{"id":296429,"date":"2023-11-13T21:23:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T21:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=296429"},"modified":"2023-11-13T21:23:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T21:23:59","slug":"alex-stepney-sir-bobby-charlton-was-a-hero-and-unbelievably-my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/alex-stepney-sir-bobby-charlton-was-a-hero-and-unbelievably-my-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"ALEX STEPNEY: Sir Bobby Charlton was a hero and unbelievably my friend"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>ALEX STEPNEY: Sir Bobby Charlton was our talisman, our hero, and unbelievably my friend&#8230; his memorial was a\u00a0great celebration befitting of a great man<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sir Bobby Charlton&#8217;s funeral was held at Manchester Cathedral on Monday<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Man United and England legend recently passed away at the age of 86<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sporting luminaries from past and present also attended the memorial service<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Monday was a great celebration befitting of a great man but I know Bob would have said he never deserved it.<\/p>\n<p>For someone who went through so much and achieved so much, he was the most humble of men.<\/p>\n<p>When the club unveiled the stand at Old Trafford that was named after him, there were tears in his eyes when he told me &#8216;I don&#8217;t deserve this&#8217; but, as I said to him then, he deserved every accolade he received. He was a giant among us.<\/p>\n<p>The turnout at the cathedral was absolutely fantastic, so many great footballing names like Sir Alex Ferguson, Emilio Butragueno from Real Madrid, and players who wanted to pay their own tribute.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And for Prince William, the future King of England to attend, well, that tells you where this man stood, not just for Manchester United but for his country. There was even a service in Ghana on Monday to mark his passing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/20\/77756169-0-image-a-2_1699908637078.jpg\" height=\"458\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sir Bobby Charlton will be remembered as a Man United, England and global football legend<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/20\/77756329-0-image-a-3_1699908813401.jpg\" height=\"422\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Former Manchester United goalkeeper and European Cup winner Alex Stepney was close friends with Charlton<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/20\/77756215-0-image-a-4_1699908816285.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Fans gathered at Old Trafford on Monday morning to pay their respects ahead of Charlton&#8217;s funeral<\/p>\n<p>His name was renowned worldwide, synonymous with English football; our talisman, our hero, and, as I&#8217;ve often thought unbelievably, my friend.<\/p>\n<p>As the cortege passed, it was funny that the wind blew so strongly as it reminded me of those days when Bob would unleash that great thunderbolt shot of his. He&#8217;d leap in the air to celebrate a goal and seem as if he almost hung there, majestically in the wind, before landing, then sweep that wisp of hair across his head, as if to readjust his uniform. I could just picture him doing it again before he went in for his send off.<\/p>\n<p>While it was sombre, there had to be humour as there was a great humorous side to Bob that not everyone saw, so the tone of the eulogies from his grandson William and from David Gill were terrific.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They told the truth of a man who was forever competitive, even when he was playing cribbage with us teammates, or dominoes with his grandkids He also loved to have fun and appreciated those around him.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/20\/77756369-0-image-a-8_1699908883337.jpg\" height=\"629\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Charlton&#8217;s name was renowned worldwide, synonymous with English football; our talisman, our hero, and, as Stepney often thought unbelievably, his friend<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/20\/77756179-0-image-a-5_1699908819812.jpg\" height=\"433\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Charlton&#8217;s funeral was held at Manchester Cathedral on Monday after his passing at the age of 86<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/20\/77756193-0-image-m-7_1699908832904.jpg\" height=\"525\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Prince William was amongst those who attended the funeral service in Manchester<\/p>\n<p>My abiding memory will be how lucky I was to have shared the day United won the European Cup in 1968 with him.<\/p>\n<p>What that meant to him, having survived the Munich disaster ten years earlier, was clear throughout that night at Wembley. He was so determined. At 1-1, he told us we could score four and we did, and he scored two of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He drove us forward to that trophy, for his teammates that night and the ones who had been lost before. He was terrific.<\/p>\n<p>To see thousands turn out for him he would have been very proud. It was the perfect celebration of a great man, it was an appreciation of what he meant to the club. He was just magnificent. A great guy, a great family man. I loved him to bits.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12744991\/ALEX-STEPNEY-Sir-Bobby-Charlton-talisman-hero-unbelievably-friend-memorial-great-celebration-befitting-great-man.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ALEX STEPNEY: Sir Bobby Charlton was our talisman, our hero, and unbelievably my friend&#8230; his memorial was a\u00a0great celebration befitting of a great man Sir Bobby Charlton&#8217;s funeral was held at Manchester Cathedral on Monday The Man United and England legend recently passed away at the age of 86 Sporting luminaries from past and present [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ALEX STEPNEY: Sir Bobby Charlton was a hero and unbelievably my friend - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/alex-stepney-sir-bobby-charlton-was-a-hero-and-unbelievably-my-friend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ALEX STEPNEY: Sir Bobby Charlton was a hero and unbelievably my friend - Sports Life Tale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ALEX STEPNEY: Sir Bobby Charlton was our talisman, our hero, and unbelievably my friend&#8230; 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