Why Juve still honour legend of John Charles
THe name of John Charles will once again be on the lips of Juventus executives before kick-off in tomorrow’s Champions League final in Cardiff.
They may well speculate how much stronger their team’s bid for european glory would be with that colossus of a player on the field in black and white, either up front or in defence. Certainly, discussions will be in Italian.
‘I will give the old lingo a go,’ said Mel Charles, John’s second son, who with his three brothers Peter, Terry and David, has been invited to the match against Real Madrid by a club who hold their father in reverential esteem.
‘They will be saying, “You look like your dad”. It was very kind of them to ask us to attend,’ he added.
Like his brothers, Mel speaks Italian after spending his formative years in Turin, then travelling back for holidays at the family’s Diano Marina villa on the coast.
‘We went to a Catholic school and were taught by nuns, treated just like Italian kids. We had to wear smocks, but fortunately I’ve grown out of that now!’
Andrea Agnelli, the Juventus chairman, is the son of Umberto who, in the same role 60 years ago, signed Charles for a British record fee of £65,000 and set in motion a glittering period for the Old Lady.
It was at Juventus that Charles forged the reputation that still carries such weight. He scored 93 goals in 150 Serie A games to be named footballer of the year twice as Juventus won three Scudettos and two Coppa Italias.
He was the first foreign player inducted into Italian football’s hall of fame and a measure of his enduring legacy was gauged when he returned to Turin in 2001 to watch a match against Atalanta. As he walked along the running track at the Stadio delle Alpi, the entire crowd chanted his name.
‘I was stunned,’ Charles wrote in his autobiography, King John. ‘I have to admit it brought a tear to the eye.’
When Charles died three years later at the age of 72, there was an outpouring of emotion. Juventus were at Bologna the day after and the minute’s silence erupted into applause around the stadium.
Now Juve have the chance to lift the one trophy Charles did not and there might also be an element of revenge tomorrow for the illicit attention aimed at him when Juventus first faced Real, in the quarter-final of the 1961-62 european Cup. Charles was kicked so frequently he could not stand afterwards.
Charles, 6ft 2in and 14st, never reacted in all the years of provocation, famously finishing his career without ever being cautioned or sent off, to earn his nickname Il Gigante Buono — the Gentle Giant.
Mel, now 61, does remember the occasional stern act at home, though. ‘My mum was the domi- nant person in the family but my dad was a big fella and he had hands like shovels. So when we were naughty, she used to say, “John, slap him one”. ‘I used to get a slap on the back of the head and roll about all over the place. So we weren’t naughty often! ‘When we moved up to Leeds in 1976 he took the New Inn at Churwell, a stone’s throw from elland Road. Being a star, everyone wanted a piece of him and he used to go to charity dinners and ended up giving away all his 30odd caps and medals for auction. He would do anything for anybody.’
John’s brother Mel was also in Wales’s 1958 World Cup team and his son, former Wales and Swansea centre forward Jeremy, will be at the final too.
He said: ‘John was the youthteam coach when I started down in Swansea and it was a great learning curve. Only thing was, everything good I did had been done 30 or 40 times before by my dad and John!’
Jeremy appreciates the majority of Welsh fans will be hoping for a Real victory because of Gareth Bale but he believes his uncle still shades the argument of who is the best Wales player in history.
Cliff Jones, who also played at the 1958 World Cup, has the same opinion. ‘I’ve always said he’s the best centre half I’ve ever played with and the best centre forward,’ said Jones. ‘You couldn’t say his best position.
‘He had everything: pace, great control, two brilliant feet, good in the air, strong. He took the game by storm. Juventus fans loved him, and still do.’