Fairs Cup. Charlton got
three, one of them a rocket which crashed in off the crossbar, and added
two more - one from 20 yards - in the 4-0 victory at Old Trafford. It is
worth remembering that Dortmund won the West German cup that season and
the European Cup Winners' Cup the following year.
Nonethless, United were back in the European Cup chasing Busby's elusive
dream. It was an impressive run. A 9-2 aggregate humbling of HJK
Helsinki was followed by a 7-1 aggregate defeat of ASK Vorwaerts of
Berlin. The quarter-finals beckoned, a clash against mighty Benfica,
Eusebio and all.
United shaded the first leg at Old Trafford 3-2 and travelled to Lisbon
knowing that Benfica had never lost in 19 European Cup ties at home.
There's a first time for everything and that night United turned on the
magic with a stunning 5-1 victory. Charlton got one of the goals, "sweeping
through the Benfica defence before lashing the ball home," as author
Graham McColl put it in his book, Manchester United In The Sixties.
United felt on top of the world, but it was not to be. At least not yet.
The semi-final took them back to Belgrade for the first time since
Munich and they went down 2-1 on aggregate to Partizan.
They had played some breathtaking football that season, but inexplicably
they missed out on honours, their FA Cup run also ending in the
semi-finals and finishing fourth in the League. At the end of a long,
hard season Charlton joined his brother Jack for the World Cup Finals in
England. They began dismally with a 0-0 draw against Uruguay, but then
Bobby lit up England's hopes with a stunning goal in the 2-0 defeat of
Mexico.
He ran 30 yards with the ball before letting go and it thundered into
the net. That was the goal that convinced a cynical nation that England
COULD win the World Cup. Before then, there was a feeling that they just
weren't good enough, an impression confirmed by the sterile performance
against the Uruguayans. Charlton changed the national mood in seconds,
yet to hear his version made it seem nothing more than good fortune.
"I picked up the ball quite deep and I had no intention of shooting at
goal, "he said. "I didn't really expect them to allow me to keep going.
"I just banged it and it came off so sweetly and when it went on its way
I thought, well that's a goal." Despite his record tally of 49 for
England (now shared with Gary Lineker), there are those who say that
Charlton was not a great scorer of goals. But he was most certainly a
scorer of great goals, and few were greater than that.
A 2-0 victory over France put England on course for a quarter-final
showdown with Argentina. It was a nasty game, the Argentine defender
Antonio Rattin was sent off and England manager Alf Ramsey sent a chill
through FIFA by calling the Argentinians "animals." But a 1-0 victory
meant a semi-final against Portugal.
It was against the Portuguese, according to Brian Glanville in his book
The Story of the World Cup, that "Charlton had much his best game of the
World Cup, perhaps the best he ever played for England." His passing was
crisp, his running made gaps in Portugal's defence and he scored both
goals in a 2-1 win. Charlton had put England into the World Cup Final.
Geoff Hurst, the hat-trick hero of the Final, grabbed the headlines as
England beat West Germany 4-2 in extra time. But perhaps the crucial
factor in the game that day was the German manager Helmut Schoen's
decision to tie-up the great Franz Beckenbauer in a policing role on
Charlton. It was a battle of wits. Charlton was the player the Germans
feared most and as Beckenbauer himself said years later: "England beat
us in 1966 because Bobby Charlton was just a bit better than me."
Ramsey had no doubts how crucial Charlton had been. "He was one of the
greatest players I have seen," said Sir Alf. "Very much the linchpin of
the 1966 team. Early in my management I knew I had to find a role
suitable to Bobby's unique talents. "He wasn't just a great goalscorer,
with a blistering shot using either foot. Bobby was a player who could
also do his share of hard work."
The reward for Charlton was not only a World Cup winner's medal. He was
also Footballer of the Year, European Footballer of the Year and voted
Best Player in the 1966 World Cup. After 18 months of non-stop football,
it came as no surprise that Charlton suffered a loss of form in the
1966-67 season. He went three months without scoring before getting two
in a 4-0 defeat of Blackpool at the end of February. United, however,
retained their title in style, wrapping up the Championship with a 6-1
win at West Ham.
In the close season, Charlton was one of a United squad that undertook a
remarkable overseas tour. It began in May in Los Angeles, went on to New
Zealand, and finished at the end of June in Western Australia. It was an
extraordinary preparation for a season that would begin in six weeks
time, one that would see another assault on the European Cup.
Significantly, one of those tour matches was against Benfica. United
lost 3-1.
United beat Hibernian Valletta of Malta and FC Sarajevo of Yugoslavia in
the first two rounds of the European Cup before meeting Gornik Zabrze of
Poland in the quarter-finals. They took a 2-0 lead from the first leg to
Poland where they had to play on a snow covered pitch. It continued to
snow during the match and United went down 1-0. But they were through to
the semis where they would face Real Madrid. Busby told journalists: " I
feel this is our year."
United held only a fragile 1-0 lead as they went to the Bernabeau for
the second leg against Real. Law was out with an injury and by half-time
United were 3-1 down. The dream was dying again.
Somehow United stuck to the task and, through David Sadler and Foulkes,
came away with a 3-3 draw. Charlton has no hesitation in naming it the
greatest match he played in - his favourite above World and European Cup
Final glory. "Real were murdering us," said Charlton, "but we came out
after the break, battled away and they collapsed."
The night of May 29 at Wembley was to be the fulfillment of Charlton's
long and heartbreaking journey. The Red Devils of Manchester against the
Red Devils of Lisbon . . . the old foes, Eusebio's Benfica.
Benfica were vastly experienced. They had played 52 European Cup ties,
winning 29. United had played 32 and won 20. Benfica, who had already
won the trophy twice, were appearing in their fifth European Cup Final
in eight years. It was United's first. And in Eusebio, Benfica had the
second highest goalscorer of all time in the competition with 36, topped
only by the peerless Di Stefano of Real Madrid with 49.
Charlton had played in all four of United's European Cup campaigns, but
this was the first in which he had not scored. A week before the final,
in an international against Sweden, he had broken Jimmy Greaves's record
of 44 goals for England. Now, on this historic night as captain of
Manchester United, he was determined to put matters right. Just after
half-time, Sadler crossed and Charlton rose to meet the ball. He scored,
unusually for him with a header. United had the lead.
Now there were only nine minutes to the final whistle when United's
defence left Graca unmarked and he stunned the crowd with an equaliser.
United were tiring, Benfica coming on strong. With time running out,
Eusebio twice had good chances to grab the glory. Each time he was
foiled by Alex Stepney in goal. Benfica were overunning United and
looked certain to get the winner. Then the whistle went. United had the
chance to regroup before extra time.
It was then that United took the game by the scruff of the neck. Best
weaved his magic, beating two men before sidefooting the ball into the
net. Brian Kidd, United's present-day assistant manager, headed the
third.
But how appropriate it was that Charlton, the Busby Babe, the spirit of
Munich, should score the last for a crushing 4-1 triumph. Busby, having
achieved his life'sambition, became Sir Matt. Charlton, then aged 31,
was rewarded with an eight-year contract, the longest in Football League
history, and received the OBE.
United reached the semi-finals of the European Cup the following season,
falling to eventual trophy winners Milan. It was the end of an era. Sir
Matt retired at 60, his work done, and United fell into the doldrums.
Wilf McGuinness, who had joined the club on the same day as Charlton,
was promoted from youth team manager to take over with Sir Matt upstairs
as general manager. A succession of managers came and went. It was to be
26 years before United would be back in the European Cup, now called the
Champions League, and by then Charlton would be sitting in the directors'
box.
There was to be one last hurrah on the international stage for Charlton.
The World Cup of 1970 in Mexico with England defending as Champions.
Before they could reach Mexico, Charlton was caught up in the Nightmare
of the Bogota Bracelet. England captain Bobby Moore was accused of
stealing it in Colombia. The charge was ludicrous and Moore was
eventually cleared after being held in jail for four days.
But just as absurdly, the police alleged that Charlton had been Moore's
accomplice. As Moore was to say: "The fact that they accused Bobby
Charlton of sheltering me while I 'stole' a bracelet proves I'm
innocent. Bobby has never done a dishonest thing in his life."
The match of the tournament was the 1-0 defeat by Brazil. But it was the
showdown with West Germany in the quarter-finals that was England's
undoing. Leading 2-0 mid-way through the second-half, they lost their
grip on the game and went down 3-2. The World Champions were out.
And where was Charlton? Sitting on the substitutes' bench! Manager
Ramsey had pulled him off when the match was seemingly won.
Sir Alf explained: "I decided to substitute Bobby as I wanted to save
him for the semi-finals. He understood, although he was far from happy."
Neither were England's fans. By the time he retired as a player in 1973,
Charlton had scored 245 goals in 751 games for United. The manner of his
going was typical.
Tommy Docherty, then United's manager, said: "I was thinking that I'd
have to make the decision and didn't want to do it. There would have
been a public outcry. But he came to see me and said he was thinking
about retiring. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I'm glad he made the
decision and not me."
He tried management with Preston - for whom he turned out as a player in
1974, the year he was awarded the CBE - and later with Wigan Athletic.
But he returned to United as a member of the board and was knighted in
1994.
Just how great was he? Football writer Mike Langley claims England have
never replaced him. George Best said: "I've never seen anyone go past
players as easily as he did." Charlton himself, self-effacing as ever,
said only: "I was lucky." But the last word should go to Sir Matt,
mentor and friend, of whom Charlton said: "He never got over Munich. He
felt responsible. Those were his kids that died that day."
It was Charlton, through his achievements, who did so much to ease "the
old man's" pain and Busby recognised it. "There has never been a more
popular footballer," said Sir Matt. "He was as near perfection as man
and player as it is possible to be."
There can be no higher praise from no greater judge.
International Caps 106
International Goals 49
Teams: Manchester United, Preston North End
Team Honours: World Cup (1966)
European Cup (1968)
FA Cup (1963)
League Division 1 (1957, 65, 67)
Individual Honours Football Writers' Player of the Year (1967)
PFA Merit Award (1974)
