As one of Matt Busby’s celebrated “babes”, Freddie Goodwin was scheduled to play for Manchester United against Red Star Belgrade in Yugoslavia in February 1958.
A late change of selection led to another footballer taking his place. Geoff Bent, along with 22 other players, administrators, passengers, staff and journalists, died when the Elizabethan-class aircraft crashed during take-off at Munich on the return flight.
Like his friend Bobby Charlton, who survived the crash, Goodwin was part of the club’s revival, playing on through his grief, and ensuring in the months to come that Manchester United would field an XI worthy of their name.
The son of a worker in a power station, he was born in the town of Heywood near Manchester in 1933. As a youngster, he was also a promising cricketer and went on to represent Lancashire in the summer months, playing 11 first class matches. Ultimately, the lure of Manchester United was greater.
Goodwin signed for the club in 1953. As a wing half, he was a member of the title-winning squads in 1956 and 1957. He played in the club’s first match after the Munich crash, an FA Cup fifth round fixture against Sheffield Wednesday. He stayed in the team that progressed to the final at Wembley, where they lost 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers. Goodwin played in every game the season after.
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He was sold to Leeds United in 1960 and took his place in another emerging team under Don Revie.
The belief in blooding young players, espoused by Busby and Revie, informed Goodwin’s own approach to football management after a leg injury brought about his retirement as a player in 1964. He managed Scunthorpe United, Brighton and Birmingham. At the latter he gave a league debut to a 16-year-old Trevor Francis, who would go on to play more than 50 games for England.
Goodwin went on to become one of the first English managers in the North American Soccer League, where great players such as Bobby Moore and Pele had been enticed. He coached the New York Generals and the Minnesota Kicks.
He is survived by his wife Sylvia, a butcher’s daughter whom he met in a YMCA in Manchester, and by their two sons: Neil, a partner in an industrial equipment company in Minnesota, and Roger, an airline pilot. Their sister, Lynda, died at four months.
A few days before he died, Goodwin was shown a photograph of the Busby babes. Although his memory was fading, he recalled all the names. “That was a great team,” he sighed.
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Freddie Goodwin, footballer and manager, was born on June 28, 1933. He died of cancer on February 19, 2016, aged 82