The question persists after so many years. Had John Charles, who died at the age of 72 after a succession of illnesses, played against Brazil in the 1958 World Cup quarter-final, would Wales have beaten them, Pele and all? Charles, that mighty centre-forward, so majestic when the ball was in the air, so supremely skilled despite his huge 6ft 1in frame, missed that game through injury. Not to put too fine a point on it, he had been brutally and continually kicked by the Hungarians when Wales had beaten them in a playoff, in their previous game.

So when, in the early stages of that quarter-final, the ball more than once floated tantalisingly across the face of the Brazil goal, there was no John Charles — King Charles’s head, you might say — to do the final execution. Wales held out gallantly, not least John’s younger brother Mel at centre-half, but a fortuitous deflected goal by Pele — who called it the most important he had ever scored — put Brazil through.

Brazil, of course, subsequently won the World Cup for the first time in their history.

Charles was very much the father figure of the team. When they went out to a nightclub and the late Colin Webster confronted a waiter, Charles grabbed him and threatened: “If you hit him, Colin, I’ll throw you out of here.” Later, Webster clashed with the waiter again and butted him in the face. True to his word, Charles grabbed him and flung him down the steps of the club. There, Webster lay on the ground, looked up and protested: “I didn’t hit him, John, I headed him!” John Charles joined Swansea at the age of 15. Major Frank Buckley, famous manager of pre-war Wolves, by then managing Leeds United, lured him to Elland Road.

In 1950, still only 18, he became the youngest footballer to play for Wales, at centre-half against Northern Ireland at Wrexham. Alas, he had an unhappy game and would not gain a regular place for another three years.

In season 1952-53, Leeds, then in the Second Division, had the inspired notion of moving Charles up to centre-forward. His response was instant and prolific. He scored no fewer than 26 goals. The following season he had the astonishing record of 42 League goals in only 39 games.

In 1955-56, when Leeds at last won promotion to the First Division, he scored another 30 goals in 41 games. Nor did First Division defences find him any easier to stop than those of the Second. In 40 Championship matches, he scored 38 goals; and so to Italy.

In the summer of 1957 he joined Juventus for £65,000 and for the fans in Turin it was love at first sight. They christened him ll Gigante Buono, literally the Good Giant, though rendered in English as the Gentle Giant.

Charles reciprocated the affection shown him by the Juve fans. On one extraordinary occasion, a group of them gathered at night outside his home to celebrate him. He invited all of them in and brought up wine from his cellar.

Gianni Agnelli, grand patron of the club and head of Fiat, doted on Charles, who repaid him at once with a phenomenal first season in which Juve won the title, making light of the tighter marking in Italian football. He did not miss a single game, scoring 28 times in the 34 matches.

The following seasons saw him continue to score frequently, though never quite as heavily as in his first. He hit 19 goals in season 1958-59, 23 the one after that, followed by 15 and, in 1961-62, just eight in 21 games.

By that time the edge had gone off his game while not everything in those Italian years went as smoothly as on the field and his first marriage broke up when his wife Peggy left him.

In the summer of 1962, he was allowed to go back to Leeds, where all, alas, was anti-climax. He simply couldn’t settle after the adulation of Turin. Apprentices were surprised when he sent them out to get packets of cigarettes. After just 11 games in which he scored three times, Leeds sold him to Italy again, this time to Roma.

His second Italian act, alas, was ill-starred. He lost his place in the Roma team after a mere 10 games and four goals. For somewhat less than three seasons, he was back in Wales with Cardiff City, then became player-manager at non-League Hereford United.

The managerial life hardly suited his nonchalant ways. Once, when a journalist came to interview him on a Saturday, they were still talking when an anxious club official looked in to remind him that there were only five minutes to kick-off; and he was meant to be playing. Correspondence piled up unanswered. Attempts to run a pub foundered on his inherently casual ways. Yet whenever he went back to Turin he was treated as the idol he had always been there.

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