He was born in the Woodside area of Dudley, West Midlands, 1 Malvern Crescent, but spent most of his childhood living in the Priory neighborhood of the same town, 31 Elm Road. He starred in the school soccer teams at both Priory Primary School and Wolverhampton Street High School, and in 1950 Duncan Edwards Jr. was recruited to the England Schoolboys team and immediately attracted the attention of the big clubs. Joe Mercer, the England Schoolboys coach, recommended Edwards to Matt Busby, saying that he thought the kid "would make it". So Busby sent his trusted chief scout, Joe Armstrong, to check out Edwards. 10 minutes was enough, and Armstrong came back and suggested that Busby make a trip to Dudley himself. A week later, Busby went, and later told Jimmy Murphy that United could never afford to miss Edwards. Two years later, on October 1, 1951, United signed him on his 16th birthday.
United were not the only club interested in Edwards. Earthquakes club Wolverhampton Wanderers - also one of England's leading clubs in the early 1950s and for several years thereafter - also wanted to sign Edwards But Edwards was always looking forward to playing for United, so when the opportunity presented itself, he couldn't turn it down. He made his debut for United against Cardiff City on April 4, 1953, making him the youngest player to play in England's First Division at the time, and made his England debut for Scotland on April 2, 1955, at the age of 18 years and 183 days, a post-war record for England's youngest international. The record stood for 43 years until it was broken by Michael Owen in 1998, and then twice more by Wayne Rooney and more recently Theo Walcott. Edwards has made 175 appearances for Manchester United, scoring 21 goals, and 18 appearances for England, scoring five goals. He could play anywhere on the field, but is best remembered for his performances at the back. He is seen by many as the best player to ever emerge for England and we don't know if having him would have given England more World Cups, but there is no doubt he would have helped that.
Edwards helped the club win two consecutive First Division titles in 1955 and 1956 as United qualified to compete for the European Cup. But the English Football Association was reluctant to allow its own team to play in the competition and banned the previous champions, Chelsea, from European Cup matches. Head coach Busby ignored the FA's ban and trained his team aggressively and took them to the Europa League. The Manchester United team attracted the attention of various countries as soon as it appeared on the European stage. On the one hand, it may be due to the courage of its owner who dared to challenge his country's FA; on the other hand, it is the team's level that is superior to others. Manchester United managed to impressively beat the Belgian champions 12:0. The United team took advantage of the victory, and then pulled down the Dortmund team, but lost to Real Madrid in the semi-final with 3:5. Real Madrid finally killed the final, won the championship.
The 1958 European Cup, Manchester United team all the way to triumph, they won two rivals in the quarter-finals, and finally face the Red Star Belgrade. In the home game, United won 2:1. February 5 after the move to Belgrade, Edwards and his teammates with the conviction of victory into the green field, he did not know that this is his last game, let alone know that death is creeping up on him. As always, he scrambled around the field. The fans chanted Duncan's name and cheered him on. As fate would have it, they played Red Star Belgrade to a 3:3 draw away from home, and went on to the semifinals, where they would compete with Italian champions AC Milan for a place in the final. But they have no chance.
February 6, 1958, is a day that will be remembered fondly in the history of English soccer, a day when Manchester United met with unprecedented disaster. The plane they were flying in was accelerating on the runway for takeoff when the ground was so slippery that it lost its center of gravity and slid into the guardrail next to the airport. One wing was knocked off, the tail was torn off, the plane was torn apart, and bodies were scattered all over the ground. 21 people lost their lives in this disaster, and 7 of them, including Edwards, were seriously injured. The United team at the time was the mainstay of the England national team, with superb players like Edwards and Charlton, the backbone of the team that won the World Cup for England, the progenitor of modern soccer. But unfortunately the future England king Edwards was so badly injured that he stopped breathing shortly after being hospitalized. Bobby Charlton, a survivor of the Munich crash and a rebuilder of the Manchester United team, once said with emotion: If I could find one person to play soccer with me for the rest of my life, it would be Duncan Edwards. The survivor of the crash, manager Busby began a difficult rebuilding. 10 years later when he led the team to finally reach the European Cup Championships, Busby was in tears, he said the shadow of the Munich crash has been lingering for 10 years, and now he can wash away the dust left by that disaster, and comfort Edwards and other generation of heroes of the spirit of the heavens.
To this day, many photos of Edwards still hang in the United clubhouse. He wears a typical 1950s parted hair and a red V-shaped sports shirt. Edwards, who left the world at the age of 21, still holds a place in the BBC's list of the top 100 world soccer stars of the last century, ranking 59th on the list of the 100 celebrities who influenced world soccer.
Duncan Edwards totaled **** 177 appearances for Manchester United, scoring 21 goals, and 21 appearances for the England national team in just a few years as a professional player. He died after a heroic 15-day fight for his life following the air crash and was later buried in Dudley Cemetery. A street in Dudley is named after Edwards. Edwards has been commemorated in several ways in his home town.In 1961 Matt Busby placed a stained glass window made of depictions of the player's appearances in St Francis' Church in the Abbey village.In 1999 Bobby Charlton and Edwards' mother erected a bronze statue in the center of the town.A cul-de-sac near the Housing Association's headquarters, close to the graveyard where Edwards is buried, was named in 1993 as "Duncan Edwards Road". The Abbey Village near Raine's Nest pub, where Edwards grew up, was renamed 'Duncan Edwards' in tribute to him in 2001, but was closed five years later after being damaged by arson, and in 2006 a ￡100,000 amusement ride was opened in the Abbey Park, where Edwards used to play as a boy. In 2008, the bypass south of Dudley was renamed Duncan Edwards Way.
Edwards' time has been praised for his abilities. Bobby Charlton described him as "the only player who made him feel inferior" and said his departure was "one of the greatest tragedies that United and English soccer have ever known". Terry Venables added: "If he had lived, it would have been Edwards who captained the 1966 World Cup, not Bobby Moore." Tommy Doherty agreed: "There is no doubt in my mind that Duncan would have been the greatest player of all time. Not only in British soccer, or Manchester United and England, but the best in the world." According to George Best, "Pele and Diego Maradona were very special players though in my mind Duncan has a better all round ability and skill set." In 2002, England's King Edwards was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame due to his footballing talents. Physically, he was tremendous. He was strong and possessed a fantastic soccer brain. His ability was perfect - right foot, left foot, long and short passes. He did everything instinctively. He does everything instinctively. -- Bobby Charlton
Although, he played mainly at the back, Edwards was thought to be able to play anywhere on the pitch, and on one occasion he played as an emergency striker in the opener because a striker was injured, and then changed to center back. His greatest assets were his physical ability and his power on the pitch, and so was said to be going to be an excellent young player, and he had particularly improved his stamina]. Stanley Matthews described him as "a rock in a sea of fury", while Bobby Moore, while comparing him to the Rock of Gibraltar in defense, also noted that he was "a driving force for the future". His size has earned him the nicknames "Big Dunc" and "The Tank" and he is often voted the most indomitable player in the game.
Edwards was also considered a forceful and well-timed defender, while his passing and goal-scoring abilities with both feet were equally impressive. He was also known for his emotional presence on the pitch, his ability to head the ball and his powerful shots from distance, and was nicknamed Boom Boom by the local press for his howitzer-like shots after he scored a goal against West Germany in 1956. 0 0 0 0 25 0
Man Utd 1954-55 33 6 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 6
Man Utd 1955-56 33 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 33 3
Man Utd 1956-57 34 5 6 1 7 0 1 0 0 48 6
Man United 1957-58 26 6 2 0 5 0 1 0 34 6
Man United Career Totals 151 20 12 1 12 02 0 177 21
Season On Goals
1954-55 4 0
1955 -56 5 1
1956-57 6 3
1957-58 3 1
CAREER TOTAL 18 5 Edwards was a decidedly abstinent alcoholic, and outside of soccer he was known as a very reclusive man whose interests included fishing, playing poker and going to the movies. He has attended dances with his teammates, though he has never been confident in a social setting. He was described by Jimmy Murphy He was described by Jimmy Murphy as an "unspoilt boy" and retained a heavy Black Country accent, which his teammates would imitate to lighten up the situation. On one occasion he was stopped by the police for riding a bike without lights and was fined five shillings and two weeks' wages by the authorities and the club.
Before Edwards died, he was living in Canary Blossom Avenue, Stretford. He had been engaged to Molly Leech, who worked at the age of 22 in the textile machinery manufacturers' office in Altrincham. The couple, who met at a party at a hotel at Manchester Airport and became engaged after a year of dating, are also godparents to the daughter of Molly Leech's friend Josephine Stott .
Edwards also appeared in an advertisement for glucose tablets and wrote a book called Tackle Soccer This Way, a commercial effort that paid him ￡15 a week during the season and ￡12 a week in the summer. After Edwards' death, his family gave permission for the book to be published, and with the book being re-released in November 2009 after being out of print for many years.