John 'Jack' Charlton is a former English footballer, and later football manager, who won the World Cup as part of the England 1966 World Cup Squad. Jack Charlton was born in Ashington, Northumberland, on 8th May 1935 into a famous footballing family. He is the older brother of fellow World Cup winner Sir Bobby Charlton, and his uncles were Jack Milburn, George Milburn, Jim Milburn, and Stan Milburn. The famous Jackie Milburn, a Newcastle and England legend, was his mothers cousin. It can be noted that Jack Charlton played his whole career for just one club, Leeds United.

Jack Charlton did not go straight into professional football, first working in a coal mine before deciding to apply to join the police force at 17 years of age. Charlton was however, by chance, spotted playing amateur football by Leeds United who subsequently offered him a trial game. The trial clashed with his police interview however, and Charlton was left with a straight choice between playing the game or attending the interview, luckily for football - and for himself - he decided to play the game. The gamble paid off and Charlton impressed, initially signing for Leeds on apprenticeship terms in 1952. This was followed just a few months later with a professional contract.

Charlton made his Leeds debut in April 1953 and had cemented his place in the strongest IX within a couple of years. Leeds were a second division club at the time, and remained so until 1957 when Charlton and Leeds won promotion under Raich Carter in 1957. A relegation back to the second division in 1959 and a failure to bounce straight back up saw Carter leave the club to be replaced by Charlton's former team mate Don Revie. This appointment saw Charlton fear for his future at the club, as they had never got along well as colleagues, with Revie agreeing to sell Charlton at one point. Several clubs, including Manchester United and Liverpool, were interested in Charlton but were not willing to match Revie's asking price. Eventually the two settled their differences and Revie would go on to build his defence around the dominance of Charlton.

Revie slowly but surely built a formidable team, with Jack Charlton being joined at the back with a young Norman Hunter, and other youth players including Peter Lorimer and Billy Bremner breaking into the team. The team managed to win promotion back to the top flight in 1964 and they immediately made a huge impact on the top tier of English football, finishing 2nd in their first season after losing out on the title to Manchester United as a result of an inferior goal difference. The team also came close to winning the FA Cup, reaching the final but losing 2-1 to Liverpool.

Jack Charlton was given his first England cap by Alf Ramsey against Scotland in 1965, with the game finishing 2-2 but Charlton impressing enough to keep his place in the team for the next several games. In the 12 months which preceded, and with the 1966 World Cup in mind, Ramsey made regular changes to his team in every international in order to find players to suit his unique wingless wonders system. The one part of the pitch that did remain constant throughout is centre back, where Charlton and Bobby Moore had established a great partnership. Charlton scored his first goal in one of the final friendlies before the World Cup, against Denmark. Ramsey subsequently selected Charlton in the England World Cup 1966 Squad, giving him the shirt number 5; this indicated that Ramsey intended to select Charlton as one of his first choice central defenders.

England progressed from the group stage after two wins and a draw, although it should be noted that Charlton was a key component of a defence that did not concede during this game. Charlton also assisted a Roger Hunt goal in the final group stage game, a 2-0 win over France. Another clean sheet followed in the narrow 1-0 win against an aggressive Argentina, the game in which a young Geoff Hurst scored England's only goal. England went on to beat Portugal 2-1, the first game in which they conceded a goal; it should perhaps be noted that both England goals were scored by Jack's younger brother Bobby Charlton before a Jack Charlton handball gave Eusebio the chance to convert from the penalty spot; which he duly did. Jack Charlton went on to become one of the 11 great players who clinched the World Cup for England, their first and only time, in a 4-2 extra time win against arch enemies West Germany. At 31 the oldest England player, and having only made his debut just over a year earlier, Charlton famously broke down in tears of joy at the final whistle.

The first domestic season following the World Cup was a mixed one emotionally for Charlton, he failed to win domestic honours with Leeds yet again and was injured in England's well known 3-2 defeat against Scotland. He did however achieve a great personal accolade by winning the Footballer Of The Year. It was to be the following season, in 1968, that a 32 year old Charlton would finally win a trophy with Leeds United with a victory over Arsenal in the League Cup final at Wembley and with the club also winning the Fairs Cup. Charlton also broke the clubs record for the most league appearances, finishing the season with 447 league appearances.

More success quickly followed for Leeds and Charlton, with a League Championship coming in 1969 and the team losing just 2 league games all season. The following season brought dissappointment, with Leeds missing out on all honours, but Charlton was able to compete in the European Cup for the first time; losing out to Celtic in the semi-finals. Leeds also lost to Chelsea in the FA Cup final, with a Charlton mistake gifting Chelsea a goal; Charlton was so angry with himself that he did not collect his runners-up medal. Charlton was to play his final England game in the 1970 World Cup, although not as a first choice centre back, he played his final game for England in a 1-0 win against Czechoslovakia in the group stages. Both Jack Charlton and Bobby Charlton requested that they not be considered for selection again on the plane home.

Charlton was entering the final few years of a successful career and won the Fairs Cup again in the 1971 season, but were pipped to the League Championship by Arsenal. In the following 1972 season, Charlton was able to complete his collection of domestic medals when Leeds successfully won the FA Cup. In the next season, although intending to play on, Charlton suffered a bad injury and decided to retire from the game at the age of 38. With 774 appearances and 96 goals in all competitions, and with all of these being for Leeds United, Charlton retired with legendary status amongst not only Leeds fans but amongst the entire nation.

Charlton went on to spend four years as manager of Middlesbrough, who he led to a promotion to the First Division in his first season; gaining the Manager of the Year Award for his efforts, this was the first time that the award had been given to a second division manager. He managed to consolidate Middlesbrough's position over the next few seasons before quitting in April 1977. Charlton applied for the position of England manager, unsuccessfully, before taking over as manager of Sheffield Wednesday in 1977. He remained at Wednesday for 6 years and won promotion from the Third Division. He resigned in 1983 before having a brief spell back at Middlesbrough and a year at Newcastle United. It would be his next job for which he is best remembered by many.

After a year out of football, Charlton was offered the opportunity to manage the Republic of Ireland national team in 1986. Ireland were considered to be a strong team at the time, in fact one of the strongest in Europe with players including Liam Brady, Paul McGrath, and David O'Leary. Charlton accepted the job and Ireland subsequently qualified for the 1988 European Championships in Germany. Ireland beat England 1-0 in the group stage, but later went out of the competition after a narrow 1-0 defeat against Holland. Ireland's performances were considered impressive however and Charlton finished runner up in the 'World Soccer Manager of the Year Awards'. Ireland then embarked on a World Cup qualifying campaign that saw them reach the World Cup finals for the first time in their history, where they again drew England in the group stage. Ireland qualified from the group after three consecutive draws, and remained in the tournament until losing to the hosts Italy 1-0 in the quarter final.

Charlton had become a hero in Ireland and a failure to qualify for the 1992 European Championships was not enough to cost him his job, and he rewarded Ireland's faith by taking the team to their second ever - and second consecutive - World Cup Finals in 1994. Ireland again qualified from the group stage before exiting in the second round after a defeat to Holland. Ireland failed to qualify for Euro 96 and Charlton resigned shortly afterwards. Charlton has been awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin and made an honorary Irish citizen which is the highest accolade made in Ireland, he has also been awarded the OBE.