Bobby Charlton - United and England

United and England

At the same time, Charlton's emergence as the country's leading young football talent was completed when he was called up to join the England squad for a British Home Championship game against Scotland at Hampden Park. It would be the start of a long, prolific, record-breaking and globally respected career for his country.

Charlton was handed his debut as England romped home 4–0, with the new player gaining even more admirers after scoring a magnificent thumping volley dispatched with authority after a cross by the left winger Tom Finney. He scored both goals in his second game as England beat Portugal 2–1 in a friendly at Wembley; and overcame obvious nerves on a return to Belgrade to play his third match against Yugoslavia. England lost that game 5–0 and Charlton played poorly. He was selected for the squad which competed at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, but didn't kick a ball, something at which critics expressed surprise and bewilderment, even allowing for his lacklustre performance in Belgrade.

Charlton began to settle back into his footballing life with Manchester United and England and enhanced his reputation as a scorer of great goals as well as a great goalscorer – rarely is a player regarded as both. In 1959 he scored a hat-trick as England demolished the US 8–1; and his second England hat-trick came in 1961 in an 8–0 thrashing of Mexico. He also managed to score in every British Home Championship tournament he played in except 1963 in an association with the tournament which lasted from 1958 to 1970 and included 16 goals and ten tournament victories (five shared).

He played in qualifiers for the 1962 World Cup in Chile against Luxembourg and Portugal and was named in the squad for the finals themselves. His goal in the 3–1 group win over Argentina was his 25th for England in just 38 appearances, but his individual success could not be replicated by that of the team, which was eliminated in the quarter final by Brazil, who went on to win the tournament.

Further success with Manchester United came at last when they beat Leicester City 3–1 in the FA Cup final of 1963, with Charlton finally earning a winners' medal in his third final. Busby's post-Munich rebuilding programme continued to progress with two League championships within three seasons, with United taking the title in 1965 and 1967. In between, there was the pressing matter for Charlton of the 1966 World Cup for which England, as hosts, had not needed to qualify. A successful (though trophyless) season with Manchester United had seen him take the honours of Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year and European Footballer Of The Year into the competition.

By now, England were coached by Alf Ramsey who had managed to gain sole control of the recruitment and team selection procedure from the committee-based call-up system which had lasted up to the previous World Cup. Ramsey had already cleared out some of the older players who had been reliant on the loyalty of the committee for their continued selection – it was well known that decorum on the pitch at club level had been just as big a factor in playing for England as ability and form. Luckily for Charlton, he had all three.

A hat-trick in the 8–1 rout of Switzerland in June 1963 took Charlton's England goal tally to 30, equalling the record jointly held by Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse and Charlton's 31st goal against Wales in October the same year gave him the record alone. Charlton's role was developing from traditional inside-forward to what today would be termed an attacking midfield player, with Ramsey planning to build the team for the 1966 World Cup around him. His goals became a little less frequent, and indeed Jimmy Greaves, playing purely as a striker, would overtake Charlton's England tally in October 1964. Nevertheless, he was still scoring and creating freely and as the tournament was about to start, he was expected to become one of its stars and galvanise his established reputation as one of the world's best footballers.