Charlton's tribute to Duncan the "greatest ever"
8:00am Monday 4th February 2008
SIR Bobby Charlton won European and World Cup medals and played with some of the games greatest like Law, Best and Moore.
But for Charlton - who was also named Euroepan footballer of the year - one man stands head and shoulders above him and all the rest...
"Duncan Edwards I would unhestitatingly say was the best player I ever played with.
"If I was ever asked to list a team of 11 players - he'd be the first, there's no question about that.
"I believe he was the best player I ever saw and am ever likely to see.
"I knew him more than anyone else and was closer to him than anyone else because we were literally in the same billet at Nesscliffe and we used to play together for the army teams and then on a Friday night we would jump on the train to get back to Old Trafford to play.
"I was very close to him and I never thought I could ever be as good as him, never. He's the only person that I reallly felt intimidated by. There's a set of pictures at the Carrington training ground of the youth teams and just physically he's twice as big as anyone else.
"Add to that he had every talent: he was the best short passer, the best long passer, he had terrific vision and his 60-70 yard passes with a heavy' ball were pin point accurate. He had an enthusiam for the game and never stopped talking about it - he'd pick you up if you were losing and he was just absolutely sensational."
"He would have probably played in the 1966 World Cup Final and it's just such a massive tragedy."
Fifteen days after the Munich air crash Duncan Edwards died, he was just 21-years old.