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RIP Cyrille Regis

Kids believe it or not there was a time when you could only see top soccer goals once a week. For...



RIP Cyrille Regis
Soccer

RIP Cyrille Regis

Kids believe it or not there was a time when you could only see top soccer goals once a week.

Forget getting goals to your phone just after they've been scored. At that time in the 80's before Sky and YouTube, you'd have to stay up late at night to see any.

And if you only had RTE 1 and two as opposed to fancy dan 'multichannel' households, you mightn't see any English soccer at all.

In that era a lad called Jimmy Hill was the king of the goals. And among the galaxy of stars that lived in that world was Cyrille Regis, the former West Brom and England forward, who has sadly died at what is now considered a young age of 59.

He scored 112 goals in 297 appearances for Albion before joining Coventry City for £250,000 in 1984. Considered a pioneer for black footballers in the game Regis eturned to West Brom as a coach before becoming a soccer agent.

The one time star forward, was voted West Brom's all time cult hero in a 2004 poll and became only the third black player to be capped by England at senior level after Viv Anderson and his friend, Laurie Cunningham.

The trio of Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson was nicknamed the Three Degrees by their then-manager Ron Atkinson, but were subjected to racist abuse from fans during the late 1970s.

They were honoured with a 10ft statue, called The Celebration, which was unveiled in West Bromwich in 2014. At the time, Regis said: "We were part of that first generation of black players and I'm sure that if you ask any second generation player they will tell you they were inspired by Laurie. That's why the statue will be so important." Cunningham died in a car crash in Spain in 1989.

Regis also scored 62 goals in 274 appearances for Coventry and was a crucial part of their FA Cup-winning side in 1987.

His picture on display at the Ricoh Arena as part of the club’s 30 greatest players since the War.

He retired from the game in October 1996. This is the kind of goal that kept young fellas up late at night.

Needless to say tributes have been pouring in.

 

 

 

Survived by his wife, Julia, Cyrille Regis died suddently of a heart attack. Everytime I hear those stories I'm reminded to remind others to get yourself checked out. Us fellas are generally very bad at doing that. RIP Cyrille.

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