Flowers rest on a seat in honor of Sir Bobby Charlton is seen prior the Champions League group A soccer match between Manchester United and Copenhagen at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. Manchester United and England soccer great Bobby Charlton has died at the age of 86. He was an English soccer icon who survived a plane crash that decimated a United team destined for greatness to become the heartbeat of his country's 1966 World Cup-winning team. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Flowers rest on a seat in honor of Sir Bobby Charlton is seen prior the Champions League group A soccer match between Manchester United and Copenhagen at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. Manchester United and England soccer great Bobby Charlton has died at the age of 86. He was an English soccer icon who survived a plane crash that decimated a United team destined for greatness to become the heartbeat of his country's 1966 World Cup-winning team. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — A lone piper playing the tune to the Manchester United anthem “We’ll Never Die” provided a moving soundtrack inside Old Trafford on Tuesday to the latest tributes to club great Bobby Charlton following his death at the age of 86.
The piper led out United manager Erik ten Hag, Charlton’s former teammate Alex Stepney, and United youth-team captain Dan Gore onto the field ahead of United’s Champions League match against FC Copenhagen. They laid a wreath in the center circle before an impeccably observed minute’s silence.
Another rendition of “There’s only one Bobby Charlton” then swirled around the stadium to applause as fans paid their respects to one of England’s World Cup winners from 1966 who is widely considered United’s greatest player.
A separate wreath, meanwhile, had been placed on Charlton’s seat in the directors’ box in the stands.
The piper’s tune was a tribute to the victims of the Munich plane crash in 1958 which killed eight members of the “Busby Babes” United team that was packed with bright prospects. Charlton miraculously emerged from the smoldering wreckage with only light head injuries and picked his way through the wreckage to help survivors.
Charlton led the rebuild at United after the tragedy and was a star of the team that won the European Cup title in 1968, scoring the first and last goals in the final against Benfica.
United’s players wore black armbands for the first match held at Old Trafford since Charlton died on Saturday.
