[Legend] Bill Foulkes

[ahmdyuskas]

Salam :ui4:
Welcome to my new thread :muscarf:

sekarang gw mau angkat cerita tentang salah satu Legenda United di era Sir Matt Busby atau kita kenal Busby Babes yaitu
Bill Foulkes

http://www.art247.com/images/large/MIRRORPIX/MP/MP_1080098.jpg

Data and Facts
Full name William Anthony Foulkes
Date of birth 5 January 1932 (age 79)
Place of birth St Helens, England
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position Centre back

Years Team Apps (Gls)
1951–1970 Manchester United 566 (7)

National team Apps (Gls)
1954 England 1 (0)

Profile
William Anthony Foulkes (lahir 5 Januari 1932) adalah mantan pemain sepakbola berkebangsaan Inggris yang bermain untuk Manchester United pada era Busby Babes tahun 1950-an, dan juga di tahun 1960-an. Posisi favoritnya adalah Centerback. Untuk Manchester United, ia mengantongi 679 penampilan, ketiga terbanyak setelah Ryan Giggs dan Sir Bobby Charlton, dia juga membuat 3 penampilan sebagai pengganti. Dia juga bermain sebagai starter di setiap pertandingan United pada musim 1957-58, 1959-60, 1963-64 dan 1964-65. Dia mencetak total 9 gol dalam 18 musim bersama United dan membantu klub memenangkan empat gelar Divisi Utama, satu Piala FA dan satu Piala Eropa. Meskipun demikian, ia hanya sekali dipanggil untuk membela Timnas Inggris pada tahun 1955.

Seorang stopper kuno yang menikmati menghadapi penyerang secara langsung. Awalnya, Foulkes bermain sebagai bek kanan, kemudian berpindah ke bek tengah karena dia menyukai sesuatu yang lebih sederhana, menjaga pertahanan dan memberikan passing kepada teman se-team yang lebih berbakat. Selama 18 musim, di 688 pertandingan, ia memberikan soliditas ke barisan belakang The Reds, begitu banyak sehingga selama hampir dua dekade di Old Trafford itu jarang Sir Matt Busby untuk menghilangkan dirinya dari skuad utama.

Foulkes ditemukan oleh Manchester United saat ia bermain untuk klub Boys Whiston pada tahun 1950. Dia bergabung dengan klub tersebut pada bulan Maret 1950, pada usia 18 tahun. Setelah datang melalui peringkat junior klub, ia beralih ke profesional pada bulan Agustus 1951. Dia membuat debut profesional dalam pertandingan Divisi Satu melawan saingan berat Liverpool pada tanggal 13 Desember 1952, sebelum umurnya menginjak angka 20. United memenangkan pertandingan saat itu dengan skor 2-1. Dia juga bermain 2 game untuk timnas U-23 Inggris saat itu. Ia terus bekerja paruh waktu di tambang batu bara, karena merasa dia tidak cukup baik untuk bermain penuh waktu dalam liga sepakbola.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/21/article-1172369-02C8A472000004B0-10_468x549.jpg

Munich Disaster
Bill Foulkes adalah salah satu korban yang selamat dalam kecelakan pesawat di Munich 6 February 1958 yang menewaskan banyak pemain dan staff United dan membuat United terpuruk selama beberapa tahun.

The plane was bouncing along and obviously not going fast enough and then suddenly there were three tremendous sickening thuds and everything was spinning around. A second later I was sitting in my seat with my feet in the snow. - Bill Foulkes

pada saat kecelakaan itu terjadi pesawat itu patah tepat di bawah kursi yang sedang di duduki oleh Foulkes. Dalam kecelakaan itu, botol gin dari Kedutaan Besar Inggris, yang Foulkes tempatkan di rak dengan dubungkus oleh mantel menimpah Foulkes di bagian belakang kepalanya. Cedera kepala adalah cedera satu-satunya yang dia terima dalam kecelakaan itu. Segera setelah kecelakaan itu, Foulkes keluar dari sabuk pengaman dan berlari 50 meter dari pesawat. Dia kemudian berbalik dan melihat pesawat rusak.

The back of the aircraft had just disappeared. I got out as quickly as I could and just ran and ran. Then I turned and realised that the plane wasn't going to explode, and I went back. In the distance I could see the tail part of the aircraft blazing and as I ran back I came across bodies. Roger Byrne still strapped to his seat, Bobby Charlton lying quite still in another seat, and Dennis Viollet. Then Harry Gregg appeared and we tried to see what we could do to help. - Bill Foulkes

23 orang luka dirujuk ke rumah sakit, tapi Foulkes menghabiskan malam di sebuah hotel dengan Harry Gregg. Keesokan paginya, Foulkes mengunjungi teman satu timnya di rumah sakit. Ia mengunjungi Duncan Edwards, Johnny Berry, Jackie Blanchflower, Viollet, Scanlon, Charlton dan Ray Wood. Kemudian, ia mengingat, "Aku baru saja mulai berpikir itu tidak terlihat terlalu buruk dan ketika aku bertanya di mana sisanya", perawat itu hanya menggelengkan kepalanya dan berkata:." Itu saja, semua orang telah meninggal. "
Baru kemudian bahwa Foulkes menyadari horor penuh tragedi itu. Tujuh dari rekan-rekan satu timnya Mark Jones, David Pegg, Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Eddie Colman, Liam Whelan dan Tommy Taylor - telah tewas seketika. Duncan Edwards meninggal 15 hari kemudian akibat luka-lukanya. Sekretaris klub Walter Crickmer dan pelatih Tom Curry dan Bert Whalley juga tewas. Berry dan Blanchflower selamat tetapi tidak pernah dimainkan lagi. Foulkes sendiri selamat, bersama dengan Busby, Charlton, Gregg, Morgans, Scanlon, Viollet dan Wood.
Selama bertahun-tahun sejak bencana, Foulkes masi merasa marah tentang fakta bahwa pilot telah mencoba untuk tetap lepas landas untuk ketiga kalinya, meskipun bahaya jelas.
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/02_01/FoulkesMOS0202_468x608.jpg

Segera setelah kecelakaan itu, Foulkes mengambil alih ban kapten klub dari Byrne, yang tewas dalam kecelakaan itu. Setelah pertandingan melawan Sheffield Wednesday, West Bromwich Albion dan Fulham, United mencapai final Piala FA, kalah 2-0 untuk Bolton Wanderers. Namun, tim tidak berjalan dengan baik di liga, menang hanya 1 pertandingan melawan Sunderland, seri dalam 5 pertandingan dan kalah dalam 8 pertandingan, dan finish di tempat kesembilan. Dalam semifinal Piala Eropa, United menang 2-1 di leg pertama melawan AC Milan, namun kalah 4-0 di leg kedua di San Siro, kalah 5-2 dalam agregat.
Pada tanggal 10 Oktober 1960, Busby memainkan Foulkes sebagai bek tengah untuk pertama kalinya. Itu untuk menjadi posisi disukai Foulkes, tetapi ia tidak menikmati permainan lagi sampai 1963. Pada musim 1963-64, United finish ditempat kedua di liga, dan akhirnya memenangkan Kejuaraan pada musim 1964-1965, setelah membukukan 13 kemenangan dari 15 pertandingan. Pada saat itu, Foulkes dan Charlton adalah satu-satunya pemain yang selamat tragedi Munich dalam tim. Pada 1966-1967, Foulkes membantu United memenangkan Kejuaraan lagi, mendapatkan 4 medali Kejuaraan, lebih dari setiap pemain United lain di jamannya.
Setelah memenangkan Piala Eropa, Foulkes merasa ia telah mencapai semua yang dia bisa dan ingin pensiun. Namun, Busby berhasil meyakinkan dia untuk tinggal selama 2 tahun lagi. Pada tahap ini, dia adalah pemain tertua di tim pada usia 37. Dia resmi pensiun dari bermain pada tanggal 1 Juni 1970.
dia melayani United di Divisi Pertama selama 18 musim, kebanyakan dari mereka sebagai pemain reguler, dan merupakan pemain terlama bertugas di klub pada saat pertandingan terakhirnya.
Setelah pensiun, dia tinggal di Old Trafford sebagai pelatih Youth Team dari tahun 1970 sampai 1975, ketika ia akhirnya meninggalkan United setelah memberikan kontribusi maksimal selama 25 tahun.

Sudah jelas bahwa kami sulit untuk lepas landas dan mereka tetap melakukannya. Mereka seharusnya tidak pernah melakukannya. Saya tidak merasa bersalah tentang menjadi seorang yang selamat. Aku hanya sangat beruntung, Tapi aku berfikir bahwa itu tidak perlu, aku sangat marah. menghancurkan klub, merugikan negara begitu banyak. - Bill Foulkes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
thanks for reading my thread
cuma buat sharing
kalo boleh ya Cendol nya, :beer:
lumayan haus juga tengah malem buat ginian,I-)I-)I-)
thanks nya juga diterima
salam :ui4:

[Pure_red]

Mantap mad! Another United #Legend! nambah pengetahuan euy! tapi ini kok di thread ex-united yah? sepertinya bakal dipindahin sama momod mad.. haha.. ijo-ijo meluncur mad.. :D

[tovanokristan]

Oh iya seharusnya di thread legend ya?
Gapapa lah yg penting isi infonya bermanfaat
Anyway nice post mate :D
http://img.kaskus.us/images/kaskusmobile_hp.gif

[finza_13]

keren nih Bill
Legend United,walaupun ga pernah liat maennya secara langsung,tp dari baca2 memang merupakan salah satu defender terbaik

[ahmdyuskas]

Mantap mad! Another United #Legend! nambah pengetahuan euy! tapi ini kok di thread ex-united yah? sepertinya bakal dipindahin sama momod mad.. haha.. ijo-ijo meluncur mad.. :D

hahah . tengkyu"
cendol ny ga nolak nih bang, aus
B-)B-)B-)B-)

[ahmdyuskas]

Oh iya seharusnya di thread legend ya?
Gapapa lah yg penting isi infonya bermanfaat
Anyway nice post mate :D
http://img.kaskus.us/images/kaskusmobile_hp.gif

pengenny sih di masukin Legend, tapi kurang bahan dari multimedia nya bro,
foto dan video ny masih kurang
:-/:-/:-/

[theater of dream]

Cendol mulu ah..... kayak forum sebelah aja

[ahmdyuskas]

keren nih Bill
Legend United,walaupun ga pernah liat maennya secara langsung,tp dari baca2 memang merupakan salah satu defender terbaik

gmn mw liat langsung om
gambarny aja masi item putih
:peace:

---------- Post added at 01:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:20 PM ----------

Cendol mulu ah..... kayak forum sebelah aja

hahahahahha ..
namanya aus gan :beer::beer:

[rondwisan]

thanks Sob 4 sharing ..., jempol 'n cendol udah meluncur tuh ... :-bd

[ahmdyuskas]

thanks Sob 4 sharing ..., jempol 'n cendol udah meluncur tuh ... :-bd

tengkyu :beer:

[fajrinited]

Lebih cocok disini Oom troy andreas;
Selamat jalan Bill Foulkes..

Bill Foulkes passes away

http://static.goal.com/244000/244091_heroa.jpg

Born: 5 January 1932
Signed for United: 1 March 1950
United debut: v Liverpool, 13 December 1952
Appearances: 688 | Goals: 9

"Bill was a giant character in the post-war history of Manchester United. His contribution over almost 700 games and nearly 20 years will never be forgotten."

- Ed Woodward, executive vice-chairman


Manchester United is very sad to report that legendary centre-back Bill Foulkes has passed away, aged 81.

Foulkes joined the club in 1950 and made his United debut two years later against Liverpool. The St Helens-born centre-half, a Munich air disaster survivor, went on to make 688 appearances for the Reds during 18 seasons at Old Trafford. Only three men have bettered that total - Ryan Giggs, Sir Bobby Charlton and Paul Scholes.

Renowned as a rock-solid pillar of some of United's most successful teams under Sir Matt Busby, Foulkes was a four-time league champion, FA Cup winner and European Cup winner, and very few players in the club's history have served United with such distinction.

Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward expressed his and the club's sadness at the news, saying: "Bill was a giant character in the post-war history of Manchester United. He was a very gentle man, who I was privileged to meet on several occasions, including most memorably with his team-mates at the Champions League final in Moscow, 50 years after his heroics in the Munich air crash.

"Bill's contribution over almost 700 games and nearly 20 years will never be forgotten. The thoughts of everyone at the Club – directors, players, staff and fans – are with Bill's family."

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Club-News/2013/Nov/Manchester-United-legend-Bill-Foulkes-passes-away.aspx

[fajrinited]

ManUtd 25/11/2013

Foulkes: A giant remembered

As a footballer and as a man, Bill Foulkes defined the strong, silent type. Undemonstrative, implacable, near-metronomically reliable and utterly ruthless in the execution of his job, he was a key cornerstone of the Manchester United rearguard for more than a decade and a half, selected more times by Matt Busby than any other player during his managerial reign.

Even the exuberantly ungovernable talents of Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best, the acknowledged icons of Busby's glittering empire in the 1950s and 1960s, needed a solid platform from which to unfurl, and that's where Foulkes came in.

Seldom did he garner headlines of his own - though he made a glorious exception one heady night in Madrid when he fired the Reds into the final of the European Cup - but the Old Trafford boss, a master at blending disparate individuals into a compelling whole, recognised the incalculable worth of the whipcord-tough ex-miner to the United cause. Together they collected two league titles when Bill was still a young man learning the game as part of the legendary Babes, a tag of which Busby, incidentally, was not unduly fond. They both survived the Munich catastrophe of 1958, then were at the heart of a painstaking reconstruction process which led to FA Cup triumph, two more league championships and, the ultimate achievement, the lifting of the European crown 10 years on from the tragedy.

Along the way the modest, taciturn Lancastrian shattered the United appearance record previously held by between- the-wars marksman Joe Spence, an outcome that frankly astonished certain sceptics at the club, who were less than impressed by his ball skills when he appeared in a trial game at St Bede's College, the headquarters of the Lancashire FA, in 1950.

In all honesty, Foulkes, too, harboured his own doubts, which is why he insisted on enlisting as a part-timer when he was offered an Old Trafford contract in 1951. Thus he kept his job at Lea Green colliery near his home in St Helens, spending five days a week below ground, heaving trucks of coal which had slipped from the track back on to the rails, and training with United on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

It was back-breaking labour at the coalface, but Bill was a fitness fanatic who relished the task, and he was still a pitman - albeit by now a trainee assistant manager - when he was called into Matt Busby's office in December 1952 to be informed that he was to make his senior debut at right- back the next day against Liverpool at Anfield.

Though he was nursing a sore ankle, he concealed the injury, desperate to grab the opportunity even though his direct opponent would be the Merseysiders' magnificent Scottish international flankman Billy Liddell. In the event, the formidably pacy Liddell opened the scoring after 10 minutes, but the feisty Foulkes refused to be cowed, settling to meet the challenge and eventually shining so brightly in a 2-1 victory that he was retained for the next game.

After that his ankle ballooned and he missed the remainder of the campaign, but he had laid down a significant marker and in 1953/54 he displaced Tommy McNulty to claim the no.2 shirt on a regular basis.

Such was Foulkes' consistent excellence in Busby's refreshing young team that, while still spending most of his working hours at the bottom of a pit-shaft, he was rewarded with what was to prove his only full England call- up, to face Northern Ireland in October 1954. Only after completing a Lea Green shift did he sail for Belfast to join his fellow internationals, then performed with customary competence in a 2-0 win before re-crossing the Irish Sea to resume his double life, an unimaginable scenario today.

Having thus far resisted Busby's repetitive entreaties to become a full-time footballer, not least because he was making more money from mining than he was from the game, Bill relented in mid-decade, just as the Babes as a unit were evolving from precocious rookies into serial high-achievers. Captained by left-back Roger Byrne, and featuring the stellar likes of wing-halves Eddie Colman and Duncan Edwards, and marksmen Tommy Taylor, Dennis Viollet and Billy Whelan, United romped away with the league titles of 1955/56 and 1956/57 and lost the '57 FA Cup final to Aston Villa only after being reduced to 10 men for most of the match when goalkeeper Ray Wood suffered a controversial injury.

In addition, with Bill an automatic selection at right-back, they had blazed a British trail into Europe, bowing only to the incomparable Real Madrid in the semi-final of the European Cup in 1957, then reaching the last four again in February 1958.

That was when calamity overtook Manchester United. Twenty-three people lost their lives at Munich, including eight players, while two more were so fearfully maimed that they never competed again. Foulkes climbed from the wreckage of the crashed plane, physically unharmed but bearing mental scars that would never leave him.

Less than two weeks later he was back in action, skippering a patchwork United side on an emotional rollercoaster ride which, against all odds, culminated in another FA Cup final, which was lost to Bolton Wanderers.

Thereafter Busby, who had escaped only narrowly with his own life, set about rebuilding his decimated team. Soon Foulkes, who quickly relinquished the captaincy as he wasn't ready for it, was switched to his preferred position of centre-half, where he looked twice the performer he had ever been as a flank defender.

Invariably facing the play with majestic composure instead of having to twist and turn against elusive touchline tricksters, he became one of the most dominant stoppers in the land, virtually unbeatable in the air, eye-wateringly ferocious in the tackle and intelligent in his reading of the action.

In this pivotal role he helped to collect the FA Cup in 1963 and then, forming an outstanding partnership with the diminutive but fearsomely combative and equally astute Nobby Stiles, he was rarely absent as league titles were secured in 1965 and '67.

That he was never called to his country's colours as a central defender can be explained only by his veteran status, having reached his mid-30s when he became a champion for the fourth time. However, that lack of recognition appears all the more perverse in view of his enduring influence as United - so fittingly in view of all that had gone before - went on to become the first English winners of the European Cup in 1968.

Despite a debilitating knee injury which would have finished the careers of less resolute characters, Bill was a back-line bulwark throughout most of that term, yet it was as an opportunist hitman late in the second leg of the semi-final at the Bernabeu that he made his most sensational contribution.

With the aggregate score at 3-3 after a United fightback, George Best danced down the right touchline and pulled the ball across the box. Bobby Charlton, Brian Kidd, maybe Johnny Aston might have been on the end of it, but it was Bill, who rarely left his own half, who astounded his team- mates by surging forward to slot home with a clinical efficiency that even the absent Denis Law could not have bettered.

Still more climactically, in the final against Benfica at Wembley, the indomitable 36-year-old gave one of his most combatively effective displays, subduing the towering Portuguese target man Jose Torres, whose complaints to the referee about the calf lacerations inflicted by Bill as he repeatedly climbed above him fell on deaf ears. True, Torres escaped for one fleeting moment, in which he set up Benfica's late equaliser, but it was the heroic Foulkes who prevailed, United running out 4-1 victors after extra time.

Thereafter, Bill made only a handful more senior appearances, fundamentally helping out when younger men earmarked to replace him had been found wanting, before concentrating on coaching, first at Old Trafford, and then successfully in the United States, Norway and Japan.

Bill Foulkes, a devoted family man not enamoured of hectic socialising, was never dripping in stardust; but he was a loyal, supremely dedicated, vastly proficient professional - and he was a winner.

[fajrinited]

ManUtd 25/11/2013

Sir Alex's tribute to Bill Foulkes

Sir Alex Ferguson has expressed his respect for Manchester United legend Bill Foulkes, who passed away in the early hours of Monday morning.

The former United manager, now a club director and ambassador, says that Foulkes was a topic of conversation between himself and Sir Bobby Charlton only yesterday.

"I was very sad to hear the news," Sir Alex told ManUtd.com. "Bobby and I were talking about Bill yesterday on the way down to Cardiff. He was a really nice man and a great servant to the club, too.

“When I first came in as manager, Bill was managing in Norway and he used to bring players over to training at the Cliff. He came to training quite a lot and I got to know him well through that. He was such a nice, quiet man to know.”

Having risen up from the coal mines to the peak of European football with United, via the tragedy and turmoil of surviving the Munich air disaster, Bill’s place in club folklore is set in stone.

The defender captained a hastily-assembled United side less than a fortnight after Munich and, Sir Alex says, that courage made him a beacon during the Reds’ darkest hour.

“The story of his life was absolutely incredible,” he said, “and he’s assured of his place in our history by his appearances and by the way he performed, particularly in the aftermath of the Munich air disaster.

“Having gone through that, how he and Harry Gregg managed to perform a couple of weeks later, leading those young lads out against Sheffield Wednesday – and winning the game - was absolutely incredible. He was an exceptional man.”

[fajrinited]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ7gsrGCQAEZ0H3.jpg
Foulkes ke 4 dari kanan. Pict saat semifinal Bernabeu


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ7hDmqCQAECFJW.jpg
Sir Matt Busby dan Bill Foulkes saat perayaan Champion 1968


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ7jGoJCIAAdjxN.jpg
Bill Foulkes dengan The Busby Babes. Dia barisan belakang, dua dari kiri


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ7jn6GCIAA9LW_.jpg
(Kiri ke kanan)Wilf McGuinness, Bill Foulkes, Mark Jones, Eddie Colman dan Ray Wood.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ7kzUrCAAAVDDj.jpg
Foulkes dan Harry Gregg saat menjenguk Kenny Morgans di Munich


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ7m5xjCEAErXCX.jpg
Foulkes memimpin skuad masuk ke lapangan pada laga pertama setelah tragedi Munich..

[Aso Chrisjefta]

R.I.P Bill Foulkes #Legend (http://www.unitedindonesia.org/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=Legend)

[Redsbusby]

Gw ga terlalu ngerti kisah perjalanan Foulkes, dan mungkin di waktu senggang gw coba mengenal lebih deket lg. Yang pasti namanya udah ga familiar lg karena sbg salah satu yg selamat di tragedi munich..

RIP, Legend! Always be Remembered!

[troy andreas]

Bill Foulkes, 1932 - 2013

Born: 5 January 1932
Signed for United: 1 March 1950
United debut: v Liverpool, 13 December 1952
Appearances: 688 | Goals: 9

Honours: League Championship 1956, 1957, 1965, 1967, FA Cup 1963, European Cup 1968

http://www.manutd.com/sitecore/shell/~/media/F27910EB0E28469B848F898FCCFF1CDF.ashx?h=359&la=ar-SA&w=240&rgn=112,2,1320,1809


http://www.manutd.com/~/media/D0CE0A28B2254B29A4C20613BA2B542A.ashx?mw=500

http://www.manutd.com/~/media/A6756CF99D9A40CEA9F4FC7FC4844DBC.ashx?mw=500

http://www.manutd.com/~/media/55562523138E45E98910532D001B9C77.ashx?mw=500

Bill follows Jimmy Murphy ahead of the FA Cup Final at Wembley in 1958.
http://www.manutd.com/~/media/6C8AF42278F14B99B11A873D21ABEFB5.ashx?mw=500

Bill training solo at Old Trafford in 1960.
http://www.manutd.com/~/media/A0F6F602BD704C40A431E8BC215FCBBC.ashx?mw=500

http://www.manutd.com/~/media/DC2BD4C6EF3C4B94A9BD98050C9452B9.ashx?mw=500

Bill meets Prince Philip before the 1963 FA Cup Final.
http://www.manutd.com/~/media/313221C7FDBF4DA181F0BC836ADA686F.ashx?mw=500

Bill and the lads salute the 1967 league title triumph.
http://www.manutd.com/~/media/DBCDEBF8DBC34A3DB97783AF879E6A9F.ashx?mw=500

[unreal]

RIP our legend
slamat jalan
gbu

[Andi Istiabudi]

TRIBUTE TO UNITED STALWART BILL FOULKES

Two years ago, Manchester United lost one of the giants of the club's illustrious history when Bill Foulkes passed away at the age of 81.

Only three players - Ryan Giggs, Sir Bobby Charlton, Paul Scholes - have made more appearances for the Reds than the Munich survivor won four league titles, the FA Cup and the European Cup. Sir Alex Ferguson described him as an "exceptional man" while Sir Bobby feels simply he is a "hero"...

As a footballer and as a man, Bill Foulkes defined the strong, silent type. Undemonstrative, implacable, near-metronomically reliable and utterly ruthless in the execution of his job, he was a key cornerstone of the Manchester United rearguard for more than a decade and a half, selected more times by Matt Busby than any other player during his managerial reign.

Even the exuberantly ungovernable talents of Duncan Edwards and Charlton, Denis Law and George Best, the acknowledged icons of Busby's glittering empire in the 1950s and 1960s, needed a solid platform from which to unfurl, and that's where Foulkes came in.

Seldom did he garner headlines of his own - though he made a glorious exception one heady night in Madrid when he fired the Reds into the final of the European Cup - but the Old Trafford boss, a master at blending disparate individuals into a compelling whole, recognised the incalculable worth of the whipcord-tough ex-miner to the United cause.

Together they collected two league titles when Bill was still a young man learning the game as part of the legendary Babes, a tag of which Busby, incidentally, was not unduly fond. They both survived the Munich catastrophe of 1958, then were at the heart of a painstaking reconstruction process which led to FA Cup triumph, two more league championships and, the ultimate achievement, the lifting of the European crown 10 years on from the tragedy.

Along the way the modest, taciturn Lancastrian shattered the United appearance record previously held by between-the-wars marksman Joe Spence, an outcome that frankly astonished certain sceptics at the club, who were less than impressed by his ball skills when he appeared in a trial game at St Bede's College, the headquarters of the Lancashire FA, in 1950.

ANFIELD DEBUT

In all honesty, Foulkes, too, harboured his own doubts, which is why he insisted on enlisting as a part-timer when he was offered an Old Trafford contract in 1951. Thus he kept his job at Lea Green colliery near his home in St Helens, spending five days a week below ground, heaving trucks of coal which had slipped from the track back on to the rails, and training with United on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

It was back-breaking labour at the coalface, but Bill was a fitness fanatic who relished the task, and he was still a pitman - albeit by now a trainee assistant manager - when he was called into Matt Busby's office in December 1952 to be informed that he was to make his senior debut at right-back the next day against Liverpool at Anfield.

Though he was nursing a sore ankle, he concealed the injury, desperate to grab the opportunity even though his direct opponent would be the Merseysiders' magnificent Scottish international flankman Billy Liddell. In the event, the formidably pacy Liddell opened the scoring after 10 minutes, but the feisty Foulkes refused to be cowed, settling to meet the challenge and eventually shining so brightly in a 2-1 victory that he was retained for the next game.

After that his ankle ballooned and he missed the remainder of the campaign, but he had laid down a significant marker and in 1953/54 he displaced Tommy McNulty to claim the no.2 shirt on a regular basis.

ENGLAND CALL

Such was Foulkes' consistent excellence in Busby's refreshing young team that, while still spending most of his working hours at the bottom of a pit-shaft, he was rewarded with what was to prove his only full England call-up, to face Northern Ireland in October 1954. Only after completing a Lea Green shift did he sail for Belfast to join his fellow internationals, then performed with customary competence in a 2-0 win before re-crossing the Irish Sea to resume his double life, an unimaginable scenario today.

Having thus far resisted Busby's repetitive entreaties to become a full-time footballer, not least because he was making more money from mining than he was from the game, Bill relented in mid-decade, just as the Babes as a unit were evolving from precocious rookies into serial high-achievers.

Captained by left-back Roger Byrne, and featuring the stellar likes of wing-halves Eddie Colman and Duncan Edwards, and marksmen Tommy Taylor, Dennis Viollet and Billy Whelan, United romped away with the league titles of 1955/56 and 1956/57 and lost the '57 FA Cup final to Aston Villa only after being reduced to 10 men for most of the match when goalkeeper Ray Wood suffered a controversial injury.

MUNICH DISASTER

In addition, with Bill an automatic selection at right-back, the Reds had marched boldly into Europe, bowing only to the incomparable Real Madrid in the semi-final of the European Cup in 1957, then reaching the last four again in February 1958.

That was when calamity overtook Manchester United.

Twenty-three people lost their lives at Munich, including eight players, while two more were so fearfully maimed that they never competed again. Foulkes climbed from the wreckage of the crashed plane, physically unharmed but bearing mental scars that would never leave him.

Less than two weeks later, he was back in action, skippering a patchwork United side on an emotional rollercoaster ride which, against all odds, culminated in another FA Cup final, which was lost to Bolton Wanderers.

Thereafter Busby, who had escaped only narrowly with his own life, set about rebuilding his decimated team. Soon Foulkes, who quickly relinquished the captaincy as he wasn't ready for it, was switched to his preferred position of centre-half, where he looked twice the performer he had ever been as a flank defender.

Invariably facing the play with majestic composure instead of having to twist and turn against elusive touchline tricksters, he became one of the most dominant stoppers in the land, virtually unbeatable in the air, eye-wateringly ferocious in the tackle and intelligent in his reading of the action.

TROPHY HAUL

In this pivotal role, Foulkes helped to collect the FA Cup in 1963 and then, forming an outstanding partnership with the diminutive but fearsomely combative and equally astute Nobby Stiles, he was rarely absent as league titles were secured in 1965 and 1967.

That he was never called to his country's colours as a central defender can be explained only by his veteran status, having reached his mid-30s when he became a champion for the fourth time. However, that lack of recognition appears all the more perverse in view of his enduring influence as United - so fittingly in view of all that had gone before - went on to become the first English winners of the European Cup in 1968.

EUROPEAN HERO

Despite a debilitating knee injury which would have finished the careers of less resolute characters, Bill was a back-line bulwark throughout most of that term, yet it was as an opportunist hitman late in the second leg of the semi-final at the Bernabeu that he made his most sensational contribution.

With the aggregate score at 3-3 after a United fightback, George Best danced down the right touchline and pulled the ball across the box. Bobby Charlton, Brian Kidd, maybe Johnny Aston might have been on the end of it, but it was Bill, who rarely left his own half, who astounded his team-mates by surging forward to slot home with a clinical efficiency that even the absent Denis Law could not have bettered.

Still more climactically, in the final against Benfica at Wembley, the indomitable 36-year-old gave one of his most combatively effective displays, subduing the towering Portuguese target man Jose Torres, whose complaints to the referee about the calf lacerations inflicted by Bill as he repeatedly climbed above him fell on deaf ears. True, Torres escaped for one fleeting moment, in which he set up Benfica's late equaliser, but it was the heroic Foulkes who prevailed, United running out 4-1 victors after extra time.

Thereafter, Bill made only a handful more senior appearances, fundamentally helping out when younger men earmarked to replace him had been found wanting, before concentrating on coaching, first at Old Trafford, and then successfully in the United States, Norway and Japan.

Bill Foulkes, a devoted family man not enamoured of hectic socialising, was never dripping in stardust; but he was a loyal, supremely dedicated, vastly proficient professional - and he was a winner.

http://www.manutd.com

[Andi Istiabudi]

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