Mel Charles

Melvyn Charles (14 May 1935 – 24 September 2016) was a Welsh international footballer.

Charles played as both a centre-half and centre-forward, with his preferred position being at right-half.

Throughout the 1950s Swansea were an attacking team, and during his time at Vetch Field Charles picked up four goals in a match against Blackburn Rovers, as well as hat-tricks against Stoke City, Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday.

Charles offered to work at a second job to remain at Swansea with their strict wage limit of £14 a week, but this was not permitted, and instead he put in a transfer request.

He employed Neil Harris to act as his 'business manager' in his pending transfer move, thereby making him the first ever agent in the English game.

In one of his last games for the club, he helped Swansea record their first ever league win over rivals Cardiff City at Ninian Park.

After a short stint on the Leeds United ground staff, he turned professional with his local club, Swansea Town, in 1952.

His debut came at Bramall Lane on 20 December 1952, in what turned out to be a 7–1 defeat to Sheffield United.

However, his progress was halted when he twisted his knee on national service, though this injury came as he was messing around outside the cook house rather than on parade or in the 9th Battalion's march to the Army Cup.

He went straight back into the first team upon his recovery, and he was played mostly at centre-half, or in his preferred position at right-half.

He spent seven seasons with the "Swans" from 1952 to 1959, all of which ended with Swansea finishing between tenth and twentieth.

They consistently picked up results at Vetch Field, but failed to perform away from home.

He remained in the first XI under Ron Burgess, who was appointed manager following McCandless' death in July 1955.

During this time they also reached the final of the Welsh Cup in 1956 and 1957, though lost out to Cardiff City and then Wrexham.

A cash-strapped club, their cause was not helped by the fact that the directors refused to pay for overnight stays, and so many times the team's coach would appear outside the opposition's ground just minutes before the match.

Swansea were a selling a club, and during his time Ivor and Len Allchurch, Cliff Jones, and Terry Medwin would all be sold to big English clubs.

Including Charles, these five players all represented Wales at the World Cup.

Jones' brother Bryn also played for Swansea, as did Cyril and Gilbert Beech; this meant three sets of brothers played for the "Swans" during this time, in what was an extremely local squad.

This was at the time the highest ever transfer between two British clubs as Juventus had paid Leeds United £65,000 for John Charles in 1957.

Aiming to use him as a centre forward, Arsenal manager George Swindin and captain Tommy Docherty managed to persuade Charles to take the move, and as Charles was convinced by the Arsenal men, Tottenham decided to withdraw their offer.

He captained Wales at international level whom he represented at the 1958 FIFA World Cup.

Charles also went his whole career without being booked or sent off.

He also competed in eight British Home Championships, and became only the third Welshman to score four goals in a game when he scored all the goals in a 4–0 win over Northern Ireland.

In total he earned 31 senior caps, in addition to one under-23 cap, and he scored six full international goals.

Growing up in a poor family in the Cwmbwrla district of Swansea alongside elder brother John and three other siblings, the brothers grew up on Alice Street in Swansea, being neighbours of fellow future Welsh internationals Ernie Jones, Mel Nurse, and Jackie Roberts.

John and Mel Charles seemed destined to begin their careers at local club Swansea Town.

However, manager Billy McCandless was unwilling to test youngsters in the unforgiving waters of the Third Division South, so the boys were not signed up to the club.

This proved costly to Swansea, and the result was that John signed with Leeds United, and fourteen-year-old Mel also followed him to Elland Road to become one of the ground staff.

Despite fitting in well at the club, he was unable to settle in Leeds; due to his poor background he was unable to afford trips back to Wales to visit his family and he was also illiterate so could not write home.

After a young apprentice, also from Swansea, failed to impress at Leeds, manager Major Frank Buckley asked Charles to accompany him on the trip back to his hometown.

However, due to his homesickness, Charles never returned to Yorkshire once he made it back to Swansea.

Instead Swansea Town scout Joe Sykes persuaded Charles to join the club's ground staff.

He was offered a professional contract with Swansea Town at the age of seventeen, and he immediately settled into the Second Division side.

He spent seven years in the Second Division with the club, before he won a £42,750 move to First Division Arsenal in March 1959.

Chased by Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, Charles was eventually sold to Arsenal in March 1959 for a fee of £42,750 with two other players, David Dodson and Peter Davies, going the other way.

His three seasons at the club were plagued by injury, and in February 1962 he was sold on to Cardiff City for a £28,500 fee.

He spent three years with Cardiff, winning the Welsh Cup in 1964, his only domestic honour, before he joined Porthmadog in the Welsh League in 1965.

He spent a brief period in the Fourth Division with Port Vale in the 1966–67 season, before he returned to Welsh football with Oswestry Town.

He joined Haverfordwest in 1967, where he spent five years before he retired from the game.

He scored a total of 122 goals in 401 league and cup games in the Football League.