LufcTalk Hall of Fame Inductee - John Charles CBE

[Selby White]

I'm possibly not qualified to tell folk about the Gentle Giant as was never fortunate to see him play. Hopefully some of our members that were lucky enough to see him will tell us more.
I did meet the man once and came over as a real gentleman, it was later in his life when he managed a Leeds veterans ex players team that played friendlies for charity.

One thing I can say is my Dad swore blind he was the best player he had seen, he added his first spell here was his best period. Now when I think of all the greats my Dad & myself saw in a Leeds shirt to say someone was the best is great testament indeed.



Here is what it says about John on Wiki -
William John Charles CBE (27 December 1931 – 21 February 2004) was a Welsh footballer who played as a centre-forward or as a centre-back. Best known for his first stint at Leeds United and Juventus, he was rated by many as the greatest all-round footballer ever to come from Britain.[2]

Charles began his career at Leeds United, having moved there in 1949 from his hometown club, Swansea Town. He was equally adept as a defender or a forward, due to his strength, pace, technique, vision, ability in the air and eye for goal.[3][4] After returning from his National Service in 1952, Charles began to be used more often as a forward, and he was the Second Division's top scorer in 1954. The following year, he was named club captain; in his first season as captain, he led the club to second place and promotion. Charles ended the 1956–57 season as the First Division's top scorer and an eighth-place finish for Leeds. In the summer of 1957, Charles joined Juventus, where he partnered Giampiero Boniperti and Omar Sívori, with the trio becoming known as The Holy Trident. In his five seasons with the club, he won the scudetto three times and the Coppa Italia twice; he was also the capocannoniere winner for the 1957–58 season. In 1962, Charles returned to Leeds, but his time there proved unsuccessful as he was accustomed to the style of play in Italy, and by the end of the year, he had joined Roma. Charles moved back to his native country to play for Cardiff City, and ended his career in non-league football in player-manager roles at Hereford United and Merthyr Tydfil. He was never cautioned nor sent off during his entire career,[5] owing to his philosophy of never kicking nor intentionally hurting opposing players. This led to the nickname he acquired while playing for Juventus, Il Gigante Buono (The Gentle Giant).[4] In 1998, he was included in the Football League 100 Legends, and in 2002, he was one of the inaugural inductees to the Football Hall of Fame.

He represented the Welsh national team over fifteen years, from 1950 to 1965. Alongside his brother, Mel Charles, he was a member of the Welsh squad at the 1958 FIFA World Cup. At the tournament, he scored in a 1–1 draw with Hungary, but he got injured in a play-off match against the same opposition. Ruled out of the quarter-final against Brazil, Wales lost the match 1–0, with Pelé scoring the winner. Wales manager Jimmy Murphy opined that had Charles been fit, Wales might have won the match.

For its 50th anniversary in 2004, UEFA asked each of its then 52 member associations to nominate one player as the single most outstanding player of the period 1954–2003, and Charles was chosen as the Golden Player of Wales by its national association in November 2003.

Here is the John Charles Story as told by Channel 4 back in 2002 -

[Saxon]

It would be around 1970 that my Dad and myself decided to enter a Sunday newspaper competition to name the 10 best Centre forwards of all time,playing in the old 1st div, naming them in the correct order.It was something like a shilling a line, we decided to have 10 lines. We split it up that my Father would pick 5 players from pre 1960, and I would pick 5 from 1960 to 1970. We would mix and match to get final order.
While my picks were players the likes Jimmy Greaves, Roger Hunt, Geoff Hurst, Ron Davies, my Dad's were the likes of John Charles, Nat Lofthouse,Tommy Lawton, Ted Drake, Dixie Dean.
I realized that my picks were up against some legendary names but we thought that 5 picks from he 1960's would be required as people including the competition judges have short memories.
My Dad's 1st pick every time was John Charles, as would be everybody else in Leeds and Wales.
When the results were announced, we had the correct 10 players, one line in the right order, except, we had the first 2 wrong order, they were Charles who we had first and Nat Lofthouse second. So we didn't win the car, we got nowt.
I'm told I saw Charles before he went to Juventus in 1957, but I don't really remember being only 7 years old.
When he came back in 1962, I went all the games he played at Elland Road until he went back to Italy.
We were expecting a God to return,I remember my friends and myself being in awe of his physical stature, but in reality what arrived was a player out of shape and out of practice, and who couldn't fit in our game.
A sad episode in leed's history and sad for John also, a bad career decision, and a gamble by Harry Reynolds our Chairman. At least we got our money back when he was transferred to Roma.
When we discuss Leeds greatest all time team, there's no doubt he would be right up there with Bremmner as 1st pick.

[johnh]

I saw John Charles play many times between 1951 - 1954. During National Service I was posted to the Far East and while I was away, Leeds sold him. When I was brought up in Liverpool I saw many of the post war 'greats' when I supported Everton. John Charles was the best centre-half I ever saw and the best centre-forward I ever saw. In fact, he was the best footballer I ever saw - and not by a small margin either.