In 1958 Bobby Charlton survived the Munich Air Disaster, which killed 23 people, 8 Manchester United players among them. What he did afterwards reads like a film script, except a script editor would have cut some of it as too much.
He rebuilt his career, and in 1966 he won the World Cup with England. The same year he won the Ballon d'Or. In 1968 he lifted the European Cup with Manchester United, ten years after the crash.
A shot people remembered
Charlton's long-range shooting was one of the most feared weapons in world football, and it brought him 49 goals for England, a national record that stood for decades. At club level he made 758 appearances for United, another record that lasted about 35 years.
There is a reason he is called the greatest English footballer of the 20th century. It is partly the medals and partly the goals. Mostly it is the story: Munich, the rebuild, then the World Cup and the European Cup, in that order.
Few stories in sport match it. He remains an inspiration to anyone who has pulled on United's red shirt.
Tomorrow: number 11.
