Full Name Duncan Edwards
Date of Birth 1st Oct 1936
Place of Birth Dudley,
Worcestershire
Position Half Back
Height 6ft 3
United debut 4/4/1953
vs Cardiff (H)
.....
Edwards´s United Record 1952-1958
Appearances Goals
League 151 20
FA Cup 12 1
League Cup n/a n/a
Europe 12 0
Total 175 21
Edwards´s International Record
1955-1958
18 Caps for England - 5 Goals
Honours with United
1st Div League Championship 1957
1st Div League Championship 1956
Could he have been the greatest red ever? The prodigious talent of Duncan Edwards was cruelly snatched away from the footballing world in 1958 when he was killed in the Munich air crash. However, not before he had established a reputation as one of the greatest players of his generation.
That he is rated above the likes of Charlton, Best and Law by many of the era is all the more amazing for he was just 21 years old when he died. Virtually anyone who saw him play rates him as their all-time number one. Edwards had immense physical strength coupled with superb ball control and touch.
His passing and tackling was perfect and his shooting was awe inspiring, in both power and accuracy. Not only that, in when it came to aerial battles he was fantastic at winning headers both defending and attacking. In short, Duncan Edwards was the complete player. Not only did the big Midlander possess the physical skills but his mental attitude was first class as well. Duncan had a fanatical practice regime which gave he used to maintain mastery of his technique. He had great awareness, was brave, committed and determined, yet always composed and sportsmanlike.
The great Bobby Charlton said "Duncan Edwards was the only player that made me feel inferior". Sir Matt Busby is once to have said that he believed Edwards was "the best player in the world", but he would never tell Edwards in case it unsettled him. He was world class when United had the ball and their best player when the opponents had it. At his favoured wing-half position Duncan lent steel to the defence and given half a chance would rampage into the attack with an unstoppable surging run.
Matt Busby heard of the "man-boy" playing for Wolves in 1949 and brought him to Old Trafford. Edwards began his United career in 1952, playing in the first team at the unheard-of age of 16 and within two years was playing for England. At 18 he was the youngest ever to play for England (until 1998) and managed to win 18 caps in a short space of time. Duncan helped United win two consecutive League titles in 1956 and 1957, a great achievement in an era were teams were evenly balanced and champions rarely regained their crown.
Edwards led United´s charge into Europe they stood on the verge of being the first British team to lift the European Cup and surely would, have had it not been for the tragedy at Munich. In his home town of Dudley he is commemorated in the stained-glass window of St Francis´s Church and in October 1999 a statue of Edwards, resplendent in his England kit, was unveiled in the town centre.
The question will always remain, what would have happened had Edwards not lost his life at only 21? He probably would have went on to be the most capped England player ever. At times a team in himself, this ultimate all-round player would have no doubt been up there with greats such as Pele, Beckenbauer, Cruyff and Best. The fact that he never did, and the world was so cruelly robbed of such a talent remains the saddest legacy of Munich. Today, in a different world to the 1950s, Giggs, Beckham, Rooney and co are the modern legends but anyone who saw Duncan Edwards play will tell you, he was better than them all, and that is saying something.
George Best 
traduit à merveille son regard mélancolique..
