THE!GENTLE!GIANT
Recalling John Charles
AS GARETH Bale continues to shine with Spanish giants Real Madrid, it is perhaps a good time to examine the career of that other hugely successful Welsh football export – the incomparable John Charles.
Charles blazed the trail for those that followed him to Italy such as Law, Baker, Greaves and Hitchens in the 60s; Brady, Souness, Francis, Wilkins, Hateley, Elliott, Jordan, Blissett and Rush in the 80s and Gascoigne, Platt, Ince and Walker in the 90s.
Whilst they could be said to have experienced mixed fortunes in the land of pasta and ice-cream, the modest Welshman was a huge hit straight from the get-go.
He signed for Juventus from Leeds United for a British record fee of £65,000 over Easter 1957 at a time when the Italian side were facing possible relegation. Such was their plight that the contract was solely dependent on Juve staying up.
They eventually finished 11th in the table so the deal went through and Charles hit the ground running, becoming an instant hero by scoring what proved to be winning goals in his first three matches for the Zebras – versus Hellas Verona 3-2, Udinese 1-0 and Genoa 3-2.
Charles received a £10,000 signing-on fee paid monthly over two years, a basic wage of £16 per week, a rentfree apartment and a top of the range Fiat car.
However, it was the bonuses of £28 for a home win and £40 for an away win which made the big difference. Generous supporters were also known to contribute with cash rewards and the club owners – the super-rich Agnelli family – also chipped in with spot bonuses dependent on the result and the opposition.
Besides Charles, Juve also spent a world-record fee of £91,000 on the Argentinian maestro Omar Sivori from
River Plate as well as £85,000 on a 17-year-old wonder kid named Bruno Nicole from Padova.
They also boasted in their side homebred golden-boy Giampiero Boniperti, a noted goalscorer and still regarded as one of the finest players in Europe.
The chemistry proved irresistible. Boniperti, best known in this country for scoring two goals against England at Wembley for the Rest of Europe in 1953, taking on a new creative role, provided the bullets; Sivori the magic, the attitude and the emotion; and, Charles the calm, the strength and the end product.
He finished the season as Serie A’s top goalscorer (capocannonieri) with 28 goals as the rejuvenated Juventus romped to their first Scudetto since 1951-52. “La Vecchio Signora” (the Old Lady) was back with a vengeance.
Charles, who became legendary for his refusal to be intimidated or retaliate against ruthless opponents, hence the nickname of ‘Il Gigante Buono” (the gentle giant), finished the campaign with hat-tricks against Atlanta, Sampdoria and Lazio; scored twice in a 3-1 win over Inter; grabbed the only goal of the game against arch-rivals Torino at their shared Stadio Comunale and two in the return, and also hit a match-winning penalty against defending champions Milan.
Indeed, he failed to score against only two of the 17 sides in the division - a truly incredible record.
Unsurprisingly, he was named Italian Player of the Season and was voted into third place for the coveted Ballon d’Or.
The Turin club, having won their tenth title, became the first to be able to wear the Golden Star of Sports Excellence on their jerseys.
A google translation of an Italian description of his many talents makes interesting reading: “He and the devastating shock force that spills toward the opposing door, mighty in progression, deadly in the shot with both feet, extraordinary in going for air and hitting
with head power. Generous athlete and loyal fighter, is called the good giant and is made to love not only by Juventus fans but by everyone.”
It was touchand-go whether Juventus would release Charles for the World Cup finals in Sweden in 1958 but they relented at virtually the last minute and their shining star played a key role as Wales reached the last eight.
He scored their goal in 1-1 draw with Hungary in Sandveken from centre-forward and in their other group matches against Mexico (1-1), hosts Sweden (0-0) and their play-off win over Hungary (2-1), he at times dropped back to form a centre-half partnership with younger brother Mel and demonstrated that he was truly a world-class performer in both positions.
It was a role he would play often with Juve, up front until they had scored and then brought back into defence to defend their lead.
Alas, he was injured and unable to play in Wales’ quarter-final tie with eventual winners Brazil and a solitary goal from the 17-year-old Pele, which took a deflection off defender Stuart Williams on its way past Jack Kelsey, was enough to win the day.
Whilst Juve lifted the Coppa Italia during his second season, they could finish only fourth in Serie A behind Milan, Fiorentina and Inter.
Charles was badly injured in a European Cup tie against Weiner SC of Austria which led to him spending nearly a month in hospital and almost cost him his leg.
He made a quick and full recovery, and managed to score in three successive matches on two occasions and hit a hat-trick in the very last match of the season against Genoa. That 4-3 win gave him 19 goals for the season.
Another hat-trick came in a cup match against Alessandria. Charles hit the opener in the cup final in which another goal from Sivori and two more from Cervato saw them romp home against Inter by 4 goals to 1.
Season three (1959-60) saw the Bianconeri (black and whites) storm to a league and cup double. A second campionato was secured by an eightpoint margin with the partnership of ‘capocannonieri’ Sivori (27) and Charles (23) sharing an incredible 50 goals between them.
Charles scored two goals in league games on no fewer than five occasions and a hat-trick against Spal in a 6-3 win. The final of the Coppa Italia against Fiorentina proved to be another personal highlight with yet another two-goal performance. In extra-time, an own goal by Micheli proved decisive and saw Juventus lift the trophy by 3 goals to 2.
An incredible third Scudetto in four seasons was secured in 1960-61. This time Sivori (25) and Charles (15) shared 40 goals and team-mates Bruno Nicole (13) and Bruno Mora (12) also got into double figures.
The very last game of the season saw them totally humiliate Inter 9-1 in a match in which Sivori bagged six goals.
The volatile dual Argentinian and Italian international finished the season by winning the Ballon d’Or.
Charles showed his amazing consistency by missing just two Serie A matches. The European Cup again proved to be the Italian club’s achilles heel and they went out in the preliminary round to the Bulgarians, CDNA.
Season 1961-62 saw Juventus at last make progress in the European Cup. They eliminated both Panathinaikos and Partizan Belgrade before facing five- times winners Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
After a narrow 1-0 home loss, they became the first team to record a victory at the Bernabeu in that particular competition. However, their famous win courtesy of a solitary goal from Sivori meant that there had to be a play-off.
That took place in Paris and Real prevailed on the night by 3 goals to 1. Charles played in six of their seven European Cup matches, all in a defensive role.
On the domestic front, Juve had a disastrous season, slipping to 13th in the table with Sivori and Charles missing 18 matches between them.
Milan took the title with 53 points whilst Juve garnered just 29. They found goals hard to come by with Sivori claiming just 13 and his Welsh strike partner five fewer.
That season proved to be the end of the road for Charles for although the club were desperate to keep him and offered him much improved terms, his wife Peggy had become disenchanted with life in Italy and wanted to return home to England.
Just six months after his 30th birthday, John Charles re-signed for Leeds United for a club record fee of £53,000.
Charles made exactly 100 appearances during Juve’s three title-winning seasons of 1957-58, 1959-60 and 1960-61 followed by Boniperti with 93, Sivori 90, Colombo 83, Nicole 81, Stacchini 80 and Emoli 80 with Sivori (74) and Charles (66) sharing 140 of their 241 goals.
It transpired that his Italian adventures were far from over as just months later he returned to join AS Roma for a fee of £70,000 but the magic had gone and there was to be no repeat of those hugely successful days in the black and white of Juve.
In 1997 when the Turin club celebrated their centenary John Charles was voted the club’s best-ever foreign player. The great man passed away in 2004 at the age of 72. Sivori died in 2005 aged 69. Golden-boy Boniperti lives on.