 |
JACK CHARLTON OBE |
| Jack Charlton was born in Ashington, Northumberland in 1935. Jack made his Leeds debut in 1953 at the age of 17 & went on to make 629 league appearances for the Yorkshire club. |
Jack Charlton flourished under the guidance of Don Revie who arrived at Elland Road in 1961, led the club to the Second Division title three years later & transformed Leeds into one of Europe's most formidable sides. |
| 'Big Jack' was just one moth short of his 30th birthday when he made his England debut in 1965. He was called up by manager Alf Ramsey to play for England against Scotland at Wembley. The game ended 2-2 & Charlton was impressive enough to keep his place. With England hosting the 1966 World Cup in just over 12 months time, the incentive to stay in the side was obvious. |
| Ramsey chopped & changed other areas of his team as the World Cup neared but Charlton's partnership at the back with Captain Bobby Moore remained constant. |
| Jack Charlton got his first England goal in a pre-tournament victory over Denmark before Ramsey confirmed Charlton in his 22. |
| England's opening match against Uruguay ended 0-0 but the team progressed after victories against Mexico & France. The latter game finished 2-0 with Roger Hunt getting both England goals. England then eliminated Argentina in the last eight, taking them to a semi-final against the enigmatic Portuguese. |
| Charlton had his work cut out keeping Portugal's Torres quiet, with the tall awkward centre forward winning his fair share of aerial duels with Jack. Charlton's younger brother Bobby scored twice to give England a commanding lead before Eusebio, himself marshalled expertly throughout the game by Nobby Stiles, scored a late penalty after Charlton had handled a shot on the goal line, an offence which in today's game, would have seen him sent off. England clung on & reached the final where they would play West Germany. |
| The Germans took an early lead through Helmut Haller, England equalised shortly afterwards through Geoff Hurst & then as the second half went on, Charlton came close to scoring the goal which would have put England ahead. |
| Alan Ball's corner reached Hurst, whose shot from the edge of the area was partly blocked, taking the ball into a high loop in the air. As it dropped, Charlton - up with the attack as ever - looked the most likely to get to it first but then Martin Peters stepped in & hit a crisp half volley into the net. There were fewer than 15 minutes left. |
| The Germans pressed for an equaliser & got their reward, partly thanks to Charlton in an incident which would have proved massively more controversial had the result of the match been different. |
| Charlton was adjudged to have climbed over a player to reach a header & the referee gave a free kick in a dangerously central position deep in the England half. To this day, Charlton claimed his opponent backed into him, forcing him to stoop out of the way. The free kick slammed into the England defence, ricocheted across the penalty area & into the path of Wolfgang Weber who steered it home. Seconds later, the whistle blew for full-time & extra- time was now needed. |
| England dominated the added 30 minutes & Hurst scored twice to complete his immortal hat-trick & a historic 4-2 win. |
| In 1967, Jack Charlton ended the season as The Football Writers' Player of the Year. |
| In 1968, Leeds went onto win the League & Fairs Cup & Charlton completed the year by playing his 447th League game, breaking the club's previous record. |
| In 1969, Leeds finally got their hands on the League Championship with Charlton proving a rock at the back. |
| In the summer, Ramsey named Charlton in his 22 for the 1970 World Cup. Charlton played his 35th & final England game in the 1-0 group win over Czechoslovakia. England lost in the quarter finals to West Germany & on the flight home, both Charlton brothers asked Ramsey not to be considered for international duty again. |
| In 1972, Leeds finally won the FA Cup & Charlton completed his domestic medal set. They missed out on the League again but the Cup win proved a fitting swansong for Charlton as, although he tried to continue the following year, he suffered an injury in 1973 which ruled him out for the rest of the season, including another FA Cup final & ultimately forced his hand. |
| He quit playing at the age of 38 with an amazing 773 appearances & 96 goals to his name. |
| Jack was quickly offered the job as manager of Middlesbrough & led them to promotion back to the top flight in his first season by such a considerable margin that he was given the Manager of the Year award, an honour never before bestowed on a boss from outside the top division. |
| Jack Charlton was awarded the OBE in 1974 for services to football. |
| Charlton quit Middlesbrough in April 1977 & went to Sheffield Wednesday where he took them to promotion from the third tier, almost then taking them up to the top flight in 1982. He resigned in 1983, went briefly back to Middlesbrough then ventured a little further north to his boyhood club Newcastle United. |
| After a year at Newcastle United, Jack took a step back from football & enjoyed his pursuit of field sports before a call came from the FAI to take on the job of managing the Republic of Ireland. |
| Jack accepted the offer & helped Ireland qualify for the 1988 European Championships in Germany - who were then drawn against England in their group. Suddenly the World Cup winner with England found himself plotting their downfall as manager & he duly did, with a 1-0 win. |
| They subsequently drew 1-1 with the USSR but went out losing to eventual champions Holland - leaving the tournament in a blaze of glory. Charlton was awarded the runner-up prize in the World Soccer Manager of the Year contest at the end of 1988. |
| His team qualified for the 1990 World Cup, the country's first ever & again they played England in the group phase (this time it ended 1-1). In an eventful competition for them, they qualified from the group, defeated Romania in a famous second round match which went to penalties & went out (in glory again) to the hosts Italy in the last eight. |
| Ireland missed out on qualifying for the Euro 92 but got to the 1994 World Cup in the USA. Ireland who famously defeated Italy during the group phase, went out to the Dutch in the second round. |
| Jack Charlton was made a Freeman of Dublin in 1994 to honour the credit he had brought to the national side. |
| 'Big Jack' retired as Ireland boss in 1995 following their failure to qualify for the 1996 European Championships. |
| In 2005, Jack Charlton was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his contribution to the English game. |
For more information on Jack Charlton, Contact Arena. Tel: 0113-239-2222 |