3 Sir Bobby Charlton

758 appearances, 249 goals

3 League titles, 1 FA Cup, 1 European Cup, 4 Charity Shields

1 Ballon d’Or

And now, we enter the realm of players who most often get named as the club’s best ever. That Sir Bobby features at 3rd in this list tells you how fierce the competition is.

Charlton is Mr Manchester United. His story is the greatest in English football, and possibly world football.

A Busby Babe, a winner of three FA Youth Cups, First Division Champion, Munich Survivor, FA Cup winner, World Cup winner and European Cup winner. It is one of the most extraordinary stories in sport. How could someone recover from the burning wreckage of a plane disaster to score 2 goals in a European Cup Final a decade later?

How does someone find the strength and the character to do it?

Charlton was an immense talent; somewhat like Beckham, a result of hard work and dedication on the training pitch. A fine passer, an intelligent playmaker and of course the owner of one of the most powerful shots in football, Sir Bobby became the attacking talent Sir Matt Busby built his post-Munich side around.

Charlton scored on his debut against his namesake club; his early positions were inside forward and outside left, and it was not until the latter stages of his career where he reinvented himself into a midfield superstar. It was from this position where he earned his greatest accolades and won the greatest trophies of his career.