The Lost Babes

Book excerpt: The Manchester United team in the fifties seemed destined to dominate soccer for many years. The average age of the side that won the Championship in 1955-56 was just 22, the youngest ever to achieve such a feat. But then came February 6, 1958, the day that eight Manchester United players died on a German airfield—a date forever etched in the annals of sporting tragedy. Jeff Connor traces the rise of the greatest Manchester United side of all time, alongside a vibrant portrait of England in the 1950s, but he also paints a dark picture of a club that enriched itself on the myth of Munich while neglecting the families of the dead and the surviving players. Drawing on extensive interviews with the Munich victims and players of that era,The Lost Babesis the definitive account of British football's golden age, and a poignant story of the protracted effects of loss.