Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton CBE was a former association footballer who made 106 appearances for England between 1958 and 1970. [1] He is England's third all-time goalscorer, having scored 49 times for his country. [2] He is generally regarded as one of the best midfielders of all-time, [3] and was named the Ballon d'Or winner as European football's player of the year in 1966. [4]
Charlton made his international debut for England in April 1958, [5] scoring a goal against Scotland that was described by The Times 's football correspondent Geoffrey Green as "surely one of the finest ever seen at Hampden". [6] He was a prolific goalscorer for England in his first thirteen months, scoring at a rate of a-goal-a-game, culminating with his first hat-trick in international football, against the United States in May 1959. [7] He scored his 31st international goal in October 1963 during a 4–0 victory over Wales, and in doing so, became England's top goalscorer, passing the previous record jointly held by Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse. [8] He subsequently lost the record to his teammate Jimmy Greaves in October 1964, [9] but regained it when he scored his 45th goal in May 1968. [10] He scored his final international goal during a 4–0 win against Colombia in May 1970, and retired from international football after England were knocked out of the 1970 FIFA World Cup. [7] He remained England's leading goalscorer until September 2015, when he was surpassed by Wayne Rooney. [2]
Charlton scored four international hat-tricks; in addition to the one against the United States, he scored three goals in a game against Luxembourg during the 1962 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and in friendlies against Mexico and Switzerland. He scored more goals against Northern Ireland than any other team, with six goals, while he scored five goals against each of Luxembourg, Portugal, Scotland and Wales. [7] Of Charlton's 49 goals, 22 were scored in friendlies. In competitive matches, the majority of his goals came during British Home Championship matches. Charlton scored 16 times in these matches, including 3 in tournaments which doubled as qualification for UEFA Euro 1968. He scored four goals during FIFA World Cup tournaments, including three goals during the 1966 FIFA World Cup, which England won, collecting one during the group stage and both goals in England's 2–1 victory over Portugal in the semi-final. [7]
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Sir Robert Charlton was an English professional footballer who played as a midfielder or centre-forward. Widely considered one of the greatest players of all time, he was a member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup, the year he also won the Ballon d'Or. He finished second in the Ballon d'Or voting in 1967 and 1968. He played almost all of his club football at Manchester United, where he became renowned for his attacking instincts, passing abilities from midfield, ferocious long-range shooting from both left and right foot, fitness, and stamina. He was cautioned only twice in his career; once against Argentina in the 1966 World Cup, and once in a league match against Chelsea. With success at club and international level, he was one of nine players to have won the FIFA World Cup, the European Cup and the Ballon d'Or. His elder brother Jack, who was also in the World Cup–winning team, was a former defender for Leeds United and also for ten years was the manager of the Republic of Ireland.
Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst is an English former professional footballer. A striker, he became the first and one of only two men to ever score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, when England recorded a 4–2 victory over West Germany at Wembley Stadium in 1966. With the death of Sir Bobby Charlton in October 2023, Hurst became the last living player from the team that won the 1966 final.
John Charlton was an English professional footballer and manager who played as a centre-back. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 1996 achieving two World Cup and one European Championship appearances. He spent his entire club career with Leeds United from 1950 to 1973, helping the club to the Second Division title (1963–64), First Division title (1968–69), FA Cup (1972), League Cup (1968), Charity Shield (1969), Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, as well as one other promotion from the Second Division (1955–56) and five second-place finishes in the First Division, two FA Cup final defeats and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final defeat. His 629 league and 762 total competitive appearances are club records. He was the elder brother of former Manchester United forward Bobby Charlton, who was also one of his teammates in England's World Cup final victory. In 2006, Leeds United supporters voted Charlton into the club's greatest XI.
James Peter Greaves was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time and one of England's best ever players, he is England's fifth-highest international goalscorer with 44 goals, which includes an English record of six hat-tricks, and is Tottenham Hotspur's second-highest all-time top goalscorer. Greaves is the highest goalscorer in the history of English top-flight football with 357 goals. He finished as the First Division's top scorer in six seasons, more times than any other player and came third in the 1963 Ballon d'Or rankings. He is also a member of the English Football Hall of Fame.
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A skillful dribbler, he is considered one of the greatest players of all time, along with being considered one of the most talented to play. He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968 and came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century vote. Best received plaudits for his playing style, which combined pace, skill, balance, feints, goalscoring and the ability to get past defenders. His style of play captured the public's imagination, and in 1999 he was on the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century. He was also an inaugural inductee into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
Colin Bell was an English professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Bell, known for his thirteen-year spell at Manchester City, is regarded as one of the club's greatest-ever players, and was part of the Bell–Lee–Summerbee trio in the late 1960s and 1970s. Bell made 48 appearances for the England national football team; he was an unused squad member at UEFA Euro 1968 and played in three matches at the 1970 FIFA World Cup.
Norbert Peter Stiles was an English footballer and manager. He played for England for five years, winning 28 caps and scoring one goal. He played every minute of England's victorious 1966 FIFA World Cup campaign. In the semi-final of that tournament against Portugal, he was given the job of marking the prolific Eusébio. His tough performance resulted in Eusébio being practically nullified for the entire game. Stiles also played in the final, which England won 4–2 against West Germany. His post-match dance on the Wembley pitch, holding the World Cup trophy in one hand and his false teeth in the other, was widely broadcast.
William Anthony Foulkes was an English footballer who played for Manchester United in the Busby Babes teams of the 1950s, and also in the 1960s. His favoured position was centre-half. For Manchester United, he played 688 games which places him at number 4 on the all-time list of appearances behind Ryan Giggs, Bobby Charlton and Paul Scholes. He made 3 appearances as a substitute. He also started in every single United game in the 1957–58, 1959–60 and 1964–65 seasons. He scored a total of 9 goals in his 18 seasons at United and helped the club win four First Division titles, one FA Cup and one European Cup. He was capped three times for England in 1954-55.
The history of the England national football team, also known as the Three Lions, begins with the first representative international match in 1870 and the first officially-recognised match two years later. England primarily competed in the British Home Championship over the following decades. Although the FA had joined the international governing body of association football FIFA in 1906, the relationship with the British associations was fraught. In 1928, the British nations withdrew from FIFA, in a dispute over payments to amateur players. This meant that England did not enter the first three World Cups.
Geoffrey Green OBE was an English football writer. Geoffrey Green was educated at Shrewsbury School, where he played football. He started writing about football for The Times in the 1930s. He is considered to be the godfather of football reporting, although he remained anonymous in the paper until 23 January 1967. He also broadcast on football for BBC Radio.
The 1968–69 season was the 89th season of competitive football in England.
Ronald Flowers was an English professional footballer, who played as a midfielder, and was most known for his time at Wolverhampton Wanderers. He was a member of England's victorious 1966 World Cup squad. He was the elder brother of John Flowers.
The 1957–58 season was the 78th season of competitive football in England.
The 1965–66 season was the 86th season of competitive football in England.
William John Irvine is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. Born in Eden, County Antrim, into a large family, he grew up in the nearby town of Carrickfergus. He did well at school, but chose to pursue a career in professional football and initially played for local club Linfield. After a spell in amateur football, Irvine travelled to England for a trial with Burnley at the age of 16. He was offered a professional deal and spent three years playing for the youth and reserve teams, before making his senior debut at the end of the 1962–63 season. Over the following seasons, Irvine became a regular feature of the Burnley team and in the 1965–66 campaign, he scored 29 goals and was the highest goalscorer in the Football League First Division.
Clifford William Jones is a Welsh former footballer. During his career, he played as a winger and was capped 59 times for Wales national team. He was also a crucial member of Tottenham Hotspur's 1960–61 double-winning side.
The 1968 European Cup final was the final match of the 1967–68 European Cup, the premier club football competition in Europe. It was played at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on 29 May 1968 between Benfica of Portugal and Manchester United of England in front of a crowd of 92,225. Both teams had to go through four rounds of two-legged knockout ties to reach the final; it was Benfica's fifth European Cup final, two of which they had won, and Manchester United's first.
Liam Tuohy was an Irish footballer and manager. During the 1950s and 1960s, Tuohy played as an outside left for Shamrock Rovers, Newcastle United, and the Republic of Ireland. In 1959, while playing for Ireland, Tuohy scored the first ever goal in the history of the European Championship. After retiring as a player, Tuohy became a coach and managed several clubs in the League of Ireland including Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk, and Shelbourne.
Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore was an English professional footballer. He most notably played for West Ham United, captaining the club for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England national team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders in the history of football, and was cited by Pelé as the greatest defender that he had ever played against. Furthermore, Moore is sometimes considered to be one of the greatest players of all time.
Group 8 of the UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying tournament was one of the eight groups to decide which teams would qualify for the UEFA Euro 1968 finals tournament. Group 8 consisted of four teams: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, where they played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. Group 8's results were formed by combining the results of the 1966–67 and 1967–68 editions of the British Home Championship. The group winners were England, who finished 1 point above Scotland.