Manchester United and England legend Bobby Charlton died this morning at the age of 86.
His family released a statement stating that he "passed peacefully in the early hours of Saturday morning".
Charlton is widely regarded as England's greatest ever player - playing a key role in their 1966 World Cup win, and winning 106 caps and scoring 49 goals for his country - and seen by many as the best to wear the red of Manchester United.
His older brother was, of course, Ireland's beloved former manager Jack Charlton, who passed away in 2020.
Both Charlton brothers won the World Cup in 1966. Their hug after the fulltime whistle had blown on the World Cup final is one of the defining moments of the tournament.
However their relationship after that was complicated and, at times, fraught.
READ HERE: Reminder: Bobby Charlton Named Roy Keane On Bench Of His All-Time 'Perfect' XI
Jack Charlton's amazing tribute to his brother
Back in 2008, Jack paid tribute to his younger brother when he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 Sports Personality of the Year Awards.
When we were kids we used to go the park and play, I would go home for dinner and he would stay on and play.
Bobby Charlton is the greatest player I've ever seen. And he's my brother.
"The greatest player I've ever seen... and he's my brother."
The moment Sir Bobby Charlton won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/WxpseX88cr
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) October 21, 2023
However, it has been widely speculated that the relationship between Jack and Bobby has not always been so rosy after a falling out in the 90s.
In fact that tribute came only a year after Bobby had went public with his side of their falling out in his autobiography.
Why did the Bobby Charlton and Jack Charlton fall out?
The row between the Charlton brothers has been a long-running source of media speculation.
The public row between the Charlton brothers began in 1996. That was the year Jack and Bobby’s mother Cissie died. She passed away four months after Charlton had stepped down as Ireland manager. Jack and his wife Pat looked after Cissie until her death, and after her passing, Jack made comments in the media that were critical both of Bobby and his wife Norma.
There was also a suggestion that Bobby had tried to leave his Geordie roots behind.
In Gabriel Clarke’s Finding Jack documentary, Jack says of his brother: ‘Bobby did what Bobby wants to do. From being very much a home boy, apple of his mother’s eye, suddenly, he stopped going home. I don’t know why.
In his 2007 autobiography, Bobby Charlton explained their fallout like this -
In all that time [of their marriage] I have had just one regret, one that I have never publicly addressed before. I have always hated the fact that the woman who brought so much to my life, who became the most important person in it, was put at the centre of a dispute I had with my family, and most controversially by my brother Jack.
Jack told the world - and confirmed it in his autobiography - that he believed it was Norma who drove a wedge between my mother Cissie and me; he said that my wife had airs and graces, indeed that she was 'hoity-toity', and it was because of her that I became estranged from the person who had given me so much from the moment I was born. For the record, I reject that now in public as I have always done in private."
"My wife is a very strong character and does not suffer fools gladly," Bobby added. "I am not suggesting my mother was a fool.
“There was a clash and it just never went away really.
"Jack came out in the newspapers saying things about my wife that were absolutely disgraceful. Nonsense.”
8 December 2006; Former Manchester United Player Sir Bobby Charlton at the unveiling of a plaque in memory of Liam Whelan at the official opening of a renamed bridge at Connacht Street, Cabra, Dublin. Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE
Did the Charlton brothers bury the hatchet?
While even the Finding Jack documentary is ambiguous on whether the brothers found peace, reports subsequently say that Jack and Bobby healed their rift.
In an interview with the Mirror after Finding Jack documentary was released, Jack’s son rubbished rumours of a rift.
They were as different as chalk and cheese, dad liked going fishing with his mates, but Bobby wasn’t into fishing and did whatever he wanted with his friends. There is nothing wrong with that.
“Yes, of course they had rows like any other brothers over different things but to say they stopped talking to each other was just not true.
“In the years before Jack’s death they often spoke on the phone over family matters or if someone was sick.
The Express reported that the brothers mended their relationship at the funeral of England teammate Ray Wilson in 2018.
Bobby did not attend Jack's funeral in 2020. Some had speculated that this was evidence that rift still existed but the Mail reports that Bobby had just been diagnosed with dementia four months previous, and thus could not attend.
Bobby Charlton's death means that Geoff Hurst is the last living member of the England team that played against West Germany in the World Cup final.
SEE ALSO: Bobby Charlton Remembered As "Manchester United's Greatest Representative"
