'Busby Babe' Foulkes mourned at United

Bill Foulkes, the Manchester United FC defender who survived the Munich air disaster in 1958 and went on to win the European Champion Clubs' Cup ten years later, has passed away at the age of 81.

After joining United in 1950, and making his debut in the 1952/53 season, Foulkes scored nine goals in 688 appearances for the club – a number only bettered by Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Sir Bobby Charlton – over 20 years, occupying both the full-back and central defender's spot under manager Sir Matt Busby.

A solid stopper-style centre-half who won one cap for England in 1954, he was a member of the famous Busby Babes squad that promised to carry all before them at home and abroad, before the team's plane crashed on take-off following a stopover in Munich on 6 February 1958 following a European Cup semi-final in Belgrade. Twenty-three people died in the crash, including eight players.

Foulkes recovered from the accident to become a pillar of the United rearguard, winning titles in 1956, 1957, 1965 and 1967, and the FA Cup in 1963. His finest hour as a United player came in 1968, when he played in the European Cup final against SL Benfica at Wembley. On an emotional night for Foulkes and fellow Munich survivors Busby and Charlton, United won the trophy with an emphatic 4-1 success.

It was thanks in no small part to Foulkes that United reached the final. Defending a 2-1 lead from the first leg of the semi-final against Real Madrid CF, United trailed 3-1 at half-time in the return fixture. David Sadler reduced the deficit before Foulkes equalised with ten minutes left to send the English side through the final.

"Foulkes suddenly appeared in the Real Madrid box," Sadler later told UEFA.com. "Now, he did go up for corners, but that was about it. And I think Nobby [Stiles] was screaming at him to get back, and 'what are you doing up there..?' [George Best] did a little bit of magic on the side, and passed the ball inside to somebody, and it happened to be Bill.

"Whatever took him into the Real Madrid penalty box at that particular time in the game, I doubt even if Bill knows! And he slid the ball into the net with the sort of skill of a [Denis] Law or a Jimmy Greaves, or a Eusébio or somebody of that ilk. Bill wasn't quite that gifted in terms of the goalscoring sense, but he did find the net on that night, and it was a fantastic goal."

Manchester United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward paid tribute to Foulkes, saying: "Bill was a giant character in the post-war history of Manchester United. He was a very gentle man, who I was privileged to meet on several occasions, including most memorably with his team-mates at the Champions League final in Moscow, 50 years after his heroics in the Munich air crash. Bill's contribution over almost 700 games and nearly 20 years will never be forgotten."