Tommy Charlton has revealed he and Sir Bobby Charlton cried together on their final phone call before the death of his older brother.
The younger sibling of both Bobby and Jack Charlton, the 77-year-old opened up about the last time he spoke to the Manchester United legend before he passed away last month at the age of 86. He spoke to Sky News as he recalled his last phone call with Sir Bobby.
"It got to be that we only conversed on the telephone because I've stopped driving, and we used to meet at football matches… but Bob didn't end up doing that," he said. "Bob never got very far. And I remember the last time I spoke to him. We were on the telephone, and he broke down and started crying while I was crying."
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He said that Sir Bobby's wife Norma – who'd been married to the England icon for 62 years – continued to let him know about his well-being. "His wife, after that, Norma, said, 'it's probably best not to put Bob on the phone', so she kept us updated on how he was, and, well, she was a saint."
Tommy is the last surviving brother of Sir Bobby, following the death of his older brother Jack in 2020 as the 77-year-old said the overwhelming support following the death of his brother has been "heart-warming". "It's been very heart-warming to have so many people telling me that they were really proud of Bob.
He added: "I've never thought of Bob and Jack as anything but my brothers – they died as my brothers, not as famous footballers. And that is difficult for me. It's difficult to separate the two. And it's heart-warming to see that the number of people, thousands of people, telling me that they respected Bob and they respected Jack."
His brothers were part of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup following their 4-2 win over West Germany in the final which Tommy admitted he missed. Despite being given a ticket by Sir Bobby, he couldn't afford the transport from their hometown of Ashington to London as the game was played at Wembley.
"I didn't have any money to get there. Nobody in the family had that sort of money, and I didn't want to ask brother Jack to help me, because they had far too much on the plate at the time," he said. He did end up watching the match at his girlfriend's house, as he witnessed his older brothers hoist the greatest prize in football and cement their names in football history forever.
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