It is a little-known fact that Sir Bobby Charlton played his last game for Manchester United at Verona’s Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi. Richard Hough, author of Verona Campione, the Miracle of 85, tells the unlikely story.
Widely considered one of the greatest players of all time, Bobby Charlton was an influential figure in England’s 1966 World Cup winning team, winning the Ballon d’Or the same year. In fact, Sir Bobby is one of just ten players to have won the World Cup, the European Cup and the Ballon d’Or!
One of the famed Busby Babes, in October 1956 Charlton scored two goals on his first team debut for Manchester United against Charlton Athletic at just 18 years old. He’d go on to score 12 goals that season as United won the League Championship.
Tragedy strikes
On 6 February 1958, tragedy struck. Charlton was returning to England with the Manchester United team after a European Cup match in Belgrade. In appalling conditions, the aeroplane they were travelling in crashed on take off, leaving Charlton with cuts to his head and in severe shock. He’d spend a week recovering in hospital, but he was one of the lucky ones. Seven of his teammates perished at the scene. In total, the Munich Air Disaster claimed 23 lives. Of the eight United players who survived, two of them were so badly injured that they never played again.
Charlton made a full recovery and would go on to make 758 appearances for his club, as well as 106 caps for England, but he would remain haunted by the tragedy for the rest of his life, writing in his autobiography many years later: “Sometimes it engulfs me with a terrible regret and sadness – and guilt that I walked away and found so much.”
The European trophy with a reputation for violence
According to Wikipedia, Charlton’s last game for Manchester United was against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on 28 April 1973.
This is incorrect.
The Anglo-Italian Cup was an international club competition played intermittently from 1970 to 1996 between clubs from England and Italy. The first final was abandoned early due to violence, with Swindon Town declared the unlikely winners. Throughout the tournament’s history, it gained a certain reputation for violence, both on and off pitch.
In 1971, the second edition of the tournament, Blackpool and Bologna were the finalists at Bologna’s Stadio Renato Dall’Ara. In a tense match, Blackpool would snatch an extra-time winner to lift the trophy. The following year, Blackpool were beaten finalists, losing to Roma.
In 1973, 16 teams (eight English and eight Italian) competed in two groups. Amongst the participants were Manchester United and Hellas Verona.
United and Hellas met in the last round of group matches. Wikipedia, referencing the Rothman’s Football Yearbook 1973–74, lists this game as taking place on 4 April 1973.
This too is incorrect.
A legend’s farewell
The game between Hellas Verona and Manchester United actually took place on 2 May 1973 (a week after the Chelsea game).
Neither Manchester United (who finished second in their group behind Crystal Palace) nor Verona (who finished third behind Fiorentina and Lazio) would progress to the semi-finals. This was United’s last fixture of the season, and Bobby Charlton’s last competitive game.
Goalless at half-time, Pat Olney, making his first and only appearance for Manchester United, gave the Reds the lead, before Peter Fletcher (in one of just seven appearances for United) added a second. As the game drew to a close, Charlton himself added a brace.
Verona’s key players that season included the wildly eccentric striker Gianfranco Zigoni (Italy’s answer to George Best) and the legendary goalscorer Emiliano Mascetti (one of the club’s greatest servants and sporting director during the miraculous 1984/85 season).
But it was Giuseppe Fagni, who the season before had been playing in Serie D, who grabbed a late consolation for Hellas, with a headed goal that he would cherish for the rest of his life:
“I get the shivers,” Fagni told the Arena many years later. “I was playing for Montebelluna. At the time, you could get a loan in that tournament. I scored a lot, but God bless me, from Serie D to Serie A … [United] were from another planet, as if Verona were playing against City or Real Madrid today. The Gialloblu had just signed me. Charlton scored two goals against us. Then, just before the end, a cross to the near post and I dived and headed in. [Charlton] was an exemplary professional. He could have done less in that game, but instead, besides scoring a brace, he played as if it were a league match.”
At 35 years and six months old, it was a vintage performance from the Manchester United legend, as he finally brought his remarkable career to an end.
Verona’s tribute to a legend
Verona remains proud of its albeit tenuous link to the Manchester United legend.
Deep in the bowels of the Bentegodi stadium, in a long corridor that links the home and away dressing rooms, hangs a photo of Sir Bobby, with his trademark combover, as he receives a honorary pendant from the club’s colourful president, Saverio Garonzi. The date, 2 May 1973, clearly visible, when Bobby Charlton played his last game for Manchester United.
Richard Hough is the author of Verona Campione, the Miracle of 85.
A remarkable story, well told and a timely reminder that Wikipedia doesn’t always get it right!