Sir Bobby Charlton: A look back on the life of a Manchester United great

• Granada Reports Sports Correspondent Chris Hall looks back at the incredible life of Sir Bobby Charlton

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The ultimate football career built on honest talent, began with a moment's dishonesty.

By the age of 18, Bobby Charlton had already won 3 FA Youth Cups, but to get his place in Matt Busby's Manchester United team, the exciting young forward would need to hide an ankle injury from one of the shrewdest managers of all-time.

"I'd been scoring a lot of goals in the reserves and I thought 'Everyone else is getting a chance. When am I getting mine?" he would recall, years later.

"I'd been having treatment on my ankle and I got the message that the boss wanted to see me in his office.

"That meant either I was in trouble for something or he wanted to talk to me about the first team.

"He asked me how my ankle was and I said 'It's great!'. Because I knew what was coming and didn't want to miss this chance. I had been waiting a long time."

Having been recruited as a 15-year-old, the boy who honed his skills after training by slamming footballs against the walls of Old Trafford, was ready to make his mark on the club.

Sore ankle or not, Charlton would face Charlton Athletic on October 6, 1956, scoing twice. He'd go on to score 12 goals in 17 games of his debut season and become a star of the Busby Babes. A young and exciting team which wooed the nation, winning back to back league titles.

"Matt Busby always wanted us to play attractive football," said Sir Bobby.

"He didn't want it to be ponderous and predictable. He wanted it to be something that the crowd would like. And that's what he created. Sometimes we would lose 6-0 at home in front of 60,000 people and the next game there'd still be 60,000 people there because they liked what they saw."

Bobby and the Babes were ready to conquer Europe. But, after United clinched a European Cup semi-final place with a win in Belgrade, the adventure turned to disaster.

After refuelling in Munich, the team plane slid on an icy runway, crashing through a fence and into a farm house. 23 people died, including journalists, club staff and 8 of Bobby's teammates.

"The plane just went and went and went down the runway and we started to think something wasn't right," Sir Bobby would recall vividly even half a century later.

"And then it hit the perimeter fence. I put my head down. And the next thing I remember was waking up away from the aeroplane and I was sitting strapped into a seat. There was a lot of smoke and the plane was just a shell, really. It was awful.

"I woke up the next morning (in hospital) and a German read the names out of the newspaper. And that's how I found out who was alive and who was dead. I don't understand why I was okay and they were killed. I've never come to terms with it."

It was a story of desperate loss and inspiring survival which Sir Alex Ferguson would ask Sir Bobby to tell to his young players. To connect them with the club and the foundations on which modern Manchester United was built. Because that became young Bobby's focus, winning for those lost on February 6, 1958.

So it was fitting that Busby's European dream would finally come to fruition 10 years later, Charlton scoring twice to beat the great Eusebio and Benfica 4-1 in the European Cup final at Wembley. 

"It was something that needed to be done to show respect to the ones who'd died in the effort of trying to win it initially," said Sir Bobby.

"It hadn't happened before in England and it was such an exciting night. Everyone in the country wanted United to win because of what had happened in Munich and the emotion of Sir Matt Busby being there. It was a special occasion."

It was Bobby who climbed the steps to become the first Englishman to lift the European Cup. But he chose to miss the celebrations, taking time alone to remember the friends he'd lost a decade earlier.

He, and United, had completed the most emotional tale of tragedy to triumph, 

But that was only half of his story.

Two years earlier, Bobby Charlton was a key part of Alf Ramsay's England team, heading into a home World Cup.

"In the 3 years before 1966, England were almost unbeaten," he said. 

"We won everywhere. I remember going into 1966 thinking 'We'd better win this because we're expected to."

After a slow start, England navigated a path to the semi-finals, where Charlton would outshine Portugal's Eusebio on the same pitch where fate would draw them back together two years later.

Two Charlton goals would clinch a place in the final against West Germany and set the country alight with expectation.

"After reaching the final I remember going with Ray Wilson to get a shirt, because we were going to see our wives for the first time in a few weeks," said Sir Bobby.

"So we went to the high street in Hendon and it was at that point I realised just how much we had been cosseted and kept away from the media. Because everybody was coming at us. Butchers were shouting 'Good luck, lads'. As we were heading to the final, we passed the fire station. The fire engines were out, the firemen were out, everyone was cheering and the bells were ringing."

Those bells were heralding the most famous day in English football history as Charlton, alongside his brother Jack, helped England win 4-2 in extra-time and achieve a feat never repeated by an England team since.

"It was the toughest competition. The best footballers in the world. It will stay with me forever," said Sir Bobby. 

"At the final whistle, our kid (Jack Charlton) said to me 'Well, what about that, kid?' and I said our lives are never going to be the same again after this. It was the highest peak you could reach as a footballer. And there's not a day goes past when people don't come and talk to me about the World Cup. Not one day. That's how important it was. And you get a bit of pride as a footballer to think 'Well, I'm up there with everybody else as being one of the best."

That was something United fans already knew. They were treated to 17 years watching Bobby dazzle defences and link up with legends like George Best and Denis Law in United's "Holy Trinity".

Along with that European Cup, he lifted 3 league titles and an FA Cup.

Starting with that brace on his injury-defying debut, he scored 249 times in 758 appearances for his beloved United.

While his England record of 49 goals lasted 45 years before being broken by another United captain, Wayne Rooney.

After his playing days ended, this Ballon d'Or winner went on to discover new talent with his soccer school, where David Beckham was a star pupil.

There was also a stint as manager of Preston North End and he even ran a travel agent.

But his heart never wandered further than Old Trafford, where he became a director and a valued ambassador..

Manchester United say that in all of their illustrious history, nobody embodied the club's values more then Sir Bobby Charlton. Something which he was deeply proud of.

"I can't tell people how much it means to me to be associated with this club," Sir Bobby once admitted. 

"It's just been terrific."