Gentle Giant was a global football star
BEFORE Gareth Bale, before Ryan Giggs, there was John Charles.
In an era when the term legend is bandied about far too freely it is no mistake to use that label on Mr Charles.
Considered by many to be the greatest all-round footballer, he was equally adept playing up front as he was defending at the back.
Born in Swansea eight years before the outbreak of the Second World War he was a keen footballer from an early age. He played with his younger brother Mel, who would go on to to join in him the national side.
At 14 he was on the ground staff at Swansea Town, but at 17 the Leeds manager Major Frank Buckley had heard of the young Welshman and lured him to Yorkshire. He quickly established himself as a dominating centre half. But within a few years he switched positions and starting scoring goals rather than preventing them. In eight years at Leeds United he scored 150 league goals.
A then British record transfer fee of £65,000 saw a move to Italy for the man who was to become Il Buon Gigante, or the Gentle Giant – a nickname he gained in Italy due to his size and philosophy of never kicking or intentionally hurting opposing players.
In his first Serie A season John Charles was the top scorer, voted player of the season and his club, Juventus, won the title. His fiveyear spell at the Turin-based club saw three league titles, two cup triumphs and 108 goals in 155 matches.
Mr Charles then returned to Leeds, but it was an underwhelming season, and the next year he was back in Italy, playing for Roma in the Serie A. But after only four goals in 10 games he was on the move again. This time back to Wales and Cardiff City.
In three seasons he scored 18 goals in 69 appearances.
There followed spells as a player manager for Hereford United and Merthyr Tydfil, youth team manager at Swansea and coach of Hamilton Steelers in Canada.
While he was a huge success on the pitch he was less so off it.
In his autobiography he detailed the time he was sent to prison for failing to pay business rates on a hotel he owned.
“I found myself paying the penalty as the door clanged shut on me,” he wrote in King John, The Autobiography. “It was the ultimate shame, absolute humiliation. I had never felt so low or so embarrassed.”
He was released after spending just five hours behind bars when his wife, Glenda, managed to raise the money he owed in back rates.
“I was never a businessman always a footballer,” wrote Mr Charles. “But I am not bitter and I am not blaming anyone. It was, as it had always been, down to me.
“I am not a tax exile, nor do I have villas on the Amalfi coast. But I have Glenda, our little semidetached house in Birkenshaw and memories, which will never go away because these days everyone wants to talk about the past.”
While he was in Italy promoting the biography Mr Charles fell ill.
In January 2004 he suffered a heart attack just before an interview with an Italian television station. He was flown back to Britain, but passed away a few days later.
His legacy lives on, the West Stand at Elland Road is named after him and his grandson Jake is a professional footballer, and when Juventus played Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Cardiff many fans made a pilgrimage to Swansea to visit the birthplace of Il Buon Gigante.