Jack’s back home with soccer kids
A SMILING Jack Charlton looks on as his home town celebrates his new statue with a junior football festival.
The £50,000 bronze statue, complete with trademark flat cap, was unveiled yesterday at Hirst Park in Ashington, Northumberland, where Jack used to play as a child.
The footballer’s widow Pat, 87, said: “Jack would have been chuffed to bits.” And the 1966 World Cup winner’s brother Tommy, 76, said: “I can’t look at it without crying. It’s so lifelike”
Former Newcastle United captain Bobby Moncur also attended the unveiling.
Jack, 85, died in July 2020 without being knighted, despite a 2016 Sunday Mirror campaign calling for all the England World Cup winners to be honoured.
Sculptor Douglas Jennings said: “I enjoyed doing Jack… he was so well loved.”