Name a footballer who’s also the ultimate English gentleman: it can only be Bobby Charlton

As well as being football’s finest ambassador, the Man Utd and England legend was the manifestation of a certain kind of Englishness that is lauded around the world, writes Jim White

Manchester United’s Bobby Charlton, being slide-tackled by Bolton Wanderers’ Tommy Banks during the 1958 FA Cup final (Keystone/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Yesterday, as thousands of mourners lined the streets of Manchester watching Sir Bobby Charlton’s funeral cortege as it made its slow progress to the city’s Cathedral, we were served up with a vivid reminder that true class is not a product of money or privilege, social standing or schooling.

Because Charlton, born into the most modest of circumstances in the Durham coalfield with silver spoons conspicuous by their absence, was the very embodiment of grace, dignity and decency. Never once in his life was his reputation compromised by scandal or inappropriateness. There was no caveat on his memorial. This was the ultimate English gentleman.

Everyone gathered along the route – and there were tens of thousands – had stories to tell and yarns to swap of the man who lays the most compelling claim to be England’s finest ever footballer.