After his return to the Leeds side in November 1951 Charles played at centre-forward and centre half. This prompted a debate as to where Charles should play in the team, but he remained at centre-half until the 1952–53 season. In October 1952, he was switched to Centre forward and immediately started to score, with 11 goals in 6 games. In 1955 he was appointed club captain and during the 1955–56 season Leeds won promotion to the first division with Charles in sparkling form scoring 29 goals in 42 appearances. In the following season Charles scored a new club top flight record tally of 38 goals in 40 league appearances as Leeds secured an 8th-place finish in the first division, before finally moving away from the club. His influence on Leeds' success during his final season was so strong, reporters nicknamed the club 'John Charles United'. In total he scored 150 league goals in eight years for Leeds, including a club record 42 goals in 39 appearances during the 1953–54 season. He remains the second highest all time goal scorer for Leeds after Peter Lorimer.