Melvyn Charles (born 14 May 1935) is a Welsh former professional footballer. He played at both centre forward and centre half, and is the brother of John Charles and father of ex-footballer Jeremy Charles.

[edit] Club career

A native of Swansea, Charles started out at his local club Swansea Town, and between 1952 and 1959 he played over 250 first-team matches for the Second Division side.

Having become highly sought-after by the top clubs, like his brother, Charles was signed by Arsenal in March 1959 for £40,000 (plus two other players, David Dodson and Peter Davies, going the other way). He made his debut against Sheffield United on 22 August 1959, but a cartilage injury forced him to miss nearly half of the 1959-60 season. Injury continued to afflict him throughout 1960-61, requiring him to undergo two operations.

Charles finally got a regular run in the Arsenal side at the start of the 1961-62 season, playing up front in sixteen of Arsenal's first eighteen matches, scoring eleven goals. However, his form tailed off and he was replaced by up and coming youngster Geoff Strong midway through the season. In February 1962 he was sold to Cardiff City, having played just 64 matches in three seasons for Arsenal, scoring 28 goals.

Charles spent two seasons at Cardiff, playing 81 league matches before moving on to Porthmadog. He was bought by Port Vale for £1,250 and returned to the Football League in a 1-0 defeat at Crewe Alexandra on 3 February 1967. After six further games it was apparent he no longer had the fire-power Vale were hoping for and Charles returned to Wales on a free transfer to Oswestry Town in May 1967, later playing for Haverfordwest.^[1]

[edit] International career

Charles made his debut for Wales whilst with Swansea, and played in Wales' 1958 World Cup campaign, the only time they have reached the finals of the competition. In all he won 31 caps for his country and scored six goals, four of them coming against Northern Ireland in a match for the 1961 British Home Championship.^[2]

[edit] Post-retirement

Charles wrote an autobiography, published in early 2009.

[edit] Bibliography

• In the Shadow of a Giant (John Blake Publishing, 2009, ISBN 1844547760).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Stats at neilbrown site
• Interview With Mel Charles

v • d • e Wales squad – 1958 FIFA World Cup 1 Kelsey • 2 Williams • 3 Hopkins • 4 Sullivan • 5 M. Charles • 6 Bowen • 7 Medwin • 8 Hewitt • 9 J. Charles • 10 I. Allchurch • 11 C. Jones • 12 K. Jones • 13 Vearncombe • 14 Edwards • 15 C. Baker • 16 Crowe • 17 Leek • 18 Vernon • 19 Webster • 20 Elsworthy • 21 L. Allchurch • 22 T. Baker • Coach: Murphy