Bobby Charlton was the quintessential English footballer, among the very best this country has produced and certainly one of the best-loved. He was synonymous with Manchester United during a 20-year association that resumed after a couple of seasons as manager at Preston North End, and even though he briefly pulled on his boots again at Deepdale he is rightly regarded a one-club man in the traditional sense.
As such, his was perhaps the greatest of careers, encompassing as it did the Busby Babes era of the 1950s, the Munich air disaster and its aftermath, and the subsequent rebuilding which culminated in Manchester United becoming the first English team to win the European Cup in 1968. Two years earlier, Charlton had won the World Cup with England. Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick dominated coverage of the final against West Germany, but Charlton’s goals had helped England through the earlier rounds, most notably in the semi-final against Portugal, when his penchant for scoring with ferocious long-range shots had been maintained.
Such was Charlton’s global fame that for a long time his name was one of the most recognisable phrases in the English language. Tales are legion of overseas travellers overcoming linguistic difficulties by introducing themselves and confirming their nationality simply by mentioning the United forward.
Charlton was a complete player, a midfielder with a searching pass and strong attacking instincts, and some of his popularity was due to the way he played the game, as well as his remarkable back story. In a playing career that began a few days before his 19th birthday against Charlton Athletic in 1956 and ended in the mid-1970s, Charlton was never sent off and picked up only two bookings. One was in the infamous World Cup quarter-final against Argentina in 1966, the other in a league match against Chelsea.
For a midfielder, Charlton was a prodigious goalscorer, averaging roughly a goal in every third game for United. When he stepped down from international duty in 1970 he was not only the nation’s most capped player with 106 England appearances, his goal tally of 49 would last as a record for almost half a century, until Wayne Rooney finally surpassed it in 2015. Charlton also held the record for most Manchester United appearances for a similar length of time, until his 758 games was beaten by Ryan Giggs, who racked up a total of 963 in his 23-year career. Charlton’s last goal for United came in March 1973, against Southampton, and his final total of 249 stood as a club record for 44 years until Rooney went to 250 in early 2017.
Those statistics point to a notable career, though facts and figures cannot tell the whole story. To different generations Charlton offered different inspiration. The 20-year-old survivor of Munich, pulled out of the plane wreckage by Harry Gregg, came to symbolise the dream that had died as he and Matt Busby slowly brought success back to Old Trafford and began to turn their eyes towards Europe. Most of the country was rooting for United in the 1958 FA Cup final, though Nat Lofthouse and Bolton proved too strong. United were back at Wembley in 1963, however, and this time against Leicester Charlton finished on the winning side at the third time of asking. United won the league in 1965 and 1967, either side of England’s 1966 triumph, though the intervening year was far from fallow for Charlton, who in addition to picking up a World Cup winner’s medal was voted FWA Footballer of the Year and European Footballer of the Year.
Now part of the famous Charlton, Law and Best triumvirate immortalised in bronze outside Old Trafford, Charlton entered what might be termed the elder statesman phase of his career. He looked older than the other two at any rate, particularly George Best, and Charlton was perhaps unfortunate at a time when footballers were becoming style icons to lose his hair early while playing alongside a good-looking lad being dubbed as the fifth Beatle.
Both Charlton, with two, and Best scored in the European Cup final victory over Benfica that clearly meant so much to Busby and his captain 10 years after the shattering experience of Munich. Charlton’s club career began to wind down after that, in fact so many of the United squad were allowed to grow old together that the unthinkable happened when the club was relegated in 1974. Charlton had left by then, almost inevitably falling out with Best and Denis Law as United became ordinary once more, only for his managerial ambitions to peter out after relegation with Preston and a short stint as caretaker at Wigan.
Only the very best players get to go to four World Cups though, and after making his first appearance in the 1958 tournament, Charlton was still very much part of Alf Ramsey’s plans in Mexico in 1970. Uncharacteristically, he did not manage a goal in his final tournament, though he still found the 1970 contest eventful. He was with Bobby Moore at the time of the Bogota bracelet incident, though unlike the England captain, Charlton was not arrested. He played in all three group games, and when he was substituted before the end of the final one Ramsey explained it was due to respect for his advancing years and the need to rest up ahead of the quarter-final.
The match that was to be Charlton’s last in an England shirt was, fittingly, against West Germany. Ramsey again substituted him before the end, and this time was harshly criticised for it, as England’s quarter-final opponents came back from two goals down to go through 3-2. A popular myth sprang up that had Charlton been left on the pitch to look after Franz Beckenbauer, the German recovery might never have come about - as Charlton has pointed out many times, Beckenbauer’s goal and the German fightback began before the substitution had been made. Charlton, 32, and his brother Jack, 35, told Ramsey on the way home that they wished to retire from international football, though they do not appear to have fallen out with the manager or disagreed with his decisions.
As part of the first English team to even compete in the European Cup, Charlton has an unassailable position as a Manchester United club legend. Best and Law might have been the glamour boys of the 1960s, but Charlton’s career goes back further, all the way to the heart of what makes the club unique. His records for club and country have tumbled one by one, with Charlton watching mostly impassively from the stands, sometimes offering words of encouragement as befits a United ambassador who has seen so much.
Charlton embarked on quite a journey after coming down from his native north east to sign for United as a 15-year-old. Survivor, pioneer, role-model, record breaker and World Cup-winning high achiever, there was only one Bobby Charlton. His was the ultimate football story.
