Munich forever in Sir Bobby Charlton's thoughts

For Sir Bobby Charlton not a day goes by without his thoughts drifting back to the Munich air disaster that wiped out so many of the Busby Babes. Those who died were not just team-mates but friends.

In his 2007 autobiography 'My Manchester United Years', he wrote: "Even now ... it still reaches down and touches me every day. Sometimes I feel it quite lightly, a mere brush stroke against an otherwise happy mood. Sometimes it engulfs me with a terrible regret and sadness – and guilt that I walked away and found so much. The Munich air crash is always there, always a factor that can never be discounted. Never put down like time-exhausted baggage."

Records
Now 77, Sir Bobby does not find it hard to talk about the moment his life changed forever. While eight of his team-mates died as a result of the crash in Munich on 6 February 1958, he escaped with minor injuries. He survived after being thrown from the plane and, despite being knocked unconscious, soon woke up on the runway strapped in his seat.

Remarkably, he was back in action less than a month later and played 759 matches for United before retiring in 1973 – more than any other player in the club's history. The 49 international goals he scored from 1958 to 1970 is still a record for England and although he won the FIFA World Cup in 1966 and the European Champion Clubs' Cup with a rebuilt United team in 1968, Munich remains the defining moment of his life.

Sir Bobby Charlton had a hugely successful career©Getty Images

'Best in Europe'
Sir Bobby believes that but for the crash and the loss of eight of Matt Busby's team, United would have won the European Cup in 1958 – and halted Real Madrid CF's five-year winning streak which helped establish them as the biggest club in the world. "I think if the team had stayed together we would have won it in the year of the accident.

"Real Madrid won it for the first five years, but we were never going to go backwards once we set off on this path, to be the best in Europe. I remember when we played our first home match in Europe, I was wishing I was playing and we beat Anderlecht of Belgium 10-0. Initially, we thought: 'Will we be good enough for this sort of thing? Will they be streets ahead of us?' Streets ahead of us?' It was the opposite. Apart from Real Madrid at that particular time, really, we could play against anyone."

Wembley triumph
United, though, had to wait ten years before Busby, who also survived the crash, rebuilt his club and his team. Then, on 29 May 1968, Charlton scored twice as United beat SL Benfica 4-1 at Wembley to be crowned champions of Europe. "It was a marvellous night because it put things right in a way. The accident had happened, this great tragedy and loss had taken place.

Sir Matt Busby and Sir Bobby Charlton in 1968©Getty Images

"It helped Matt Busby. It was his team, his lads who had died. This made it a little easier for him in some ways. I think he could feel happier because he missed the players more than anyone else. He felt responsible. United was a family club and he was the father so you can imagine when it happened it was a tragedy that hit him more than anyone else."

'Miracle'
Apart from one year at Preston North End FC as player-manager in 1973/74, Sir Bobby has been at United since signing as a 15-year-old in January 1953. He has seen United grow, first under Busby and in modern times under Sir Alex Ferguson, to become one of the greatest clubs in the world. But the events of that wintry night's disaster in Munich help Charlton to keep it all in perspective.

"My life, truly, has been a miracle granted to me," he wrote in the prologue to his book. "But in Munich in 1958 I learnt that even miracles come at a price."

*This interview was originally published in 2008