CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
WHEN Gareth Bale helped Real Madrid win La Decima – their tenth European title – in his first season at the Bernabeu, the Spanish press dubbed him the Prince of Wales.
But Ian Rush knows the King will be looking down come Saturday’s historic Champions League final in Cardiff.
John Charles: a player of the black and white era and of black and white legend, whose name is still sung and revered by the Juventus fans who will descend upon Cardiff this week.
As Bale chases a third European crown with the Spanish giants, he is doing more than anyone before him to live up to the legacy of Il Gigante Buono.
Aside from being the talismanic figure in his country’s qualification – and subsequent success – at a major tournament, he has also found himself flying the flag on a foreign field with his club football. It is not a task all have found easy. “I couldn’t lace his boots,” admits Rush with a smile. That from a player who – like Bale – has lifted the iconic European trophy twice, something Charles never managed during his days with Leeds or Italy’s Old Lady.
What Rush had to contend with was following in the footsteps laid down by a great in Turin, of wearing the same Bianconeri shirt.
“John Charles’ name would be brought up every time I spoke there,” says Rush, who had arrived at the Serie A club in 1987 in a deal worth £3.2m; like Charles’ and Bale’s move abroad, it was a record fee for a British player.
“The president, Mr Boniperti, had played with him so every time he’d talk to me he’d mention John and tell me what a good player he was.”
Mr Boniperti was Giampiero Boniperti, the former Juve striker who had formed what was described as Il Trio Magico with Charles and Argentine forward Omar Sívori.
The deal that took Charles to Italy was worth £65,000, seen as worth it as Juventus looked to return to glory.
They had not won the Scudetto in six years by the time he arrived from Leeds in 1957 as a 25-year-old.
His first impressions helped. Biographer Mario Risoli recalled how a journalist from La Gazzetta dello Sport, wrote: “He has the features of Marlon Brando, the body of a lightheavyweight boxer, the breathing of a tiger and the bite of a snake.” He had scored the winner on his debut soon after, as he did for the next two games. Juventus won the title that first season with Charles named Italy’s player of the year.
By the time he left Juventus in 1962, he won a further two titles, two Coppa Italias and, ominously for Real, ended Madrid’s unbeaten home record in European competi- tion. He had scored 108 times in 155 appearances.
They still haven’t forgotten him and the Italian arrivals into the Welsh capital are unlikely to let the weekend pass without reverence to the son of Swansea, king of Wales.
“You only have to look at the fact he was named the best foreign player in Italian football, and that’s a country who’ve had the likes of Maradona and Platini,” adds Rush.
“They were in awe of him, as I was. I didn’t see him play but my father had and would talk about how good he was.
“He came out and saw me a few times and when he did, I’d see the reception he’d get. He was treated like a god.
“In my opinion, he was treated better in Italy than he was in Wales for too long, which was disappointing. I remember coming out with the teams when Wales played Italy at the stadium in 2002 and he was crying because of the reception – but he had that every single time he went to Italy. He was a legend and perhaps we could have done more when he was still here. He was an icon.”
Though different No.9s (“There’s no way I could have played centreback!”) Rush must have found his status overwhelming as he struggled to make a lasting impact in Italy.
Yet, as his delight for seeing Juventus reach the final for which he is an ambassador suggests, that is not to say Rush has regrets of his Italian adventure.
Think of the formerly moustachioed marksman in a Juventus shirt, and there is a fair chance the quote of “it was like living in a foreign country” springs to mind – a quote Rush never actually said.
There was homesickness, there