Trevor Francis: The ‘Super Boy’ who became Britain’s first £1million player

Trevor Francis was a footballer best known not for scoring in a European Cup final, earning 52 England appearances or later managing in major finals – all notable achievements – but for one of the game’s historical landmarks, as British football’s first £1million player.

In these days of £100million-plus fees, few now bat an eyelid at modest seven-figure moves but in 1979, when Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest smashed the British transfer record to sign Francis from Birmingham, the sum caused quite a stir.

Naturally Francis, who has died aged 69, felt he deserved to be remembered for much more, after a 34-year career in football that began in his prodigious teenage years and took him around the world, but he was nevertheless pleased to have his own unique place in the game’s history.

“I played professional football for 23 years until I was 39,” said Francis in an interview with The Guardian in 2019.

“I won European Cups with Nottingham Forest, I played 52 times over nine years for England, but whenever I go to a sporting occasion I’m always introduced as the first £1million footballer, as if that’s the only thing I achieved in my career.

“But do I feel proud of being the first £1million player? Absolutely.”

Trevor John Francis was born at 41 Morley Place in Plymouth on April 19, 1954. He was the son of Roy Francis, a shift foreman with the South West Gas Board, and his wife Phyllis. Francis was the eldest of three children, having a younger brother Ian and sister Carolyn.

His love of football was fostered at a young age by his father, who had played at semi-professional level. By the age of seven Francis was representing his school, Pennycross Primary, with boys at least two years older.

He went on to Plymouth Public