Sir Bobby Charlton - Mr. Manchester United

Sir Bobby Charlton

A purist, a lover of the simple things, he is a man who turned despair into something extraordinary, an ambassador of football, he continues to be the figure they all aspire to emulate. Nobody embodies the values and ethos of Manchester United better than Sir Bobby Charlton.

Nearly forty years have passed since he last played there, and he no longer glides around Old Trafford like he once did, and most of us are too young to have ever seen him play, but those that did, and those that remember him, find it impossible to forget just how good he was. Today, when he turns 76, he is still adored all over the world.

Bobby Charlton was born in a large coal mining village of Ashington, Northumberland in October 1937. He was the nephew of the great Newcastle striker, Jackie Milburn, and his father, grandfather and three uncles were all professional footballers themselves. He was brought up in this great football family where even his mother, Cissie, was just as mad for the game. It was this unadulterated love for football embedded into the family DNA which offered an alternative to traditional working life at Ashington.

Back in the 1950′s, Manchester United manager,Sir Matt Busby, could foresee that youth was an undervalued asset in football which could give him the edge. And therefore, he started a new youth policy which originated from the backstreets – lads in his own image, lads that were hungry for success.

It was not long before Matt Busby’s eagle eye for talent identified the phenomenon of Bobby Charlton at the age of 16 yrs, when he signed him up for Manchester United in June 1953.

“I dreamed of being a footballer, all my family was football mad, all my uncles were footballers, and the best thing I ever did – was when I signed to play for this (Manchester United) club. It’s just magic, absolute magic!”

– Sir Bobby Charlton

For the initial years, Charlton fine-tuned his skills at United’s youth academy under the watchful eyes of assistant coach, Jimmy Murphy, which saw him win the FA Youth Cup in 1954, 1955 and 1956.

His continued progress was not left unnoticed by Sir Matt Busby, who handed him his first league start in October 1956 vs Charlton Athletic. The rest, as they say, is history. More than fifty years on from his debut at the big stage, his legacy continues to live strong in the hearts of everyone associated with the beautiful game.

Within minutes of his debut, the United faithful realized that they had seen something special in this young lad from Ashington. Despite carrying an injury, he made an immediate impact by scoring twice on his league debut , and thereby, winning the hearts of the people in Manchester.

In his first season, Charlton scored ten goals and helped United win the league title , which also enabled them to become the first English team to go on and play in Europe.

At their first attempt, United went on to reach the semi finals where Bobby Charlton scored in a defeat against Real Madrid. But this only whetted the appetite for Busby and his babes for the European competition. The following season, 1957/58, United were on course to reach the semi finals again with Charlton scoring twice in Belgrade. What followed, however, was to change the futures of Bobby Charlton and Manchester United forever.

The tragic Munich air crash in February 1958 took away the lives of eight United first team players. Sir Bobby Charlton, however, was a lucky survivor. He stayed back for a few days in Ashington, recovering and regaining his strength.

There was a question for Sir Bobby that now had to be answered – What to do next? Was it possible to think of ever playing football again?

But when you’re a fighter since birth, and playing football is the only thing that you had ever known and dreamed of, there was ever going to be only one answer to the above question.

Bobby Charlton went into Munich as a young boy, but he came out of it as a man. Every game that he played after that, he played as if he was playing for his fallen colleagues.

Sir Matt Busby, too, recovered from his injuries and took up the challenge to re-build his dream, of which now Sir Bobby was the centerpiece. He said, it would take him five years to re-build the team.

The prediction came true in 1963, exactly five years after the Munich air crash, when United’s new team won the FA cup. It was a new age built on timeless principles.

The new United was built around Munch survivors, Bobby Charlton, Bill Foulkes and Harry Gregg, but it was the addition of Denis Law and George Best, that made the re-construction special.

With Charlton becoming a complete player, he was at the heart of Manchester United’s holy trinity of Law, Best and Charlton. It used to simply roll off the tongue – Best-Law-Charlton – as the trio produced one magical moment after another on the pitch to become one of the most fearsome triumvirate of attack in Europe. And although they were different in terms of their abilities and lifestyles, they had one thing in common – to get United to the pinnacle of domestic and European football. The trio, led by Sir Bobby’s heroics, helped United win their first league title in the post-Munich era in 1965.

At that time, Bobby Charlton was maturing into one of the most influential player in England. He was a colossus on field. He was a player with great grace, moved along the ground very easily, beautiful balance, two-footed, with a beautiful running style, just floated over the ground like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind. And the power with which he could hit a football towards the goal, with either foot, was like a cannon firing in its full swing with a precision of an Olympic gold medalist.

In 1966, when England hosted the World Cup, came his chance to spread his influence beyond England, and over the world. As with United, he was now a centerpiece in the England national team. Then England manager, Alf Ramsey, used to ask his players to give the ball to Bobby when in doubt, and let him develop the play. Bobby Charlton was that good. With Sir Bobby in their ranks, England had a growing self belief for their chances in the World Cup.

Spurred on by Bobby Charlton, where he scored in crucial encounters against Mexico and Portugal, England won the World cup in 1966. In the same year, he was also crowned as the European footballer of the year. The whole of England was proud of Sir Bobby.

For Sir Bobby himself, however, there was still one prize that eluded him. Ten years on from the Munich tragedy, Charlton and Sir Matt Busby were still consumed by their obsession for European glory. Another league triumph in 1967 gave them their chance for one final bite at the cherry. This time, they didn’t let themselves down. After all they had been through, it seemed that United simply had to win the title to balance the scales that have been tipped against them.

Sir Bobby scored twice, one in normal time and one in extra time, to beat Benfica 4-1 in the 1968 European cup final and claimed the final frontier. For Charlton, it was a perfect tribute to his fallen colleagues as he famously missed the post-match celebrations – opting instead to conduct a solitary remembrance of absent friends.

After achieving almost everything in football, he called it a day on his illustrious career in May 1973 after 758 appearances, three league titles and one European Cup with Manchester United . He still remains the highest goal scorer for Manchester United and England with 249 and 49 goals scored respectively.

In 1984, he re-joined Manchester United as a club director – a position that he still holds today. To have him around the place after all these years, he is a great influence on any young United player coming through.

Because you can just see, just in one man, the entire history of Manchester United really. He is rightfully immortalized outside Old Trafford in a statue alongside Denis Law and George Best. He is Manchester United figurehead – a link to club’s past, present and future. He is a living legend. He is, well and truly, Mr. Manchester United!