John Charles (1949–1966, Leeds United, Juventus)

John Charles was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002, he is a founding inductee.

John Charles (27 December 1931 – 21 February 2004) was a Welsh centre-forward and centre-half rated by many as the greatest all-round footballer produced in Great Britain.

Born in Swansea, he began his youth career with Swansea Town before joining Leeds United’s youth set-up in 1948 aged 17. John Charles made his Football League debut against Blackburn Rovers in April 1949.

Charles helped Leeds win promotion from the Second Division in 1955–56 and finished as the First Division’s top scorer in 1956–57, scoring 38 goals in 40 league matches.

In August 1957, Juventus signed him for a then British record fee of £65,000. Across five seasons in Turin, he scored 105 goals in 179 matches, winning three Serie A titles and two Coppa Italia trophies. He finished third in the 1959 Ballon d’Or voting and was voted Juventus’ greatest ever foreign player in the club’s 1997 centenary poll.

Charles won 38 caps for Wales, scoring 15 goals. At the 1958 World Cup, he scored against Hungary before injury ruled him out of the quarter-final defeat to Brazil. He was never cautioned or sent off throughout his entire career, earning the nickname Il Gigante Buono, The Gentle Giant.

John Charles – Rookie Cards and Significant Others

The 1951 Godfrey Phillips Ltd. Sports Cigarettes Footballers is widely regarded in the hobby as John Charles’ rookie card. This card was part of the cigarette packet and not an insert into the pack. Cards like these are often well worn compared to the equivalent insert. Cards from this set often have dots or small indents running vertical down the centre of the card.

However, it is contested that the1950 Daily Herald Footballers #12 is his actually true rookie. The Daily Herald was a major UK newspaper photocard issue; it is recognised with text varieties, including Bold Text, Normal Text and the addition of the word “Sportfoto”. The earliest series 1 includes the words “No.” before the player number.

Only the card with the number ‘No.” BEFORE THE CARD NUMBER is from 1950. If the card contains the text “Sportfoto,” then it is from 1952 or later. If the card doesn’t contain “No” or “Sportfoto”, this is from 1951.

This is thoroughly examined and explained in detail by Andrew Leitch in a 2021 article for The Cardboard Junkie.

The 1954 Barratt & Co. Famous Footballers (A2) #23 is one of the most widely collected UK trade card issues of the 1950s and a core Charles card from his Leeds years.

The 1958 Alifabolaget (Sweden) VM-spelare #647 is among his most iconic World Cup era cards, depicting Charles in a Wales shirt during the 1958 tournament in Sweden.

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The set is also notable for a well-documented photo mix-up in which cards #647 and #648 swap the images of John and his brother Mel Charles, making both variants of interest to collectors.

From 1957 onwards, Italian manufacturers produced Charles cards in considerable variety, reflecting his extraordinary status in Serie A.

The 1957–58 Nannina issues were among the first, followed by the 1958 Concorso Serie A trade card and the 1960–61 Gol Gigante set, which contains the first-ever Panini card of Charles.

His Italian issues represent a collecting category unlike almost any other British player of his generation.

See the 2002 Hall of Fame Inductees or browse the full list.