The reason why Mark Noble has been invited to attend Sir Bobby Charlton's funeral

Mark Noble will be among the host of footballers past and present in attendance for Sir Bobby Charlton's funeral.

The life of Manchester United and England legend Charlton, who died last month at the age of 86, will be celebrated at Manchester Cathedral on Monday afternoon.

It's expected over 1000 guests will be in attendance, and more will line the streets of Manchester as his funeral procession takes place.

Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News has tweeted a list of attendees from the world of football.

Current United players Tom Heaton, Luke Shaw, Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire will be in attendance, in addition to club legend and former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Most of United's squad are absent due to international duty, as is manager Erik ten Hag, although Maguire and Evans will join up with the England and Northern Ireland camps later this week.

Representatives from other clubs are on the list, including Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano and Real Madrid's Director of Institutional Relations, Emilio Butragueno.

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Included on that is West Ham United icon Mark Noble, who made 550 appearances for the Hammers across an 18-year career before retiring in 2022.

During that time, Noble captained West Ham to Europa Conference League glory and earned the moniker 'Mr. West Ham.

He'll be representing the club at Charlton's funeral, as he's been the club's sporting director since January.

When asked about the importance of his role in an interview with the Evening Standard earlier this year, Noble said: "In this role, I’ve found a real affection for working with the academy, and trying to get as many players into the first team as we can.

"The boy Chelsea signed from Benfica [Enzo Fernandez] went there for €15 million and Chelsea had to spend £105 million-plus for him.

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"It just shows you that recruiting young players is getting harder and harder. You need a Declan Rice from the academy, because we can’t spend that amount on a player, that’s for sure.

"It’s so important to bring the young boys through, because any young English player who plays in the Premier League all of a sudden has a £30 million price tag and, for us, that’s fantastic.

"And it’s nice to know at some point we might not have to spend loads of money if we can bring players through."