Bobby Charlton is a legend of English football, one of the few "Busby kids" who survived the terrible tragedy in Munich. Despite the severe shock, Charlton was able to find the strength to continue playing football and became one of the most famous athletes.
Biography
On the 11th day of October 1937, Sir Robert Charlton was born in the small English town of Ashington. Despite the fact that young Bobby loved football in all its manifestations, his grandfather had a great influence on the choice in favor of sports. He was a true football fan, and his four sons became famous at that time players.
While receiving school education, Charlton devoted a lot of time to football and training, and once he was noticed by a scout of the famous English club Manchester United. Bobby without hesitation signed the proposed agreement, and from the first of January 1953 he became officially the player of the “Red Devils”.
Career
After World War II, Manchester United needed major changes, which decided head coach Sir Matt Busby. He completely changed the composition and made the main emphasis on the education of his own youth. So there was a new “Manchester United”, which is commonly called “Busby babies”. Robert Charlton also became part of these changes, at first he could not adapt and reveal his potential, so assistant coach Jimmy Murphy devoted a lot of time to individual lessons with a promising footballer.
It took Charlton two seasons at the youth academy to debut for the main team. In the 1956 season, he first appeared in the application for the main team and as a result spent 17 matches and scored two goals. Starting next year, he firmly entrenched in the base and began to appear more often on the field. “Busby Kids” have proved not only to English clubs, but throughout Europe, that young and inexperienced players can compete with professional football players. “Red Devils” easily reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup, where they defeated the strong “Red Star” in a two-match confrontation.
Encouraged by the victory and the passage to the semifinals, the “kids” were already dreaming of the coveted trophy, but the famous tragedy happened on the way back from Yugoslavia. The plane on which United players flew made a scheduled landing in Munich for refueling. When attempting to take off, the aircraft detected problems, but despite this, a second attempt was made, which also failed. The tight schedule did not allow the team to stay in Munich for the night, and therefore a third, fatal take-off attempt was made, in which the plane crashed. Of the 40 people on board, only 21 survived, among whom was Bobby.
After the experience, having lost his teammates at once and, possibly, the future, Charlton did not want to return to football for a long time, but, thanks to the support of his family and fans of his sports “creativity”, he found the strength to become part of Manchester United again. Fans had hopes for him to revive the team and strongly welcomed this difficult decision of his idol.
Charlton became not just a part of Manchester United, but also a team leader for many years. His career as the leading "red devil" ended only in 1973. During this time, he entered the field 765 times and scored 253 goals. Three times became the champion of England, and in 1968 he raised the coveted Champions Cup over his head. In the piggy bank of the famous athlete there are many trophies. This player, along with his closest associates Denis Lowe and George Best, is immortalized in a bronze statue created by the legendary sculptor Philip Jackson. It is installed on Manchester Street named after Matt Busby.
England team
For the English national team, Bobby Charlton made his debut in 1958. In total, he played 109 matches in national colors, in which he scored 49 times in scoring an opponent’s goal. In 1966, he became the world champion.
