#CHARLTON REST STOP FULL#
#CHARLTON REST STOP PROFESSIONAL#

Those were his kids that died that day.”Ĭharacteristically, Jack was more blunt. Many close to him, including Busby and his brother Jack, said that Bobby changed for ever after Munich. The grief of witnessing friends perish left its mark, turning an already shy young man into an introspective one. He later described his escape as a miracle, but it would haunt him for the rest of his life. He woke minutes later, suffering only from shock and minor cuts. In freezing conditions, it crashed and burst into flames while attempting to take off from the snowy runway.Ĭharlton was catapulted 40 yards from the plane, still strapped into his seat, and clear of the burning wreck. On the flight back from Belgrade the following day, the team’s plane stopped to refuel in Munich. A year later they beat Red Star Belgrade in the quarter-finals, with Charlton, now an established first-teamer, scoring three goals over the two legs. They swept all before them to win the First Division (the equivalent of today’s Premier League) in 1955-56, and retained the title the following season, in which Charlton scored twice on his debut, against Charlton Athletic, on 6 October 1956.Īs champions, United entered the European Cup, the first English side to do so, and reached the semi-finals in 1957. Not only were United a club on the rise, but their inspirational manager, Matt Busby, was prepared to give youth its head, assembling a precociously talented young team that played with swagger and flair, capturing the nation’s imagination and earning them the nickname the Busby Babes. Photograph: Don Morley/Getty ImagesĪpart from a brief swansong with Preston North End and then Waterford, in Ireland, it was to be his only club, and an inspired choice. He received offers from 18 clubs in all, but was charmed by Manchester United’s chief scout, Joe Armstrong, and signed for them in 1953.īobby Charlton as a 22-year-old in 1959, three years after his Manchester United debut and a year after the Munich disaster. In his last year at school, he played four times for England schoolboys, scoring five goals, and football scouts from across Britain were soon knocking at the family’s door. However, he was such a prodigy that his headteacher – with encouragement from Cissie – arranged a place at another nearby school, the football-playing Bedlington grammar. He passed the 11-plus but attending the local grammar was unthinkable because it was a rugby-playing school.

Most Ashington boys went down the pit on leaving school (as Jack did briefly before joining Leeds), but from a young age it was apparent that Bobby would become a footballer.

Jack and Bobby were England team-mates in 1966. Bobby’s elder brother, Jack, also became a footballer, and, although not as gifted as his younger brother, he enjoyed a distinguished career as a centre-half for Leeds United, and later as a successful manager.

#CHARLTON REST STOP PROFESSIONAL#

Four of her brothers were professional footballers and her cousin was the Newcastle United and England centre-forward Jackie Milburn. He was born in the Northumberland mining village of Ashington, the second of four sons of Robert Charlton, a miner, and his wife, Elizabeth, known as Cissie, who came from the famous Milburn football family. Across the world, the first or only two words of English many people could speak were “Bobby Charlton”.

#CHARLTON REST STOP FULL#

At the height of his fame in the mid to late 60s, when London and the counterculture were in full swing, one of the world’s most famous Englishmen was an old-fashioned sporting hero. A montage of Bobby Charlton goals and moments of skillīut it was his modesty and gentlemanly demeanour, as much as his outstanding ability, that won him admiration far beyond Manchester and England.

Charlton rest stop