England World Cup winner and Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton has died aged 86 after a battle with dementia.

Sir Bobby, who made 758 appearances for his club and earned 106 caps for his beloved country, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family this morning. 

He is survived by his wife Lady Norma, their two daughters Suzanne and Andrea and grandchildren.

The gifted footballer, who was born in Ashington, Northumberland, on October 11 1937, is widely viewed as one of the greatest players to ever grace the game and played an integral role in England’s 1966 World Cup glory. 

Following his death, Sir Geoff Hurst – who famously scored a hat-trick in England’s 4-2 victory over West Germany at Wembley – is now the only member of the team still alive. 

Former England right-back George Cohen also died, aged 83, in December.

A statement from the family of Sir Bobby, who went on to have a remarkable career after surviving the Munich air disaster in 1958, said: ‘It is with great sadness that we share the news that Sir Bobby passed peacefully in the early hours of Saturday morning. He was surrounded by his family. 

‘His family would like to pass on their thanks to everyone who has contributed to his care and for the many people who have loved and supported him. We would request that the family’s privacy be respected at this time.’

Manchester United said ‘words will never be enough’ as they mourn ‘one of the greatest and most beloved players in the history of our club’, while England described Charlton, who had previously held the record as all-time top goalscorer for both England and United, as a ‘true legend of our game’.

United great David Beckham said Charlton was ‘truly a national hero.’ 

Beckham came through the ranks at Manchester United, having attended Bobby Charlton’s Soccer School and was given the middle name Robert as his father was such a fan of the 1968 European Cup winner.

‘It all began with Sir Bobby. Sir Bobby was the reason I had the opportunity to play for Manchester United… 

‘I will be forever grateful to a man I was named after, someone I looked up to and was a hero to many around the world not just in Manchester and our country where he won the World Cup in 1966,’ Beckham posted on Instagram.

‘A true gentleman, family man and truly a national hero… Today isn’t just a sad day for Manchester United & England it’s a sad day for football and everything that Sir Bobby represented… 

‘Our thoughts go out to Lady Norma, their daughters and grandchildren x Rest in Peace Sir Bobby x @manchesterunited @england Today our hearts are heavy.’

Sir Geoff Hurst noted: ‘We will never forget him & nor will all of football.’

Prince William, who is president of the FA, has described Sir Bobby Charlton as ‘a true great who will be remembered forever’ in a personal message on social media.

The Prince of Wales said: ‘Sir Bobby Charlton. First Division Champion. European Champion. World Champion. Gentleman. Legend. A true great who will be remembered forever. Thank you Sir Bobby. W’ said the tribute posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called him ‘one of the game’s greatest players’. 

Charlton’s death was announced as Saturday’s 3pm kick-offs were preparing to start the second half, and – following their 2-1 win over Brighton – Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola paid his respects.

‘On behalf of the Manchester City family to his family, to the Man United family and for England football – these type of football players and personalities represent English football like no-one else can do it,’ he said.

‘So condolences from all of us, for his family especially. Next week when we go to Old Trafford, we’ll be present to make a first tribute.

‘I love this country for many things, but one of those things is how they take care of the legends of each club. 

‘They are part of the club and they travel and they represent them. I think Sir Bobby Charlton represented United and English football like no-one else.’

Middlesbrough manager and former Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick said he was ‘devastated’ to hear of Charlton’s death.

He said: ‘My mind went back to the moments I shared with Bobby – an inspirational character and such an iconic figure, you don’t always get those in world football.

‘In a Manchester United family, he cared so much about the players, the club and showed nothing but pure support for us in his blazer and suit. He was proud to show what it was about to play for Manchester United and pass that on.

‘He had an incredible career and to be in a position to be humble enough to pass that on to support the players, when he could have just been a figure, is so inspirational.’

New Birmingham boss Wayne Rooney was leading his side at Middlesbrough, who are managed by his former United team-mate Carrick, and both were clearly still shaken by the news when they discussed it soon after Middlesbrough’s 1-0 win. 

‘I’m still in shock,’ said a visibly emotional Rooney, who broke Sir Bobby’s goalscoring records for both United and England. 

‘I saw his image on the big screen at the start of the second half and didn’t know what was happening. He was a legend but more importantly a great human being.

‘He was always great with me during our many conversations about football and different things in life. He was a huge inspiration to me and a lot of players at United. It is a loss to football and his family.

‘I have huge respect for what he went through. He experienced the Munich air disaster in 1958. Then he won the World Cup in 1966 and the European Cup in 1968.

‘When I broke his United goalscoring record at Stoke in January 2017, he was there in the dressing room after the game. He congratulated me and then said a few harsher words – but joking of course. He will be hugely missed.’

Sir Bobby had withdrawn from public life since he was diagnosed with dementia in November 2020, just four months after his elder brother Jack Charlton – another 1966 hero – died aged 85. 

The brothers famously had a bitter feud for several decades but made amends later in life. Sir Bobby was, however, unable to attend his brother’s funeral due to illness. He was last photographed in public bravely posing for a Covid-19 jab to encourage others to do the same. 

Sir Bobby was one of five of England’s 1966 winners to suffer from dementia after his brother, Nobby Stiles, Ray Wilson and Martin Peters. 

The midfielder, who joined United as a schoolboy in 1953, embarked on an extraordinary career after surviving the Munich air disaster – when he was 20 – which tragically killed eight of United’s Busby Babes and 23 people in total.

In a glittering 17-year spell with United – where he played as if every game was for his fallen team-mates – he won three league titles, the FA Cup and captained the Red Devils when they became the first English club to win the European Cup.

Sir Bobby, known for his powerful shooting and distinctive hairstyle, scored 249 goals for Man United – including two in the famous 1968 European Cup final win over Benfica.

Charlton is one of the ‘Holy Trinity’ along with George Best and Denis Law who are immortalised in a statue outside Old Trafford. In 2016, he also had the South Stand at the iconic stadium named after him which is opposite the Sir Alex Ferguson stand.

Sir Bobby also scored 49 goals for his country and won the Ballon d’Or in 1966 for his part in England’s World Cup triumph. 

England paid tribute following his death, writing: ‘It is with a heavy heart that we have learned of the passing of Sir Bobby Charlton. An integral part of our 1966 FIFA World Cup winning campaign, Sir Bobby won 106 caps and scored 49 times for the #ThreeLions. A true legend of our game. We will never forget you, Sir Bobby.’

His goal records for club and country both lasted decades until they were overtaken by Man United legend Wayne Rooney, with Harry Kane more recently taking over as England’s top marksman.

Following his retirement from football, Sir Bobby managed Preston North End from 1973 to  1975 and was later director at Wigan Athletic. Returning to United as a member of the board of directors in 1984, Sir Bobby was a constant presence at Old Trafford until recent years.

He and his wife Lady Norma – who were married for over 60 years – would take their seats week in, week out to watch the Red Devils march out and play at the Theatre of Dreams.

Sir Bobby – who’s bitter feud with his brother Jack was well documented – was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994, having previously been awarded the OBE and CBE. 

He also set up the Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation in 2011 which focused on removing landmines in former war zones. 

Sir Alex Ferguson once praised Sir Bobby for how he ‘handled the greatness’. In a tribute on his 80th birthday, the former United manager said: ‘Success can change people, and it’s never changed Bobby Charlton. He is what he is: quiet, shy and I think it’s fantastic.

‘An example for anyone who enters football. He has never forgotten his roots. That girl Norma has been his rock, all his life. She’s an unbelievable person and that is a great partnership.

‘I think he was responsible for me getting the job at Manchester United. We used to go to games all the time — although I don’t think Bobby enjoyed my driving! — so it was a great introduction.’

Sir Geoff Hurst was one of the first to pay tribute to Charlton, tweeting: ‘Very sad news today 1 of the true Greats Sir Bobby Charlton has passed away.

‘We will never forget him & nor will all of football… a great colleague & friend he will be sorely missed by all of the country beyond sport alone. Condolences to his family & friends from Geoff and Judith.’

Hurst once described his former team-mate as ‘one of the most gifted players of this or any generation’.

He added: ‘He was an idol of mine, to be in the same dressing room as him was a wonderful pleasure.

‘You travel all over the world, to parts where nobody can speak English, and there’s only thing they can say: ‘Bobby Charlton’.’

FIFA President Gianni Infantino described Charlton as a ‘football legend whose impact on the game spanned generations’. 

In an interview with the Mail in 2018, Sir Bobby showed that he had never really shaken off his sense of guilt at going on to achieve so much while the dreams of so many friends and team-mates perished so tragically when a Man United flight crashed on the runway at Munich on February 6 1958.

British European Airways Flight 609 was making its third attempt to take off after stopping to refuel en route from Belgrade where United had beaten Red Star on aggregate to reach the semi-finals. It was the last time the Busby Babes played together. 

‘Why me?’ he always asked himself. ‘Why did I survive?’

The practical reason was that the lucky ones were occupying the rearward facing seats as Airspeed Ambassador Flight 609 ploughed into slush at the end of the runway at its third attempt to take off and crashed through a perimeter fence.

After losing his team-mates in the 1958 crash, Sir Bobby felt he could never play football again.

Sir Matt Busby, the legendary manager and another survivor, was struggling to dissuade him from premature retirement. 

The members of the team patched up by Busby had no more effect when the recovering Charlton visited them in the dressing room before matches during his recovery from the head wounds and trauma suffered when his seat with him strapped in it was thrown from the plane onto the ice.

Not until he went to visit the humble but loving family home in Ashington where he and his brother Jack grew into footballers did he find his reason to lace up the boots again.

Sir Bobby would go on to have a sensational career at the very top level, playing alongside his brother Jack for their country. 

Despite images of the brothers embracing after the 1966 final, their relationship, which, far from being warm, was actually marked by distance and discord for many years.

‘To be honest, me and our kid were never the best of friends,’ Jack once said. For his part, Bobby complained that his brother’s attitude was sometimes ‘unacceptable’, writing that Jack could be ‘too impetuous, too eager to speak and to lash out’.

The taller brother was the rebellious maverick, whereas Bobby was the conformist. ‘Everything I liked in life he didn’t have anything to do with, and everything he likes in life I don’t want to know about,’ said Jack in 1997.

But at the heart of this fraternal friction was the fact that their mother Cissie, a matriarchal figure who came from a North-Eastern footballing family called the Milburns, had a strong antipathy towards Bobby’s wife Norma — a feeling that was reciprocated.

‘There was no meeting point, no common ground with my mother. It was very painful,’ wrote Bobby. Inevitably, he took the side of his wife in the dispute as the chasm between the two women widened, while Jack took Cissie’s side.

At times, especially in the 1990s, there was a real bitterness between the brothers, which meant they were not even on speaking terms.

Sir Bobby explained that he had been angered by passages in Jack’s autobiography, published in 1996, in which Jack not only attacked Bobby for failing to visit their mother Cissie in her final years, but described Norma as stand-offish and difficult. 

Sir Bobby said years later that these comments about his wife Norma were ‘disgraceful’ and ‘nonsense’. Writing in a book in 2007, he confessed he and his brother had ‘never been further apart than we are now’, adding: ‘I just don’t want to know him.’

Their relationship seemed irreparably broken but they were very publicly reconciled a year later when Bobby was presented with a BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award. Jack agreed to present the trophy and told his sibling: ‘Bobby Charlton is the greatest player I’ve ever seen. And he’s my brother.’ 

The pair embraced – just as they had on the turf at Wembley 42 years earlier. 

In the year’s before Jack’s death family members also revealed they often spoke over the phone if someone was sick.  

News of Sir Bobby’s dementia diagnosis three years ago sparked upset but also more frustration as he became yet another of England’s heroes to suffer from the illness.

But, even without the shadow of this family rift, the fact is the two men were never close. The row between Cissie and Norma only became so incendiary because Jack and Bobby were profoundly different, with little fraternal empathy. 

In a column for The Sun this week, West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady said that football has no choice but to change. 

‘There are injuries and then there are injuries without healing. The worst by far is dementia,’ she said.

Brady welcomed measures which are being introduced to limit the injuries caused by repeatedly heading a ball.