Sir Robert Charlton was born on 11 October 1937 and is an English former footballer who played either as a attacking-midfielder, central-midfielder or left-winger.
60 Facts About Bobby Charlton
2.
Bobby Charlton finished second in the Ballon d'Or in 1967 and 1968.
3.
Bobby Charlton played almost all of his club football at Manchester United, where he became renowned for his attacking instincts, his passing abilities from midfield and his ferocious long-range shot, as well as his fitness and stamina.
4.
Bobby Charlton was cautioned only twice in his career; st Argentina in the 1966 World Cup, and once in a league match against Chelsea.
5.
Bobby Charlton's elder brother Jack, who was in the World Cup-winning team, was a former defender for Leeds United and international manager.
6.
Bobby Charlton next accepted a post as a director with Wigan Athletic, then became a member of Manchester United's board of directors in 1984.
7.
At international level, Bobby Charlton was named in the England squad for four World Cups, though did not play in the first.
8.
At the time of his retirement from the England team in 1970 he was the nation's most capped player, having turned out 106 times at the highest level; Bobby Charlton Moore overtook this in 1973.
9.
Bobby Charlton is the third-highest goalscorer for England; his record of 49 goals was beaten in 2015 by Rooney, and again by Harry Kane in 2023.
10.
Bobby Charlton is related to several professional footballers on his mother's side of the family: his uncles were Jack Milburn, George Milburn, Jim Milburn and Stan Milburn, and legendary Newcastle United and England footballer Jackie Milburn was his mother's cousin.
11.
On 9 February 1953, then a Bedlington Grammar School pupil, Bobby Charlton was spotted playing for East Northumberland schools by Manchester United chief scout Joe Armstrong.
12.
Bobby Charlton went on to play for England Schoolboys and the 15-year-old signed amateur forms with United on 1 January 1953 along with Wilf McGuinness, aged 15.
13.
Bobby Charlton became one of the famed Busby Babes, the collection of talented footballers who emerged through the system at Old Trafford in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as Matt Busby set about a long-term plan of rebuilding the club after the Second World War.
14.
Bobby Charlton worked his way through the pecking order of teams, scoring regularly for the youth and reserve sides before he was handed his first team debut against Charlton Athletic in October 1956.
15.
Bobby Charlton was a candidate to go in goal to replace Wood, but it was teammate Jackie Blanchflower who ended up between the posts.
16.
Bobby Charlton was an established player by the time the next season was fully underway, which saw United, as current League champions, become the first English team to compete in the European Cup.
17.
Bobby Charlton, strapped into his seat, had fallen out of the cabin; when United goalkeeper Harry Gregg found him, he thought he was dead.
18.
Bobby Charlton suffered cuts to his head and severe shock, and was in hospital for a week.
19.
Bobby Charlton arrived back in England on 14 February 1958, eight days after the crash.
20.
Bobby Charlton was still only 20 years old, yet now there was an expectation that he would help with the rebuilding of the club as Busby's aides tried to piece together what remained of the season.
21.
At times, Bobby Charlton was not on speaking terms with United's other superstars George Best and Denis Law, and Best refused to play in Bobby Charlton's testimonial match against Celtic, saying that "to do so would be hypocritical".
22.
Bobby Charlton was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1969 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at The Sportsman's Club in central London.
23.
Bobby Charlton was selected for the squad which competed at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, but he did not play.
24.
Bobby Charlton managed to score in every British Home Championship tournament he played in except 1963 in an association with the tournament that lasted from 1958 to 1970 and included 16 goals and 10 tournament victories.
25.
Bobby Charlton played in qualifiers for the 1962 World Cup in Chile against Luxembourg and Portugal and was named in the squad for the finals themselves.
26.
Bobby Charlton's role was developing from traditional inside-forward to what today would be termed an attacking midfield player, with Ramsey planning to build the team for the 1966 World Cup around him.
27.
Bobby Charlton's goals became a little less frequent, and indeed Jimmy Greaves, playing purely as a striker, overtook his England tally in October 1964.
28.
Nevertheless, Bobby Charlton was still scoring and creating freely, and as the tournament was about to start he was expected to become one of its stars and galvanise his established reputation as one of the world's best footballers.
29.
The game was the only international match in which Bobby Charlton received a caution.
30.
Bobby Charlton opened the scoring with a crisp side-footed finish after a run by Roger Hunt had forced the Portuguese goalkeeper out of his net; his second was a sweetly struck shot after a run and pull-back from Geoff Hurst.
31.
Bobby Charlton was then in the England team which made it to the semi-finals of the 1968 European Championships where they were knocked out by Yugoslavia in Florence.
32.
In 1969, Bobby Charlton was appointed an OBE for services to football.
33.
Shortly before the World Cup, Charlton was involved in the Bogota Bracelet incident in which he and Bobby Moore were accused of stealing a bracelet from a jewellery store.
34.
Moore was later arrested and detained for four days before being granted a conditional release, while Bobby Charlton was not arrested.
35.
Bobby Charlton played in all three, though was substituted for Alan Ball in the final game of the group against Czechoslovakia.
36.
Bobby Charlton controlled the midfield and suppressed Franz Beckenbauer's runs from deep.
37.
England were out and, after a record 106 caps and 49 goals, Bobby Charlton decided to end his international career at the age of 32.
38.
Charlton's caps record lasted until 1973 when Bobby Moore overtook him; he currently lies seventh in the all-time England appearances list behind Moore, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, David Beckham and Peter Shilton, whose own England career began in the first game after Charlton's had ended.
39.
Bobby Charlton became the manager of Preston North End in 1973, signing his former United and England teammate Nobby Stiles as player-coach.
40.
Bobby Charlton was appointed a CBE that year and began a casual association with BBC for punditry on matches, which continued for many years.
41.
Bobby Charlton made a handful of appearances for Australian clubs Newcastle KB United, Perth Azzurri and Blacktown City.
42.
Bobby Charlton joined Wigan Athletic as a director, and was briefly caretaker manager there in 1983.
43.
Bobby Charlton then spent some time playing in South Africa.
44.
Bobby Charlton built up several businesses in areas such as travel, jewellery and hampers, and ran soccer schools in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and China.
45.
Bobby Charlton remained a director of Manchester United into the late 2010s, and his continued presence was a factor in placating many fans opposed to the club's takeover by Malcolm Glazer.
46.
Bobby Charlton met his wife, Norma Ball, at an ice rink in Manchester in 1959 and they married in 1961.
47.
In 2007, while publicising his forthcoming autobiography, Bobby Charlton revealed that he had a long-running feud with his brother Jack.
48.
Bobby Charlton did not see his mother after 1992 as a result of the feud.
49.
Bobby Charlton said that he was 'knocked out' as he was presented the award by his brother.
50.
Bobby Charlton received a standing ovation as he stood waiting for his prize.
51.
Bobby Charlton helped to promote Manchester's bids for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and the 2002 Commonwealth Games, England's bid for the 2006 World Cup and London's successful bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
52.
Bobby Charlton received a knighthood in 1994 and was an Inaugural Inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
53.
On 2 March 2009, Bobby Charlton was given the freedom of the city of Manchester.
54.
Bobby Charlton is involved in a number of charitable activities, including fund raising for cancer hospitals.
55.
Bobby Charlton became involved in the cause of land mine clearance after visits to Bosnia and Cambodia and supports the Mines Advisory Group as well as founding his own charity Find a Better Way which funds research into improved civilian landmine clearance.
56.
In January 2011, Bobby Charlton was voted the fourth-greatest Manchester United player of all time by the readers of Inside United and ManUtd.
57.
Bobby Charlton is a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
58.
On 6 February 2012 Bobby Charlton was taken to hospital after falling ill, and subsequently had a gallstone removed.
59.
In October 2017, Bobby Charlton had a pitch named after him at St George's Park National Football Centre in Burton-upon-Trent.
60.
In November 2020, it was revealed that Bobby Charlton had been diagnosed with dementia.