Malcolm Bailey's Football Blog: BOBBY CHARLTON AND THE REST OF THE WORLD

Monday 23 October 2023

BOBBY CHARLTON AND THE REST OF THE WORLD

Following the recent death of Bobby Charlton, a true hero of English football, I am reminded that he played on the 23rd October 1963 at Wembley, in Sir Alf Ramsey's England team, that played "A FIFA World Squad", to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the English Football Association (yes, The FA was founded in 1863). The first official FA in the World.

I remember it well (the 1963 bit!!), somehow or the other (I think it was half term), we watched it on TV (I suspect a small black and white one!), learning extraordinary names of famous, foreign footballers, playing against Bobby Charlton and English players, with familiar names. This was a foundation for Ramsey's World Cup 1966 plan.

Alfredo di Stefano, Puskas, Eusebio and Denis Law were in a select World team playing Alf Ramsay's selected England team, many to be World Cup winners, three years later. A 100,000 crowd watched this historic game which England won 2-1 (see below). The FA "Suits" loved the spectacle.

ENGLAND: Gordon Banks, Ray Wilson, Jimmy Armfield (c), Gordon Milne. Maurice Norman, Bobby Moore, Terry Paine, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith, George Eastham, Bobby Charlton: Subs: Tony Waiters (Gk), Ken Shellito, Ron Flowers, Tony Kay, Joe Baker. (name their clubs!)

REST OF THE WORLD: GK1 Lev Yashin RB2 Djalma Santos LB3 Karl-Heinz Schnellinger RH4 Svatopluk Pluskal CH5 Ján Popluhár LH6 Josef Masopust OR7 Raymond Kopa IR8 Denis Law CF9 Alfredo di Stéfano (c )IL10 Eusébio OL11 Francisco Gento Substitutes: GK1 Milutin Šoškić DF2 Luis Eyzaguirre DF6 Jim Baxter FW9 Uwe Seeler FW10 Ferenc Puskás Manager: Fernando Riera

This was the first time a World team had played against a single nation.

Jimmy Greaves was close to scoring for England several times in the first half, but failed due to laudable saves by the famous keeper, Lev Yashin. In the second half, when Yashin was replaced by Soskic, Greaves assisted Terry Paine, to score in the 66th minute. Denis Law equalised 16 minutes later, but Greaves brought England to a last-minute victory. Greaves had the best game of his career and was considered as the best player of the match, while Yashin's saves greatly contributed to his reputation of world's best goalkeeper and earned him the Ballon d'Or, two months later.

As promised by FIFA, all of the World XI substitutes were used in the second half, with Raymond Kopa replaced by Uwe Seeler. The World XI selection committee, headed by Harry Cavan,, invited Soviet-Georgian Mikheil Meshki, via the USSR Football Federation, who falsely replied he was injured and could not play—BUT he was never informed of the invitation. Brazilian clib, Santos FC refused to release Pele and AC Milan also refused to release Cesare Maldini, who was replaced by Slovan Bratislava's Jan Popluhar.