Bobby Charlton, English football legend, dies
He was the supreme representative of English football excellence. The total player, the “gentleman” inside and outside the sacred rectangle. Sir Robert Charlton since 1994. An ambassador for his country. One of the closest squires of the divine quintet: Di Stéfano, Pelé, Cruyff, Maradona and Messi. And, as an emblem of the founding fathers, one of the flagships of world football of all time.
His personal memory is that of the best Manchester United. The most beautiful. The saddest. Two stories in one. A legend in two. A legendary story. Charlton and United had two lives. The first stopped on February 6, 1958, when BEA (British European Airways) Flight 609 crashed at Munich Airport.
The team was returning from Belgrade, after playing against Red Star in the European Cup semi-finals. 23 of the 44 passengers died. Among them eight United players: Byrne, Colman, Jones, Edwards, Whelan, Taylor, Pegg and Bent. The coach, Matt Busby, was torn between life and death for a long time. Other members of the squad, Blanchflower and Berry, affected to the point of depression, never set foot on the playing field again.
Bobby Charlton, who was 21, survived. Manchester United, who had 80, survived. Football England, which was 95, survived. All three were needed. Charlton is United. United is England. England is Charlton and United. A common story that is not understood or loved by any of the separate parts. From that fateful day, and in his own words, every Charlton game was a tribute to his deceased teammates. Although alive, Charlton, United and England were resurrected. The three were born again and began a second life.
Charlton, born on October 11, 1937, had arrived at the club in 1953, thanks to Joe Armstrong, the famous chief scout at Old Trafford, who discovered him in the school leagues of the boy's native region: Northumberland. Bobby had to wait three years to triumphantly enter the first team. Busby had put together a very young team with acne stars Charlton and Duncan Edwards. Frank Nicklin of the Manchester Evening Post called it the “Busby Babes.”. And in that way it went down in history.
Charlton, with the English national team shirt. AP
The victory in the 1957 Premier League took the “red devils” to the 1958 European Cup, where death awaited some. And to all of them a pain that only subsided, without disappearing, with time. The physical and emotional reconstruction of the team, of English football, was a cyclopean task. And glorious, as if football and life paid them an immense debt contracted in Munich.
Between 1958 and 1968, Charlton, United (which also featured Dennis Law and George Best), and England stunned the world. The team won the Premier in 1965 and 1967. The FA Cup in 1968. And the European Cup in 1968, against Benfica (4-1), with extra time and two goals from Charlton. England, with Charlton at the tireless helm of strength and exquisite talent, was proclaimed world champion in 1966. The same year, Bobby won the Ballon d'Or. In 1967 and 1968, silver.
Once the quota of glory was exhausted, United began to decline and went down to the Second Division in 1974.. Charlton had already been a player-coach at Preston North End for a year, from where he left, for another year, Waterford United. He returned to Old Trafford as manager. In his symbiosis with the club, he is also remembered in that position. And as Honorary President.
Football misses Bobby Charlton as a physically and technically gifted midfielder. And with a lot of arrival: he scored 249 goals in 758 games for United. He is still the club's second top scorer, behind Cristiano Ronaldo. With England he played 106 games and scored 49 goals. His image is unforgettable, with his sparse skull and the few strands of hair fluttering in the wind. It was energy and precision. It was professional honesty. In the ideal catalog of his virtues, it was football.