Erling Haaland has broken a Premier League record but not Dixie Dean’s

T here is a statue on the perimeter of Goodison Park that commemorates the most prolific goalscorer England has ever produced. He scored 60 league goals in one season and, more than 40 years after his death, is still the yardstick against which all strikers are judged. That man is Dixie Dean.

William Ralph Dean was born in Birkenhead in January 1907. Although the nickname “Dixie” persisted throughout his career, he detested it and anybody careless enough to address him as Dixie was reminded his name was Bill. As a kid he was known as “Digsy” due to a street game of tag, which involved digging your fist into the back of somebody you had tagged. When he started playing for the Wirral railway company’s football team as a teenager, establishing a reputation as a goalscoring prodigy, local press reports referred to him as “Dixie” rather than “Digsy” and the name stuck.

Dean signed for his first club, Tranmere, in the summer of 1923. He made his full league debut against Rotherham but Tranmere lost 5-1 and he was soon back in the stiffs. It was here, the following month, that his league career nearly ended even before it had started. In February 1924, Dean played against Altrincham in the Cheshire Senior Cup. He scored two goals before his tormented marker warned him he would not score any more, delivering a carefully aimed kick between Dean’s legs. The pain was excruciating, he lost a testicle and his career was placed in jeopardy.

Years later Dean was in a bar in Chester when someone offered to buy him a drink. Dean recognised the man as Davy Parkes, who he believed was responsible for the loss of his testicle. As Dean told the story, he then laid his former opponent out with one punch. Revenge was sweet. Or was it?