DEATH OF A LEGEND: JOHN CHARLES, 1931-2004: A Giant among men

JOHN Charles, the supreme player who became the first genuine football superstar, died in hospital yesterday.

In contrast to his all-action life, Charles's death, at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, Yorks, a few miles from his home in Bradford, was quiet and peaceful. He died at 4.30am. His wife Glenda was called to his bedside, but arrived too late.

Family friend John Helm said: "John was in a coma. He died in his sleep. Glenda was at home and his condition worsened, but he had died by the time she got to the hospital."

He leaves four sons. All shared his love for sport. The eldest, Terry, is a selector with Cardiff Rugby Club and another, Melvyn, was a professional rugby league player with Halifax.

Charles, who was 72, won the love of people who were not even interested in football by his fair and honest approach to the game. Not for nothing was he known as the "Gentle Giant". Although standing 6ft 2ins in his stockinged feet, weighing 13st, and with the muscular frame of a bodybuilder, Charles was never once sent off or even booked by a referee - in a career spanning 22 years.

"How many players around today can you say that about?" asked his Welsh international team-mate Terry Medwin, not referring in so many words to the petulance, the shirt-tugging and professional fouls in today's game, but letting the question hang meaningfully in the air.

His death plunged his native Wales into a well of sadness and mourning. First Minister Rhodri Morgan said: "We have lost one of the greatest Welshmen of the 20th Century."

Charles's health quickly declined after he collapsed last month shortly before going on air for an interview on Italian TV. He had suffered a heart attack, which led to further complications.

With a final, terrible irony, part of his right foot, which once enchanted football fans around the world, had to be amputated due to gangrene caused by circulation problems after he underwent heart surgery. He had also been suffering from Alzheimer's.

Juventus, the Italian club which signed him as a player, paid pounds 12,000 for him to be flown home by air ambulance after the operation in Milan - a measure of their regard for him. Two doctors and a nurse accompanied him on the flight eight days ago. But recovery was not to be.

All football mourned him yesterday. Arguably it was Charles, with his big-money move to Italy and the adoration he experienced there, who opened the way for the film star status the Beckhams and Owens enjoy today.

Rhodri Morgan said that Charles had iconic status among Italians, who first gave him his nickname "Il Buon Gigante" - the gentle giant.

"It's only when you are in Italy - in Turin or Rome - that you realise just how high his reputation is," Mr Morgan said. "He is almost regarded as a saint in Italy. He refused to use his immense strength to overcome others. If he knocked someone down, he immediately picked them up to see if they were all right."

A Swansea boy, he was spotted by a football scout playing in a public park at the age of 15 - one of those games with coats for goalposts.

But his potential to be one of football's greats was unmissable. The scout could hardly believe what was unfolding before his eyes. A year later Charles signed for Leeds. He played there for 10 years, mainly at centre forward, scoring 154 goals, including a club record - which has still never been beaten - of 42 goals in the 1953-54 season.

There was an outcry when Leeds were forced to sell him. The whole city was up in arms, signing petitions and staging protests. But Leeds needed the cash urgently for rebuilding after one of their stands was gutted by fire.

Real Madrid came in for him first, only for Juventus to top their offer. He moved to Italy for pounds 65,000, then a world record fee. In today's game, his price would be somewhere between pounds 40- pounds 50million.

Many feared that his kind and sportsmanlike nature would be corrupted in what was one of the most vicious leagues in the world. But he didn't change at all, and Italians warmed to him.

He returned to Leeds for just 11 games before going back to Italy to play for Roma. He finally came back to the country of his birth, playing alongside his brother Mel at Cardiff City, ending his career as player- manager of Hereford.

But like many ex-footballers, the success he had on the pitch eluded him after he retired. There was a string of failed businesses, including pubs and a sports shop, leaving him with severe financial problems.

But the glory of his playing days ensured he was never forgotten.

He never let it go to his head. "As a person he was very modest and pleasant, but also quite shy," team-mate and friend Terry Medwin said. He was awarded a CBE two years ago, but many believe this was scant reward for all he had achieved. He won 38 caps for his country and received a standing ovation at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in October 2002 when Wales played Italy in a Euro 2004 qualifier.

The Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain, an ardent football fan, said: "He was an international football legend, one of the greatest Welsh sportsmen of all time."

Swansea was a subdued city yesterday. A book of condolence will be opened tomorrow at the Guildhall for fans to sign and there are plans for a permanent memorial. Wales fan Simon Moorcroft said: "He was the finest footballer of all time. Not only was he built like a god, he played like one."

Cardiff City fans stood for a minute's silence before yesterday's home game with Sunderland. Chairman Sam Hammam said: "John will be missed by all those that were touched by the indomitable spirit he showed throughout his life." In Leeds, too, they felt the pain. Leeds supporter Neil Albrighton said: "He was my hero, the only players you could speak of in the same sentence were Pele and Sir Stanley Matthews."

At Old Trafford yesterday, where Leeds were taking on Manchester United, fans and players of both sides joined together in a minute's silence. Leeds supporters last night called on the club to name the West Stand after him as a lasting tribute.

Supporters club chairman Ray Fell said: "He has suffered a lot through ill health in recent times, but John was everything people said he was - a gentleman on and off the pitch."

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