JOHN CHARLES-THE TWO BEST PLAYERS WALES PRODUCED.

Juventus fans, visiting Cardiff for the Champions League Final, are asking locals where the statue to John Charles was. There isn't one and the Italians were bemused because they assumed that "Il Gigante Buono" would have been the Welsh's greatest footballer. From previous blogs you will understand why;
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/fox-giant-major-and-billy.html
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/with-il-gigante-buono-wales-might-have.html

Had John Charles been fit to play against Brazil in the 1958 World Cup quarter-final, Pele would not have been the match winner and who knows what the Welsh would done in the next two rounds.
After his travels, Charles finished his career at Cardiff City and scored on his debut from 20 yards inside his own half!

He gets a mention in the Wales Sports' Hall of Fame at the Principality Stadium, there is a bust at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea but the fitting homage to JC is 200 miles away at the John Charles Stand in Leeds. At a function in a Cardiff Hotel where he was the guest of honour, he was turned away because the manager did not know who he was. John Charles was voted best foreigner to have played in the Italian League, beating Maradona, Platini and Zidane. He scored 93 goals in 155 Serie A matches playing against "mean defences", many times from centre half.

Jimmy Greaves said he was TWO fantastic players. Nat Lofthouse, a centre forward, said that JC was the best centre half he had been marked by and Billy Wright, a centre half, said Charles was the best centre-forward he had marked.

JC was playing at a time when the European Cup was in its infancy and indeed he lost the 1962 quarter-final to Real Madrid where he was cruelly kicked from pillar to post by the Spaniards. John Charles never got the rewards his talent deserved.
So is Gareth Bale, the Welsh THIRD best footballing export?