Manchester United are in mourning following the passing of club legend, Sir Bobby Charlton.
The 1966 World Cup winner was announced to have passed away on Saturday afternoon, with Charlton having died peacefully in his sleep surrounded by family. An icon at Old Trafford, Charlton's playing days saw him enjoy a trophy laden career with Manchester United, who called him "a hero to millions, not just in Manchester, or the United Kingdom, but wherever football is played around the world."
Charlton's love for the club was clear for all to see, especially in the wake of United's success treble winning season back in 1999. That year, Sir Alex Ferguson's side hoisted the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League titles, a feat which was only matched last term by city rivals Manchester City.
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In the Champions League final, United produced a spectacular comeback against Bayern Munich, coming from a goal behind to claim a famous 2-1 win in Barcelona in injury-time. And in an interview conducted in 2000, Charlton described the feeling of watching United win the Champions League as being in "paradise."
"And we were playing against Bayern Munich and we were a goal down with two minutes to go and I thought if we can just get the ball into the box," began Charlton. "They can call it blind faith, call it what you want. But I thought if we can just get the ball in the box and get a goal, it'll give us that little bit of extra time – we'll win this still.
"I was convinced that we could win and the ball came across and because it was two minutes from the end, Peter Schmeichel, the goalkeeper came up and I don't know what it is about the Germans, you know they can be very orderly and disciplined but it threw them completely. They had all the plans for who they were going to mark but suddenly this great big blonde goalkeeper, this Dane came up and it threw them.
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"And then the ball fell to Teddy Sheringham and he didn't hit it well, but he hit it goalwards and then you see the back of the net, and I can't remember really, I remember apologising to some people in front of me for jumping over them, very important FIFA officials as well and then I sat back and tried to keep myself cool.
"But while I was actually thinking 'keep cool, keep cool', we got a corner. David Beckham knocks the ball across, Teddy Sheringham helps it on and, [Ole] Gunnar Solskjaer knocks the ball into the net.
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"And as the ball hits the net, for me it was as if the world stood still. I thought, this is paradise. This is what paradise is all about. It's got to be. And I honestly do not remember what I did for five minutes.
"I thought, there is nothing ever going to be better than this."
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