Gary Neville has hailed Sir Bobby Charlton as the greatest ever Manchester United ambassador and England player following his death at the age of 86.
Charlton scored 249 goals in 758 games for Manchester United between 1956 and 1973, winning the European Cup with United in 1968 as well as three First Division titles.
He earned 106 caps for England, scoring 49 times, a record he kept from 1970 to 2015, and won the 1966 World Cup before winning the Ballon d’Or that cemented him in football history.
“He is the greatest English footballer of all time,” Neville said on the channel Gary Neville podcast. “The impact he has had on English football by winning all those trophies, but also on his longevity at Manchester United. Playing more than 750 games is just incredible and more than 100 games for England.”
“His journey as a youth player is what I always think about. Those three successive FA Youth Cups, where Manchester United was built on the principle of the Youth Cup. When I joined in 1991/92, that was it. It was a big trophy .”
“Manchester United won it five times in the early 1950s and Sir Bobby Charlton was part of that. When you think of the Busby Babes and what that brought about at Man United, this belief in youth and opportunity. He was the largest representative of that.” .”
‘The spirit of Man Utd lived through Sir Bobby’
Neville paid tribute to Charlton for helping to lay the foundations at Manchester United and continuing to represent the club in the best possible way after his playing days.
“Sir Bobby Charlton is an icon. He is the true legend of Manchester United. He is the only player to ever play for the club to ever have a stand named after him,” said Neville.
“He has the statue with George Best and Dennis Law. The three biggest names in the history of Manchester United. The godfathers of what Manchester United is.
“When you go there as a young player and hear the story of the Busby Babes and the club blazers they wore, the expectation of discipline and hard work, The Cliff training ground in Salford and Littleton Road and all those places where the Busby Babes grew up.
“Bobby Charlton lived to tell the story during the great Manchester United eras of Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson because he came to every game. When I was there he was in the dressing room after every game. All the directors were.
“You think of his stability and guidance in Sir Alex Ferguson’s early years when he could see what he was doing behind the scenes with the youth system. When he could see the principles that Sir Alex Ferguson put in place when many wanted him gone. .
“He was one of the stalwarts, he was one of those in the boardroom along with Martin Edwards who said something is happening, foundations are being built.
“Sir Alex has spoken about how important he was in keeping that thread of history running through the club, and that football experience and knowledge.
“I always think of him in ’99, the tear in his eye when we won the Champions League at Camp Nou. He traveled with us through Europe, he trained with us in the boxes the night before a match, the rondos they call them now.
“Sir Alex Ferguson was involved in one and he was involved in the other and this was well into his 50s. That spirit of the club lived through Sir Bobby Charlton, that representation of what the club meant.
“I know I sometimes get criticized when I talk about ‘This is Manchester United’ and what a Manchester United player is, but it was these people: Sir Bobby Charlton, Brian Kidd, Nobby Stiles and Sir Alex Ferguson explained to us what a Manchester United player is, what a United player was and what was expected of you, both on and off the pitch.
“He is the greatest ambassador for Manchester United on and off the pitch who has ever lived. He is also the greatest ambassador and icon of English football who has ever lived.”
‘The perfect role model’
Charlton survived the 1958 Munich air disaster, which killed 23 people, eight of them Manchester United players, and played a crucial role in the club’s rebuilding.
“It is unimaginable what those players, staff and fans at the club went through when the Munich plane crash occurred,” Neville said.
“A few weeks later they had to start playing again. You talk about resilience, toughness, character and personality, these great qualities that we all want in our children and in all the people we meet in life, they had it in abundance, but they also had skill, talent and humility.
“Sir Bobby carried all these characteristics with him all his life. He was always modest, a gentleman. I performed a lot with him as an ambassador while I was at the club where you met dignitaries and people like that and he was the perfect role model of how to behave as a football player on and off the field.
“He was rightly knighted for his achievements in football and he also founded the Sir Bobby Charlton Soccer School which had an impact on so many young people. David Beckham found that football school, there are pictures of him there with Sir Bobby Charlton.
“His standards were everything. We played against Bradford at Old Trafford in a night game and we won 6-0. It was just before the end and I was playing left center back. A Bradford player broke off the right hand. I went to my left and I went up to him and absolutely punched him. The crowd was cheering and I didn’t think anything of it. That’s what you did. I gave away a foul.
“Bobby Charlton pulled me towards him after the match and said, ‘Can I have a word with you?’ He said, ‘We’re not doing that, we’re showing class.’ That’s something I always remember to this day. remember. He always wanted the club to represent itself well.”