Footballer, born in Ashington, Northumberland, NE England, UK, the brother of Jack Charlton. He spent most of his career playing with Manchester United, making his debut in 1956. He survived the Munich air disaster (1958), winning three League Championship medals, an FA Cup-winner's medal (1963), and a European Cup-winner's medal (1968). He won 105 caps for England, scored 49 goals for the national team (an English record), and was a member of the FIFA World Cup-winning side of 1966. He joined Preston North End (19735), before retiring. He is now a director of Manchester United, and was knighted in 1994.
| Bobby Charlton | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Robert Charlton | |
| Date of birth | October 11, 1937 | |
| Place of birth | Ashington, England | |
| Nickname | Bobby | |
| Position | Midfielder (could also play as Striker) | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| East Northumberland schools | ||
| Professional clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (goals) |
|
1954-1973 1973-1975 1975 |
Manchester United Preston North End F.C. Waterford United F.C. |
759 (249) 38 (8) |
| National team** | ||
| 1958-1970 | England | 106 (49) |
|
* Professional club appearances and goals |
||
Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton, CBE (born 11 October 1937 in Ashington, Northumberland) is a former English professional football player who won a World Cup medal and the European Footballer of the Year award in 1966.
He began to play for United's first team in 1956, and over the next two seasons gained a regular place in the team, during which time he survived the Munich air disaster of 1958. After helping United to win the football league in 1965, he won a World Cup medal with England in 1966 and another football league title with United the following year.
Early life
One of his uncles, the Newcastle United centre forward Jackie Milburn, was a professional footballer, but it was Charlton's mother Cissie who coached him at first.
On 9 February 1953, Charlton was spotted playing for East Northumberland schools by Manchester United chief scout Joe Armstrong. Charlton went on to play for England schoolboys, and despite offers that followed from several other clubs, the 16-year old signed with United.
Charlton became one of the famed Busby Babes, the collection of precociously talented footballers who emerged through the system at Old Trafford in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as Busby set about a long-term plan of rebuilding the club after the Second World War. He worked his way through the pecking order of teams, scoring regularly for the youth and reserve sides before he was handed his first team debut against Charlton Athletic in October 1956.
Joining the first team
Charlton played 14 times for United in that first season. Charlton, still only 19, was selected for the game which saw United goalkeeper Ray Wood carried off with a broken cheekbone after a clash with Villa centre forward Peter McParland. Though Charlton was a candidate to go in goal to replace Wood (in the days before substitutes, and certainly before goalkeeping substitutes), it was team-mate Jackie Blanchflower who ended up between the posts.
Charlton was an established player by the time the next season was fully underway, which saw United, as current League champions, become the first English team to fully embrace the European Cup, reaching the semi finals where they lost to Real Madrid. The return in Yugoslavia saw Charlton score twice as United stormed 3-0 ahead although the hosts came back to earn a 3-3 draw.
Munich
See also: Munich air disasterThe aeroplane which took the United players and staff home from Zemun Airport needed to stop in Munich to refuel. Charlton and team-mate Dennis Viollet swapped places with Tommy Taylor and David Pegg, who had decided they would be safer at the back of the plane.
Charlton, strapped into his seat, had fallen out of the cabin and when United goalkeeper Harry Gregg (who had somehow got through a hole in the plane unscathed and begun a one-man rescue mission) found him, he thought he was dead. Gregg returned to the plane to try to help the appallingly injured Busby and Blanchflower and when he turned around again, he was relieved to see that Charlton and Viollet, both of whom he had presumed to be dead, had got out of their detached seats and were looking into the wreckage.
Charlton suffered cuts to his head and severe shock and was in hospital for a week.
Charlton was the first survivor to leave hospital.
Not unexpectedly, United went out of the European Cup to AC Milan in the semi finals to a 5-2 aggregate defeat and fell behind in the League. England
At the same time, Charlton's emergence as the country's leading young football talent was completed when he was called up to join the England squad for a British Home Championship game against Scotland at Hampden Park.
Charlton was handed his debut as England romped home 4-0, with the new player gaining even more admirers after scoring a magnificent thumping volley dispatched with authority after a cross by the left winger Tom Finney. Unfortunately, England lost that game 5-0 and Charlton played poorly.
Charlton began to settle back into his footballing life with Manchester United and England and enhanced his reputation as a scorer of great goals as well as a great goalscorer - rarely is a player regarded as both.
He played in qualifiers for the 1962 World Cup in Chile against Luxembourg and Portugal and was named in the squad for the finals themselves.
Further success with Manchester United finally came when they beat Leicester City 3-1 in the FA Cup final of 1963, with Charlton finally earning a winners' medal in his third final. In between, there was the pressing matter for Charlton of the 1966 World Cup for which England, as hosts, had not needed to qualify.
By now, England were coached by Alf Ramsey who had managed to gain sole control of the recruitment and team selection procedure from the committee-based call-up system which had lasted up to the previous World Cup.
Charlton had remained the attacking midfield player around whom Ramsey had intended to build his team.
The success of 1966
The opening game of the tournament was Charlton's 69th for his country - a goalless draw with Uruguay. England swept aside this minor hiccup to dispose of Mexico in the next game, with Charlton scoring one of the most famous goals of his career.
Picking up the ball in the centre circle of the Wembley pitch, Charlton issued a Mexican challenger with a body swerve which sent his opponent the wrong way and opened up a sizeable gap ahead of him.
There they overcame a thuggish Argentina side with a slender 1-0 win - the game was the only one in which Charlton received a caution - and Portugal awaited in the semi finals. This turned out to be one of Charlton's most important games, for both himself and those for whom he played.
Charlton opened the scoring with a crisp side-footed finish after a run by Roger Hunt had forced the Portuguese goalkeeper out of his net; Charlton and Hunt were now England's equal-highest scorers in the tournament with three each, and a final against West Germany was to come.
Though the game had drama, great team performances and some breathtaking individual displays, it actually turned out to be one of Charlton's quieter days. However, the team did what was required and won 4-2 (although controversy still exists as to whether the 3rd goal ever crossed the line), with Hurst's hat-trick entering football folklore (and overtaking Charlton and Hunt as England's top marksman). Charlton was playing alongside his brother Jack and the two openly embraced and wept as the greatness of their achievement sunk in.
European glory
Charlton's next England game was his 75th as England beat Northern Ireland; 2 caps later and he had become England's second most-capped player, behind the veteran Billy Wright, who was approaching his 100th appearance when Charlton was starting out and ended with 105 caps.
In 1968, Manchester United reached the European Cup final, ten seasons after Munich. On a highly emotional night at Wembley, Charlton scored twice in a 4-1 win after extra time against Benfica and, as United captain, lifted the trophy.
In 1969, Charlton was awarded the OBE for services to football. Charlton's inevitable selection by Ramsey for the tournament made him the first - and still, to date, only - England player to feature in four World Cup squads.
World Cup 1970 and retirement from playing football
England began the tournament with two victories in the group stages, plus a memorable defeat against Brazil. Charlton played in all three, though was substituted for Alan Ball in the final game of the group against Czechoslovakia.
England duly reached the last eight where they again faced West Germany. Charlton controlled the midfield and suppressed Beckenbauer's runs from deep as England coasted to a 2-0 lead. Beckenbauer pulled a goal back for the Germans and Ramsey replaced the ageing and tired Charlton with Colin Bell who further tested the German keeper Maier and also provided a great cross for Geoff Hurst who uncharacteristically squandered the chance. England were out and, after a record 106 caps and 49 goals, Charlton decided to end his international career at the age of 32.
Despite populist opinion the substitution did not change the game as Beckenbauer had scored before Charlton left the field, hence Charlton had failed to cancel out the German. Charlton himself conceded that the substitution did not affect the game in a BBC documentary. His caps record lasted until 1973 when Bobby Moore overtook him, and Charlton currently lies third in the all-time England appearances list behind Moore and Peter Shilton, whose own England career began in the first game after Charlton's had ended.
Manchester United were in real difficulties in the early 1970s, with the team often fighting relegation. At times, Charlton was not on speaking terms with United's other superstars George Best and Denis Law, and Best refused to play in Charlton's testimonial match, claiming that "to do so would be hypocritical". Charlton left Manchester United at the end of the 1972-73 season, having scored and 247 goals and set a club record of 752 appearances, a record which still stood as of 2006. His last game was against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and before the game the BBC cameras for Match Of The Day captured the Chelsea chairman handing Charlton a commemorative cigarette case.
Bobby also played for Waterford United in their 1975 FAI Cup defeat at the hands of Finn Harps.
After playing football
Charlton became the player-manager of Preston North End in 1973, taking United and England team-mate Nobby Stiles with him as player-coach, but his first season was not a success and he left at the end of it.
Charlton helped to promote Manchester's bids for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and the 2002 Commonwealth Games, England's bid for the 2006 Football World Cup and London's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.
On Friday 28th April 2006 Charlton made a speech at the Altrincham Grammar School For Boys Founders Day Service on the theme of Sportsmanship.
Charlton began to lose his hair in the early 1960s and for a while refused to go bald gracefully, sporting a style of stranded, isolated hairs which would often flop around when he was running before he would tug them back over his head.
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