He survived the plane crash that massacred his generation on an icy Munich track in the winter of 1958. Manchester United, the first British team to lift the European Cup, was founded around him in 1968. Along the way, he was the driver of England during the 1966 World Cup until the final won at Wembley. There is no holier moment in the memory of football in the Islands and Bobby Charlton figures in it as the high priest. His family announced his death “in the early hours of this Saturday.” He was 86 years old.
Sir Bobby Charlton was discreet and essential in each of his teams. He was the Englishman that Pelé, Puskas and Di Stéfano most respected at the dawn of professional football, as rich in folkloric myths as in empty institutions. Charlton not only won the Ballon d’Or. He elevated his football above any anecdote. His erratic blonde locks, waving on his sparse skull like a flag of disorder, signaled his dominant, punctual, balanced and harmonious presence, always powerful, wherever the play needed it. He dominated space like a conjurer, with the ball he was a master of the pass and without it he showed off incessantly. He was driving the same thing that appeared away from his markers. He was powerful, tenacious, disciplined. He was unaware of the impact. But, like a good Englishman, he rejoiced in performing the most difficult actions with an air of indifference and total naturalness.
“Words will never be enough,” reads United’s message on the official social networks. His status as a life member of the club’s board of directors corresponded with his supreme legend status at Old Trafford. The bow spur was him.
Sir Bobby Charlton CBE, 1937-2023.
Words will never be enough.
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 21, 2023
Clad in the blue wool suit, like an admiral, he went to the infallible stadium as long as his health allowed. The crowd let him pass like an anonymous passerby. Very few dared to interrupt him. He didn’t lose his phlegm even in a hurricane. Until a few years ago, when his memory began to fail him, he served as an advisor on the board of directors. His voice served, along with that of Alex Ferguson, to give meaning to the strategies of the institution with the most followers in the Premier. It may not be coincidental. When Charlton stopped influencing decisions, signings like José Mourinho were made and United lost the direction that they are still trying to recover.
He was born in Ashington, Northumbria, in the bleakest and wettest corner of England. It is the birthplace of some of the staunchest football devotees. From his mother’s genealogical branch came the Milburns: Jack, George, Jim and Stan. A constellation of figures from Leeds, Leicester and Chesterfield. In the family wake, his brother, Jack Charlton, was an outstanding Leeds player and he would surely have headed to the northern club if it had not been for the persistence of a United scout, who ended up convincing his mother to let him leave at 16 years. Thus the electrical engineer’s career was cut short and that of the footballer began.
Eight of his colleagues died in the Munich plane crash. He recovered from his injuries in time to attend the World Cup in Brazil, a few months later. He made 758 appearances for United, a record only beaten by Ryan Giggs a decade ago. He scored 249 for the red-shirt club and was England’s all-time top scorer with 49 goals until Wayne Rooney surpassed him in 2015.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
#Bobby #Charlton #leading #legend #English #football #dies