Pioneering England black player Regis dies at 59
Print Edition
Cyrille Regis, a pioneer for black soccer players in England who endured racist abuse while forging a career with West Bromwich Albion and playing for England, has died. He was 59.
The death was announced on the Twitter accounts of the Professional Footballers’ Association and the West Brom Former Players’ Association, which said he died on Sunday after a heart attack. The PFA tweeted that Regis was “a true gentleman and legend, he will be deeply missed.”
The Stellar Group, where Regis worked as an agent after retiring, called the former forward a “role model to his young clients.”
Born in French Guiana in 1958, Regis moved to London with his family when he was 5. He did not come through the youth ranks with a professional soccer club and was spotted playing for non-league teams around London.
West Brom signed Regis in May 1977 for 5,000 pounds. He made a spectacular debut a few month later, scoring twice in a League Cup match against Rotherham.
Along with Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson, Regis was part of a trio of black players at West Brom nicknamed by manager Ron Atkinson as “The Three Degrees” — after an American singing group of three black women — at a time when English soccer was blighted by racism.
A statute of the trio called “The Celebration” was unveiled at West Brom four years ago. Regis told the BBC in 2013, “We were part of that first generation of black players in this country.”
He was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1978. Regis made his England debut in 1982 and went on to make five appearances.
He scored 112 times in 297 appearances for West Brom before moving to Coventry in 1984. A playing career that also included stints at Aston Villa and Wolverhampton ended in 1996.
With newspapers publishing reports of an imminent call-up for England, Regis received an anonymous letter, sent to the club’s ground, The Hawthorns. In cut-out letters from old newspapers, it said, “If you put your foot on our Wembley turf, you’ll get one of these through your knees.”
Inside the envelope was a bullet.
“The letter soon got binned, but I kept the bullet as a reminder of the force of anger and evil some people had inside them back then,” Regis said in his autobiography ‘My Story.’
“For the rest of my playing days, it was also a motivation, a reminder that these people were not going to stop me,” said Regis, whose role as a pioneer for black players in the game remained a source of deep satisfaction.
As a player, Regis stood out for his powerful performances at center forward and his former manager Atkinson believes he should have had more recognition by his country.
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