Trevor Francis Obituary

Trevor Francis Obituary – Trevor John Francis, an English footballer who played as a forward for clubs in England, the United States, Italy, Scotland, and Australia and is best known as Britain’s first £1 million player has died. Francis was born on 19 April 1954 and died on 24 July 2023 of a heart attack at the age of 69 at his home near Marbella, Spain.

Born in Plymouth, Devon, Francis was educated at Plymouth’s Public Secondary School for Boys and it was while there that he gained recognition as a gifted footballer. He was a very agile and skillful forward and joined Birmingham City when he was still in school.

Francis quickly rose through the ranks and made his debut for Birmingham City’s first team in 1970, aged just 16. He became the talk of the town before his 17th birthday after he scored four goals in a match against Bolton Wanderers. His first season at Birmingham ended with an impressive return of 15 goals in just 22 games.

In 1978 and still, at Birmingham, he successfully negotiated a secondment from Birmingham which allowed him to play for the Detroit Express in the North American Soccer League (NASL), where he scored 22 goals in 19 league matches and was named to the NASL first XI alongside Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia before returning home to the Midlands.

In 1979, he was purchased from Birmingham City by Nottingham Forest for just over £1 million — no player had ever been sold between English clubs for a seven-figure fee before (the erstwhile record was less than half).

At the time, Nottinghman was the reigning First Division champions and League Cup holders and was managed by Brian Clough.

Francis quickly proved worth the money after famously scoring the club’s winning goal against Swedish side Malmo in that season’s European Cup final, his back-post header from a John Robertson cross securing Forest’s first fairytale triumph in the competition. He was part of the squad when the club won the competition again the following year.

Francis spent only two years in total at Forest, also winning the European Super Cup against Barcelona in 1979.

Francis also played for Manchester City, Sampdoria, Atalanta, Rangers, QPR, and Sheffield Wednesday.

He represented England 52 times between 1976 and 1986, scoring 12 goals and appearing in the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

Francis retired at the age of 39 in 1994 and went on to coach Birmingham for five years, reaching the League Cup final in 2001. Between 2001 to 2003, he was the manager of Crystal Palace.

Source: abtc.ng