Sir Bobby Charlton’s Unique Funeral That Drew-In The Legends

It was an emotional day and ‘the most exceptional of events’ as the absolute greatest names in football and beyond went to Sir Bobby Charlton’s burial service, as he was finally laid to rest.

As a matter of fact, not many footballers could draw such a crowd, but Sir Bobby Charlton has done that as an incredible footballer and a fantastic individual. The funeral procession of Sir Bobby Charlton was included with magnificence at Old Trafford. Celebrities and busy people – every one of them stopping, to offer their most last appreciation.

Sir Bobby Charlton is the only Englishman to have been selected for four World Cup squads, the only Englishman to have won the feted treble of World Cup, Ballon d’Or and European Cup, and (for more than four decades until Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane pipped him) was England’s all-time leading goalscorer.

Numerous expert pundits and star players claimed on the steps of Manchester Cathedral that Sir Bobby Charlton remains, even in death, the greatest ever English footballer.

Many television cameras and scores of photographic artists were pressed into the little green region outside the north access to Manchester cathedral, as the harvest time leaves spun around the feet of the social affair gathering in the stiff north-west wind.

Whilst there were plenty of guests in the 1,000-strong congregation who wanted to talk about what an extraordinary footballer he was, there were just as many who wanted to tell the world what a lovely, gentle and humble person Sir Bobby remained.

Legends and geniuses including Sir Alex Ferguson, Gary Lineker, Steve Bruce, Peter Schmeichel, Bryan Robson, Alex Stepney, Paddy Crerand were all present to say their last goodbye to Sir Bobby Charlton at the cauldron of Old Trafford.

Crerard and Stepney – now among only five surviving members of Manchester United’s first European Cup triumph in 1968 – spoke of how he inspired, rebuilt and led the team so admirably after the tragedy of the Munich air disaster that claimed 23 lives and decimated Manchester United’s Busby Babes.

Bruce and Robson also spoke of how the aura of Sir Bobby seeped into every nook and cranny at Old Trafford, inspiring and motivating those who followed in his shadow through the tunnel in the years after his retirement. In fact, the famous guestlist seemed determined to remember and honour his life, as much as they were here to mourn his passing.

Interestingly, there were no cameras, no reporters, inside the Cathedral. Lady Norma, Sir Bobby’s devoted wife, and the rest of the Charlton family wanted this most public of celebrations to retain an air of intimacy and privacy.

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Guests who were at the ceremony said it was a service that befitted the man: simple, classy and memorable. It was fitting that the ceremony itself included the hymn Abide With Me, the traditional curtain-raiser to the FA Cup Final, which Sir Bobby won in 1963.

However, the supporter-lined streets of Manchester looked filled-up, as thousands waited patiently, and then politely applauded as they gained a few seconds’ glimpse of Sir Bobby’s hearse, as it made its way from Old Trafford to the Cathedral.

Sir Bobby will be for all time inseparable from England and Manchester United together. These were people who knew him from both his city and his country, paying the fondest of goodbyes.