RIP John Charles

[Lord Bracknell]

One of my childhood football heroes.

1931: Born December 27, in Swansea.

1947: Leaves school aged 15 to join hometown club Swansea City’s groundstaff.

1949: After breaking into Swansea first team, Charles is bought by Leeds United and makes debut for new club on April 23, against Blackburn.

1950: Wins his first Wales cap in March against Ireland, at age of 18 years and 71 days, becoming the youngest player to ever appear for his country. Record was broken by Ryan Giggs in 1992.

1950-52: Called up for national service, which he spent with the 12th Royal Lancers at Carlisle, Charles plays both for Leeds and his regiment’s team. Wins the Army Cup with the regiment.

1954: Having been moved out of defence and into the Leeds attack, Charles scored 42 goals in 39 league matches in the 1953/54 season, even though Leeds finished mid-table in Division Two.

1956: Member of the Leeds team which finishes second in Division Two, gaining promotion to the old Division One.

1957: After scoring 154 goals in 316 games in his first spell with Leeds, signs for Juventus for a British transfer record of £65,000.

1957-58: Scores winning goals in his first three matches and finishes as Serie A top scorer in his debut season with Juventus, in which his new team ended a barren run by winning the league title. Charles remains the only British player to have topped the Serie A scoring charts. Named Italy’s Player of the Year.

1958: Plays for Wales at the 1958 World Cup but has to miss the quarter-final against eventual champions Brazil due to injury. Brazil fielded a 17-year-old Pele, who scored the only goal as Wales badly missed their top player.

1959: Charles scores as Juventus beat Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia final.

1960: Juventus win the Italian league and cup double with Charles scoring 23 goals in 34 matches.

1961: Scores 15 goals in 32 games as Juventus successfully defend their league title.

1962: Leaves Juve after scoring 93 goals in 155 appearances. Re-joins Leeds, who had been relegated to the Second Division since Charles left in 1957, in a £57,000 deal. Spends only 91 days at Elland Road in his second spell and scores three goals in 11 games, before returning to Italy to sign for Roma.

1963: After playing only 10 games and scoring four goals for Roma, Charles is sold to Cardiff City for £20,000.

1964: International career comes to an end, with Charles having won 38 caps for Wales and scored 15 goals.

1966: Leaves Cardiff and agrees to take on player-manager role at Southern League Hereford United. He fails to find success in management. Later extends playing career with Merthyr Tydfil until hanging up his boots aged 41. Charles was never booked or sent off in his distinguished career.

1988: Leeds award Charles and Bobby Collins a shared testimonial match at Elland Road.

2001: Charles is honoured by Buckingham Palace with a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

2004: Admitted to hospital in January after feeling unwell prior to a guest appearance on an Italian television programme. Underwent surgery in Milan following a blood clot on his leg and was then flown to England by Juventus’ private jet before being transferred to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.

February 21 – Charles dies at age of 72. “We mourn a great champion and a great man,” said Juventus vice-president Roberto Bettega. “He is a person who interpreted the spirit of Juventus in the best possible manner and he represented the sport in the best and purest manner.”

 

[Beach Hut]

Total football legend

RIP

 

[itszamora]

Agreed, RIP John

 

[Eddie the Seagull]

42 goals in one season is phoenominal.

Never sent off or booked even - amazing.

 

[Braders]

saw this on 'on the ball ' earlier

very sad

R.I.P

 

[blue-shifted]

Rest in peace John Charles. I hope the Man U fans respected the mins silence better than the Leeds fans respected Sir Matt Busby's

 

[fosters headband]

RIP John
Very sad, a great player.
Lord B, Is his brother Mel still alive, another good player who was in the shadow of his brother

 

[Lord Bracknell]

As far as I know, Mel Charles is still alive and living in Swansea.

Another great player - a centre half who kept scoring goals. I saw him play on several occasions for Swansea Town and that made him much more real than Big John who was off at Juventus.

What a pair of brothers! At least as great as the Charltons, in my opinion.

As the article below suggest, he was a prolific goalscorer. But his time at Arsenal was apparently "indifferent". He "only" scored 26 goals in 60 appearances. He was a central defender, ffs!





Mel Charles - Swansea Town centre-half outshone superstar brother John.

Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales); 21 June 2002

By MARIO RISOLI

IT was perhaps no surprise to see the name Charles in the 1958 World Cup's best XI. And again it was no surprise to hear the great Pele hail him as the best player in his position. The Charles in question, however, was not John, the Juventus superstar, but his younger brother Mel, who was, at the time, playing for Second Division Swansea Town.

John, ruthlessly marked by defenders and perhaps exhausted by Juventus's attempts to try and stop him participating in that World Cup, had a disappointing tournament.

But the other Charles excelled and his outstanding performances in Sweden would ultimately lead to a big-money move to Arsenal the following year.

"It was hard being John's brother,'' admits Charles. "John was the greatest - and how do you follow the greatest?

"People did compare us but it was no good doing that because we were different players.''

Charles, as versatile as his more illustrious brother, played centre-half in Sweden and he was at the heart of a stubborn Welsh defence that conceded just four goals in five matches. For 73 minutes, in Gothenburg's futuristic Nya Ullevi stadium, Charles and his team-mates held firm against the awesome Brazilian attack of Pele, Altafini, Zagalo, Garrincha and Didi. Pele, who scored the lucky winner against the Welsh and who emerged as an international star in Sweden, picked Charles out as the tournament's best centre-half.

"I must thank Pele for saying things like that,'' he smiles. "Coming from a great player like him, that compliment makes me very proud.

"At the time I didn't realise I was playing so well,'' he recalls. "I just played my normal game. I suppose a player from Swansea making the World Cup XI is something of a fairytale.''

Charles is among the people who believe Wales would have beaten eventual winners Brazil had his brother, injured in the previous game against Hungary, been fit to play.

"No disrespect to Colin Webster, who replaced John, but I think we would have had the beating of Brazil had John played. He was the best forward in the world at the time,'' he says.

Charles, now 67, can still be found in his native Swansea. He lives modestly in a flat close to the Vetch Field - "I call it the Ponderosa'' - owned by his close friend Mel Nurse.

"I wish I was playing today and picking up the money players are earning. If you're one of the top players you can retire after a year,'' he says.

"I don't think players were properly rewarded in my day. We were getting £20 a-week. Take away tax and it was £18.''

As personalities go, Mel is the complete opposite to his older brother. Whereas John is shy and quiet, Mel is boisterous and outgoing. It's hard to digest that he hasn't made a career on the after-dinner speaking circuit.

Like his brother, Mel lost the money he made from football on a string of unsuccessful business ventures. "I tried everything. I had a butcher's shop, I was involved in scrap and I had a big potato business.

"Do you now what happened to he potato business? John asked me to come to Mauritius and play in the John Charles XI.

"I asked him, 'Where's Mauritius?' He said to me, 'I'll send you a pamphlet'. When I saw the pamphlet I said, 'Right, I'm definitely coming!' "The trip was only supposed to be two weeks, so I arranged potato de-liveries for a fortnight but we ended up staying for five. Apparently most of the chip shops in Swansea closed down because they didn't get any potatoes!

"I wasn't a successful businessman but at least I tried. I ended up losing all my money but I saw the world because of football which was amazing for a working class lad from Alice Street.''

In the early 1950s he joined Leeds where John was rapidly establishing himself as a star, but the reunion was brief. Unlike his brother, Mel was prone to homesickness and quit Elland Road in 1952 to return home and sign for the Swans.

Charles was a linchpin of the Swansea side until March 1959 when the club practically forced him to sign for Arsenal.

The Swans received £42,750 plus two players, Pete Davies and David Dodson, in exchange for Charles.

At Highbury he teamed up with Welsh international team-mates Jack Kelsey and Dave Bowen but he had an indifferent three years in North London, making only 60 appearances for the Gunners although he did score 26 goals.

After Arsenal he joined Cardiff before winding his career down with Porthmadog, Port Vale and Haverfordwest.

He won 31 Welsh caps and scored six times for his country - four of them coming in one match, against Northern Ireland at Ninian Park in April 1962.

 

[graz126]

rest in peace the gentle giant.

 

[fosters headband]

Thanks for that L.B

 

[CAFC Matt]

RIP. Legend

 

[attila]

'For me the goldstone has an extra special memory
Of the football soulmate I so briefly had.
He christened me John Charles, and taught me to love the game.
This one's for Bill. A poet. And my dad.

RIP John

John Charles Baine