John Charles

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

Career

John Charles, was discovered as a 16- year-old shoeshine boy of the local football team Swansea Town by Frank Buckley, the time Team Manager at Leeds United. Buckley was taken with the playful ease Charles ' and convinced of his talent.

The then 1.63 m wide 16 -year-old was too young to sign a professional contract. During his military service, Charles grew up to 1.88 m, which he later partly nicknamed " gentle giant " or " gigante buono" that is " gentle giant " earned. After his 17th birthday he was finally taken by Leeds United. He made his debut as a 18- year-old in the Welsh national team, which he, however, when they drew 0-0 against Ireland had no success. At his next appointment, he had to wait two years. In the meantime he was " retrained " from the " stopper ", ie defender to center forward.

His experience in the defense were Charles in his new position, very useful. In the season 1952/53, he scored 30 goals in 21 league games, he could improve in the next season even on 42 results.

In 1955 he completed his two best National Games, as he scored all three goals against Ireland 3-2 Wales and outnumbered against the neighbor England 2:3 lost, where was that both Welsh gates went to his account.

1956 Charles moved to Juventus. For Charles the new life in Italy has been synonymous with a culture shock. At Leeds United he was a simple player while he was treated like a gentleman at the " Old Lady ". There are some anecdotes to. For example, he once said: "When I was faced with a plate of spaghetti, the stuff landed everywhere, take down my neck ." Although he was thus a "messy eater" a pretty sloppy eater, he was a player with the number 9 even with Juventus ' bitter city rivals AC Torino very popular, a fact which he owes his sportsmanship:

"I wanted to not finish in my first Turin derby, but unfortunately I met, unfortunately, the center -half ( Libero ) with my elbow and knocked him out. Now I had only the goalie ( goalie) before me, but it seemed to me not fair, so I kicked the ball into touch so that the fella ( buddy ) could be treated. "

"In any case, from the time I was treated by the Torino fans with a lot of respect. I remember one Sunday afternoon they beat us 3-2 and I missed a penalty - maybe I was just so popular - and was awakened around 3 clock in the morning of this incredible chorus of horns. When I went out on the balcony there were red flags oscillating masses of Torino fans. " Typical Charles he invited them in, not knowing that these fans his valuable wine cellar " auftranken " and try all the time would almost put him to leave Juve and to play at AC Torino.

Juve then had some great players like Giampiero Boniperti and Argentinean Omar Sívori ( "Whenever he met, we all ran in the other direction because he is a ugly bugger ( ugly guy) was so and so no one wanted to kiss him. "), But it was the Gigante Buono, the fans had chosen as their favorite. " Why? Probably because I made a few goals, " Charles was accustomed modestly of himself. Overall, this amounted " few" gates at 93 in 150 Serie A games in five seasons. When choosing the footballer of the year in Europe in 1959, he came in third place.

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

It is worth noting that John Charles has seen in his entire professional career never yellow, let alone a red card. This fact contributed significantly to his nickname. To play this philosophy he had to thank his father, he kept saying " wood they to not just play football ." When asked whether he had ever deceived a referee, he replied with a simple but honest no, he was in 1997 elected by the Juve fans to the greatest strikers ever to play for Juventus and died in 2004 from cancer.

The fact that he is appreciated for his style and his character in Wales and especially in Italy today, this reflects not only the proverbial big player's outstanding position.