Kidd and Stepney remember Sir Bobby one year on

After surviving the trauma of the Munich Air Disaster at the age of just 20, Sir Bobby went on to celebrate success at the pinnacle of both club and international football, across an illustrious career that marks him out as one of the game’s all-time icons.

Lifting the 1966 World Cup with England and the European Cup at United two years later are highlight moments in the former Ballon d’Or winner’s catalogue of playing achievements, which will be rightly celebrated throughout the football community again today.

Brian Kidd and Alex Stepney helped the Reds become champions of Europe alongside Sir Bobby in 1968 and shared the pitch with the proud Academy graduate during his 17-year stint as a player at Old Trafford, in which he tallied up longstanding records of 758 games and 249 goals for the men’s team, which have only been surpassed in recent times.

Both men have been remembering their good friend over recent days, sharing personal memories of Charlton as a player and a person with club media, as the one-year anniversary of his passing comes around.

“For what he’s done for Manchester United, worldwide, everybody knew Bobby’s name,” Kidd, who was on the scoresheet alongside Charlton in the ’68 final triumph over Benfica, reflected with us last week.

“As a young boy, it was a great upbringing [for me] because of the demands and expectation, the challenges to make you a player. On one hand, you’d get a rollicking, the next hand you’d get a compliment – the compliments were a bit harder to come across! – but it was a fantastic upbringing for me. 

“I cherish the memories every day and I’m not being sentimental, but I do. I think back to when I first went with him to America as a 17-year-old and it’s gone so quick. We were lucky with Denis [Law] as well and George [Best], three Ballon d’Or winners – how lucky are you to be in a team like that?”

Meanwhile, former United goalkeeper Stepney called Charlton “the perfect gentleman of English football” and says that his legacy is completely immortal.

“It’s like the Manchester United song – they will never die,” Alex explained.

“Bobby was the perfect gentleman of English football, he won everything and how he did that, what he went through in his life with the crash etcetera and keeping it quiet, because he did, he didn’t talk about it. 

“To do what he did and represent his country [is incredible].”

Both Alex and Brian were speaking in Barnsley last week, where a memorial bridge was officially dedicated to Tommy Taylor, who tragically lost his life in the Munich Air Disaster.