It would be lovely if I could make my Bobby and Jack proud
TOMMY CHARLTON ON HIS ENGLAND TRIAL FOR WALKING FOOTBALL
TWO hours to go before he has a trial for England, and the tears are welling up in Tommy Charlton’s eyes. He is talking about his brothers, Sir Bobby and Jack.
‘I’ve always been so proud of them and what they’ve achieved,’ says Tommy. ‘ It would be really lovely if I could achieve something they can be proud of. I’m sorry, it really is emotional.’
The 71-year-old is the oldest triallist for the England Over-60 squad to face Italy in the first ever walking football international in May.
It’s his chance to emulate in some way the brothers who helped inspire their country to World Cup glory in 1966.
The squad selection will be announced next month. It’s a long shot and he doesn’t want a call-up simply because of his family name.
‘I would dearly love to go and play on that team, but I’m realistic. I’ll be 72 in May y and there are younger r fellas,’ admits Tommy, who ho started the trial at Burnley’s ey’s training ground on Saturday urday on the same side as Liverpool’s pool’s two- time European Cup-Cupwinner Alan Kennedy.
‘I would hate to be selected and a better player than me wasn’t.
‘I’m me. I wouldn’t be daft enough to use the fact that I’ve got famous brothers to get any sort of advantage.
‘Everybody who saw me pull on a pair of football boots thought I was going to play like Bob. I’m afraid I can’t. They think it’s automatic because you were born of the same mother. That’s happened to me all my life.’
Tommy is nine years younger than Bobby and 11 years younger than Jack. He was 20 when they lifted the World Cup at Wembley and 23 when he was forced to stop playing after breaking his right kneecap. There is still a four-inch scar around the joint.
Tommy began playing walking football in his mid-60s and on Friday was named as the sport’s first ambassador, whether he is selected for England or not. ‘Any grown man who has played football of any kind sees a ball and he wants to kick it,’ says Tommy.
‘Walking football is a brilliant opportunity for an older guy who probably thought he would never play again to have a proper game and practise what he’s been desperate to do all these years.
‘I’m quite aware of the health, ssocial and mental aspects of itit. If I can get people to have a go through what I’ve done anand who I am, and their life is exextended, does it get any bebetter than that?’ TTommy was born into foofootball. He is related to Jackie MMilburn, his mother Cissie’s cocousin, and four of his uncles played professionally. Bobby signed for Manchester United and Jack for Leeds.
He remembers Bobby bringing some of the Busby Babes to stay at the family home, a two-bedroom colliery house in Ashington in Northumberland. The guests included David Pegg and Eddie Colman, who both died in the Munich disaster.
‘I was 10 and I’d be playing in the street with the Busby Babes,’ Tommy says. ‘Three or four of them would come and stay. They would sleep on the settee or with neighbours and relatives. They loved it.’
One of Tommy’s earliest memories is sharing a double bed with Jack, Bobby and their other brother Gordon when they all had mumps.
He keeps in touch with Bobby and Jack and insists that talk of a rift between the two famous brothers has been blown out of proportion. ‘That’s a fallacy,’ he says. ‘I’ve never been aware of any friction between Bob and Jack.
‘There have been differences of opinion over things, but how many families can say they didn’t have a daft word?
‘Bob and Jack are two completely different characters. Bob is such a lovely, quiet, unobtrusive man and Jack is the exact opposite. Is it surprising there are differences? But I was never aware of anything to be concerned about.
‘I remember when my mum died in 1996, the four of us carried the coffin. That was something else. I’ve never felt as close to them as on that day.’ THE VERDICT — SEE CENTRE PAGES