John Charles

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the New Zealand composer, see John Charles (composer) .

This article or section needs to be revised: completely incoherent text, the subject is regularly changed in the middle of a sentence without a trace. completely blank.
Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

John Charles
John Charles wearing the Welsh national team jersey in 1954
Personnel
Surname	William John Charles
birthday	December 27, 1931
place of birth	Swansea ,  Wales
date of death	February 21, 2004
Place of death	Wakefield ,  England
size	188 cm
position	striker
Juniors
Years	station
1946-1948	Swansea Town
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1948-1957	Leeds United	297 (150)
1957-1962	Juventus Turin	150 0(93)
1962	Leeds United	11 00(3)
1962-1963	AS Roma	10 00(4)
1963-1966	Cardiff City	69 0(18)
1966-1971	Hereford United	173 0(80)
1972-1974	Merthyr Tydfil FC	? (?)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1950-1965	Wales	38 0(15)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1967-1971	Hereford United ( player-manager )
1972-1974	Merthyr Tydfil FC (player-manager)
1987	Hamilton Steelers
1 Only league games are given.

William John Charles , CBE (born December 27, 1931 in Swansea , Wales , † February 21, 2004 in Wakefield , England ) was a Welsh football player and coach .

Career

John Charles was discovered as a 16-year-old shoe shiner for the local Swansea Town soccer team by Frank Buckley , then team manager at Leeds United . Buckley was enthusiastic about Charles' playful ease and convinced of his talent.

The then 1.63 m tall 16-year-old was too young to sign a professional contract. During his military service, Charles grew to 1.88 m, which later earned him the nickname "gentle giant" or "gigante buono" or "gentle giant". After his 17th birthday, he was finally signed by Leeds United. He made his debut for the Welsh national team at the age of 18 , but did not succeed in the 0-0 win against Ireland . He had to wait two years for his next appointment. In the meantime he was “retrained” from a “stopper”, ie defender, to a center forward.

His experience in defense helped Charles in his new role. In the 1952/53 season he scored 30 goals in 21 league games, which he was able to improve to 42 goals in the following season.

In 1955 he completed his two best internationals, as he scored all three goals in a 3-2 win against Ireland and Wales lost only 3-2 against neighbors England , with both Welsh goals on his account.

1956 joined Charles at Juventus Turin . For Charles, the new life in Italy was synonymous with culture shock. At Leeds United he was an easy player, while at the "Old Lady" he was treated like a gentleman. There are some anecdotes about it. For example, he is said to have said: "When I was confronted with a plate of spaghetti, the stuff ended up everywhere instead of down my neck". Although he was a "messy eater", i.e. a rather sloppy eater, he was very popular as a player with the number 9 even with Juventus' bitter city rivals AC Turin , a fact that he owes his sportsmanship:

“I didn't want to finish her in my first Turin derby, but unfortunately I hit the center-half (Libero) with my elbow and knocked him out. Now I only had the goalie (goalkeeper) in front of me, but it didn't seem fair to me, so I kicked the ball out of the way so that the fella (buddy) could be treated. "

“Anyway, from then on I was treated with a lot of respect by the Torino fans. I remember they beat us 3-2 on a Sunday afternoon and I missed a penalty - maybe that's why I was so popular - and was woken up at around 3 in the morning by that incredible hoot of horns. When I went out on the balcony there were crowds of Torino fans waving red flags. ”Typically Charles, he invited them in, not knowing that these fans would“ fill up ”his precious wine cellar and keep trying to urge him to leave Juve and to play at AC Turin.

Juve had some great players back then like Giampiero Boniperti and the Argentine Omar Sívori ("Whenever he scored, we all ran in the other direction because he was such an ugly bugger and therefore nobody wanted to kiss him."), But it was the Gigante Buono that the fans had chosen as their favorite. "Why? Probably because I scored a couple of goals, ”said Charles, his usual humble expression. In total, these “few” goals amounted to 93 in 150 Serie A games in five seasons. In the election of the European Footballer of the Year in 1959, he came third.

He won three Italian championships with Juventus and the Italian Cup twice. He later moved back to Leeds United to play again in Italy, this time at AS Roma . The Welshman ended his career after knee surgery at Cardiff City .

It is noteworthy that in his entire professional career, John Charles has never seen the yellow, let alone the red card. This fact contributed significantly to his nicknames. He owed this philosophy to his father, who kept telling him "Don't knock them down, just play football". When asked if he had ever deceived a referee, he answered with a simple but honest no . In 1997, he was voted the greatest striker who has ever played for Juventus by Juve fans and died of cancer in 2004.

The fact that he is still valued for his manner and character in Wales and especially in Italy reflects the outstanding position of this not only proverbial great player.

successes

• Italian championship : 1957/58 , 1959/60 , 1960/61
• Coppa Italia : 1958/59 , 1959/60
• Welsh Cup : 1963/64, 1964/65
• Scorer of Serie A : 1957-58

Web links

Commons : John Charles  - Collection of Images

• John Charles in the database of weltfussball.de