Few players are ever afforded the honour of being
universally known by their first name. But mention the name Cyrille and
everyone knew who you meant. A man who united all, whether you supported his
club or not, you admired him for his strength, desire, determination and
courage.
These were the late seventies and early eighties when
football fans could still relate to the players they watched every Saturday.
These weren’t too far from the days when Tom Finney used to travel with
supporters on the bus to matches. These were the days when you could’ve played
against a player as a kid, who then made it as a professional footballer. We
lived through our heroes then, they were us. We dreamed about being them, we
pretended to be them in our kick-a-bouts in the street. We mimicked their
posture, their peculiarities, their mannerisms, their celebrations.
This was when players were all different, there were tall
ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones, bald ones, ginger ones, lazy ones and
those faster than the proverbial off a shovel. Players could be plucked from
non-league or just the lower leagues and turn out for the big boys and we it
helped fuel the belief the dream was possible for all of us.
They were us. We were them, and we loved them for it.
Sure we had clubs we hated, our rivals, those we despised.
But more often we admired other clubs and other players. Down the years some
have transcended rivalry, have fought through bigotry to be roared on by fans
from all sides.
Cyrille did that.
Born in French Guiana, a French territory on the South
American mainland, in February 1958, Cyrille came to England in 1963. Cousin of
John Regis, the 200 metre record holder, he trained as an electrician when he
left school and then at the age of eighteen he joined Molesey in Surrey. A year
later he moved to Hayes and this was where he was spotted by former West
Bromwich Albion legend and now Chief Scout, Ronnie Allen. He encouraged the
club to take a punt on the youngster, although they baulked at the four figure
sum being suggested. Allen was so certain Regis would make it that he offered
money from his own pocket to get the deal done. In May 1977 Regis joined West
Brom for the princely sum of £5,000. By way of comparison, a couple of months
later Liverpool broke the British transfer record when they signed Kenny
Dalglish to replace Kevin Keegan for £440,000.
Allen then took over as manager at The Hawthorns when Johnny
Giles resigned. Regis scored on his debut for the reserves and so Allen threw
him into the first team for the League Cup game against Rotherham United in
August 1977. He scored twice in a 4-0 win. He earned a starting place against
Middlesbrough the following weekend, and scored again.
The goal? Well, it was to become his calling card, his
blueprint. If you ever watch highlights of his goals so many are like this.
He picked the ball up near the halfway line, ran towards the
penalty area and unleashed an unstoppable shot past Northern Ireland
international goalkeeper, Jim Platt.
It was a goal just like this which was voted goal of the
season for the 1981-82 season against Norwich. Norwich played the ball forward
into the Albion half and centre-back, Ally Robertson, knocks it back into the
Norwich half where Cyrille has dropped back to take the ball on his chest. He
his almost on the edge of the centre-circle with his back to goal. The ball
drops to his feet and he turns tightly to leave one defender floundering. You
then have the hilarious sight of another Norwich defender trying desperately to
get hold of Cyrille in a manner reminiscent of Lilliput people trying to grab
Gulliver. Cyrille is now away and driving towards the Norwich defence, those
legs pumping, the crowd roaring him on. Thirty yards out he looks up, sets
himself and unleashes a fearsome drive which roars into the top corner of the
net.
These days many a player can fire a shot from that far out
as the balls and the boots have changed. But back in these days the balls are
heavier, the pitch muddier and less chance of a sweet strike. But Cyrille
larrups it to such an extent that if this was a park kickabout, you’d need to
take a couple of bus rides to fetch it. You can tell from his teammates
reaction they’d seen it all before and that was just Big Cyrille.
Cyrille was an imposing figure. Many teams had big strikers,
or “the big number nine” as they were known, but few as mobile or as fast as
Cyrille. He had huge thighs and he would just run at defenders in a way which
left you believing he would need the fans on the terraces behind the goal to
move aside just so he had room to slow down to a stop. Defenders would bounce
off him, be left in his wake, floundering to reclaim whatever glimmer of
self-respect may be left.
But perhaps more importantly for the time, Cyrille broke
boundaries. When he signed for West Brom there had never been a black player
represent England at full level, although his teammate Laurie Cunningham, was
capped by the Under-21 team a month before. Viv Anderson finally broke into the
full side in November 1978. Cyrille became the third black player to represent
England when he came on as substitute against Northern Ireland in February
1982. He would never complete a full ninety minutes for his country, winning
just five caps at a time when there were plenty of strikers to choose from.
Maybe this enhanced his cult status. Records are littered with players
supporters rated who successive England managers did not.
At West Brom manager Ron Atkinson was building a team which
would take on the might of Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the First
Division. Along with Regis and Cunningham he had a young right-back, Brendon
Batson. The three of them would become known as The Three Degrees, a popular
black female singing group. They were undoubtedly an inspiration for many young
black kids who had believed the world of professional football was not for
them, would not welcome them.
December 1978 at Old Trafford they unveiled their own brand
of champagne football, or samba football as they embarrassed their hosts in a
5-3 win. Cunningham graced either wing, Tony Brown buzzed, harassed all day in
midfield and above it all was Big Cyrille. He scored the fifth but shortly
before that he lashed a left foot shot first time from outside the area which
rattled the post. The fifth was typical of the game. United had resorted to
trying to kick lumps out of these young upstarts who should’ve known better
than showboat at their manor. The ball is down by the West Brom right corner
flag when Ally Robertson nicks it off Steve Coppell. The ball runs to
Cunningham who just turns and runs and runs and runs into the United half. He
slows down then passes the ball forward to Ally Brown in the inside right
position. Brown turns inside then plays a lovely weighted pass for Regis who is
now thundering forward like a juggernaut. United captain , Martin Buchan, has
given up the chase by now and Regis meets the ball first time eight yards out and
without breaking stride he fires it into the roof of the net.
I can remember listening to Sports Report on Radio Two sometime
in late 1979 when West Brom had won and they announced that the club had gone
to the top of the First Division for the first time in their history. Atkinson
had built a wonderfully attractive young side with the likes of Regis,
Cunningham, Robson, Statham, Batson, Owen along with more mature and wily
knowledge of Wile, Robertson and the two Browns. They never won anything, with
an FA Cup Semi-Final in 1978 being the peak. After finishing third in the
League in 1979 they also reached the UEFA Cup Quarter-Finals.
Cyrille brushed off racist abuse like he brushed off
defenders when he was marauding towards goal. When he was called up for England
for the first time he was sent a bullet in the post. Undaunted this just made
him more determined to make something of himself and prove the haters wrong,
and boy did he. “I kept it as a reminder of the evil some people had inside
them. For the rest of my playing days it was a motivation that they weren’t
going to stop me”.
After seven years, two hundred and thirty three appearance
and eighty two goals, Cyrille moved to Coventry City where he played almost as
many games. His crowning glory was the FA Cup win in 1987. Twelve goals in that
season earned him a surprise recall to the England squad as Bobby Robson gave
him one last hurrah against Turkey. Unfortunately Cyrille never found the net
for his country but this didn’t diminish his legend one bit.
In the summer of 1991 he moved to another Midlands club,
Aston Villa where he played two seasons before ending his career at Wolves,
Wycombe and finally Chester City. It was a career which spanned almost twenty
years, with plenty of memories and many inspirations.
15th January 2018 it was announced Cyrille had
died from a heart attack, a month short of his sixtieth birthday. The tributes
have poured in.
Jacqui Oatley, journalist and presenter
There are not many West Brom legends who could walk through
the door at Wolves and be idolised from day one. Such was the respect that
Cyrille Regis commanded. Revered in the West Midlands and way beyond
Pat Murphy, journalist and broadcaster
In all my decades of covering Midlands football, there has
been no figure more admired and loved among we reporters than Cyrille Regis. He
scored goals we dreamed of while lying in the bath, routed the racists,
respected the fans – and smiled.
Players such as Dion Dublin, Shaka Hislop and Mark Bright
were equally reverent in their acknowledgment of the inspiration of the man and
how he was the reason they went into football.
In 2008 Cyrille was awarded an MBE for his services to
football and charity.
It is very difficult to accurately put into words the mark
this man made, but rest assured if you choose to look up his record, his
moments, his career, you will not be disappointed.
This tournament was one of the most remarkable in living
memory.No one remembers the football,
which was pitiful at best, but they all remember Denmark.They hadn’t originally qualified for the
finals, but thanks to a bit of bother in the Balkans, they were called up and
they won the whole thing.
This was the ninth European Championships, and Sweden were
the hosts.After the qualification
campaign, there were some big political changes which had a major effect on the
participants.
A civil war had broken out in Yugoslavia, which would
eventually lead to the forming of several new countries.The United Nations had imposed economic and cultural
sanctions on the country and so UEFA was duty bound to ban them from taking
part in the finals.From a football
point of view this was a disappointment as they had put together one of the
best sides in their history.But it
opened to door for Denmark, who had finished just 1pt behind the Yugoslavs in
their qualifying group.What was amazing
about this is that UEFA’s decision only came with just 10 days to go before the
start of the tournament.The draw for
the groups had already been made and now England, France and Sweden had to
prepare for different opponents.The
other major change involved the break-up of the Soviet Union.Instead of representing USSR as they had in
all the previous tournaments, eleven of the fifteen ex-republics formed a team
under the banner of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).This team selected players from Russia,
Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Moldova and Tajikistan.
The eight qualifiers were split into two groups with the top
two in each group going through to the Semi-Final stage.
GROUP A:Sweden, England, Denmark, France
GROUP B:
Netherlands, Scotland, CIS, Germany
Just four stadiums were used
GROUP A
10 June 1992,
Rasunda Stadium, Solna, 29,860
SWEDEN(1)1(Eriksson 24)
FRANCE(0)1(Papin 58)
Sweden: Ravelli; Nilsson, Eriksson, P
Andersson, Bjorklund; Ingesson, Thern, Schwarz, Limpar; Brolin, K Andersson
(Dahlin)
The tournament
kicked off in Stockholm with the hosts up against 1984 winners, France.The French, coached by Michel Platini who
captained their 1984 triumph, were in a state of transition, and the Swedes
believed they had nothing to lose.France
had the better of the opening exchanges without registering many shots on
target. Then after twenty four minutes the Swedes had a corner on their left
and defender Jan Eriksson rose to head, virtually unchallenged, to put the
hosts in front.Just before the break
the French had a great shout for a penalty turned down when Eriksson wrestled
Papin to the ground but the referee obviously decided that sort of contact was
fair.A tournament’s popularity often
hinges on the hosts success, and Sweden held their lead until just before the
hour.Substitute Christian Perez played
a lovely diagonal ball from just inside his own half over the Swedish defence
for Papin the run onto.The prolific
Papin headed it forward and then fired an unstoppable shot past Ravelli to
level things up.Instead of pushing on
from there, the French failed to really trouble the Swedes and both sides
seemed happy to take a point.
11 June 1992,
Malmo Stadium, Malmo, 26,385
DENMARK(0)0
ENGLAND(0)0
Denmark: Schmeichel; Sivebaek, Nielsen, L
Olsen, Andersen; Christofte, Jensen, Vilfort; B Laurdup, Poulsen, Christensen
The 1990 had
been notable for the negativity of the football it contained.This tournament would continue in this vein,
starting with this match in Malmo.England’s preparation was hampered by late injuries to John Barnes and
Gary Stevens.This left Graham Taylor’s
plans in tatters as he didn’t have a recognised right-back for the match.To everyone’s surprise he gave the job to
Keith Curle.Curle, a central defender
at Man City, had only made his debut as a sub against CIS in April and here he
was starting a game in a major international tournament, out of position.
Denmark
failed to work on a potential weakness, in fact we never discovered if either
side had any weaknesses as there were so few attacks.The game ended goalless and the group was
all-square after the opening round of matches.
England were
again in Malmo for their second game, against the group favourites France.Neither side wanted to make a mistake and the
game will probably be remembered for two incidents, both involving Stuart
Pearce.The first occurred in England’s
penalty area as they cleared the ball, French defender Basil Boli elbowed
Pearce in the face.The referee failed
to spot it, although the blood dripping from Pearce could hardly hide it.Moments later, Pearce struck one of his
famous thunderous free-kicks from about thirty yards out and it rattled the
crossbar.That was it, and now both
teams would need to win their final matches to progress.
Denmark: Schmeichel; Sivebaek, Nielsen, L
Olsen, Andersen; Christofte, Jensen (H Larsen), Vilfort; B Laudrup, Poulsen,
Christensen (Frank)
In contrast
to the dross served up so far, this game was really entertaining.You wouldn’t have thought so by the
scoreline, but both teams really went at each other.Sweden had the better attacking options, in
Brolin, Andersson and Dahlin and their attacks started to have a real energy
about them.The Danes gave as good as
they got too, but on fifty eight minutes Brolin finished off another bright
move for Sweden and they turned out to be the only goal of the game.The Swedes were now hopeful of winning the
group, whereas the Danes had been happy to make up the numbers but could they
really beat France to go through?
In Stockholm,
England needed to beat Sweden to be certain of progressing to the
Semi-Finals.They could still go through
if they drew 2-2 as long as the France v Denmark ended goalless.England had yet to score in the tournament,
but just four minutes in David Platt converted a cross from the left and they
were off and running.England were still
leading at half-time and relatively comfortable.The second half, though, was a completely
different experience.Sweden came out
all guns blazing and their free-flowing attacking football gradually made the
England defence more and more jittery.Jan Eriksson headed in the equaliser just six minutes after the
break.Ten minutes later came the moment
few England fans will ever forget.With
England needing to score again, manager Graham Taylor decided he needed to take
off Gary Lineker (80 caps, 48 goals) and replace him with Arsenal’s Alan Smith
(13 caps, 2 goals).It was a gamble that
backfired, Sweden scored next and neither Lineker or Smith ever played for
England again.Graham Taylor never
managed England to a major tournament again.With eight minutes to go, Ingesson, Dahlin and Brolin just passed the
ball past the English defence and Brolin finished the move to give Sweden
another win.
Denmark: Schmeichel; Sivebaek, Nielsen
(Piechnik), L Olsen, Andersen; Christofte, Jensen, Larsen; B Laudrup, Frank
(Elstrup), Poulsen
The French
needed to win this game, although a draw would be enough as long as they scored
as many goals as England.As with their
opening match against Sweden, France created the most early on yet conceded
first.Denmark, possibly playing with
the freedom of a side who thought this could be their last game, were first out
of the traps when they took the lead in the opening ten minutes through Henrik
Larsen.Denmark still lead at the break
and still looked on top even though Papin equalised on the hour.Cantona crossed from the right to the far
edge of the area, where Fernandez controlled the ball on his chest and instead
of playing it back into the box, as he shaped to do, he backhealed it to Papin
who curled a beautiful shot past Schmeichel to equalise.At this stage, France were going through with
Sweden.With twelve minutes to go, Lars
Elstrup banged Denmark back in front and now the French were worried.Denmark didn’t let go of their grip of the
game and with the Swedes beating England, the two Scandinavian teams went
through.From a side that thought they
were getting the summer off, Denmark were now through to the Semis.
GROUP B
12 June 1992,
Ullevi, Gothenburg, 35,720
NETHERLANDS(0)1(Bergkamp 75)
SCOTLAND(0)0
Netherlands:
van Breukelen; van Aerle, R Koeman, Rijkaard, van Tiggelen; Wouters (Jonk),
Roy, Witschge, Gullit; Bergkamp (Winter), van Basten
In
Gothenburg, Netherlands set about defending their trophy against Scotland.Expected to brush the Scots aside,
Netherlands struggled to keep control of the match.Both sides had chances but it was the holders
who got the all important goal as Dennis Bergkamp prodded his shot past Andy
Goram.The goal came with fifteen
minutes to go, and it may have seemed tough on the Scots, who had given a good
account of themselves, but it was just what the Dutch wanted.
12 June 1992,
Idrottsparken, Norrkoping, 17,410
CIS(0)1(Dobrovolski 64 pen)
GERMANY(0)1(Hassler 90)
CIS: Kharine; Chernyshov, O Kuznetsov, Tsveiba; Kanchelskis,
Shalimov (Onopko), Dobrovolski, Mikhailychenko, Lyutyi (Ivanov); D Kuznetsov,
Kolyvanov
In Norrkoping
World Champions, Germany, were up against a CIS side who probably weren’t that
different from any side representing USSR.In the first half, Rudi Voller broke his arm attempting to foul one of
the CIS players, but the half-time score was 0-0.CIS then broke the deadlock as Igor
Dobrovolski converted a penalty after he was fouled.CIS looked as if they might pull off a major
shock, but a free-kick to Germany in the 90th minute, saw Thomas
Hassler equalise to give the Germans a point.
After their
decent performance against the European Champions, Scotland moved onto the
World Champions.Germany, managed by
Bertie Vogts, took the lead after twenty nine minutes through Karl-Heinz Riedle,
who would later play for Fulham and Liverpool.Just into the second half and Stefan Effenberg’s cross hits Malpas and goes
in and Germany were now 2-0 up.Scotland
couldn’t find a way back into the game and were now preparing to go home.
15 June 1986,
Ullevi, Gothenburg, 34,400
NETHERLANDS(0)0
CIS(0)0
Netherlands: van Breukelen; van Aerle, R Koeman,
Rijkaard, van Tiggelen; Wouters, Roy, Witschge, Gullit (van’t Schip); Bergkamp
(Viscaal), van Basten
In
Gothenburg, CIS set their stall out for a draw and got exactly what they were
after.It was a dangerous gamble as even
victory over the Scots in their final game would not guaranteed their
progress.Nethelands had the better of
the chances but Dmitri Kharin was in great form in the CIS goal.Netherlands now just needed a draw against
Germany to go into the Semis.
Since meeting
in the World Cup Final in 1974, these two had met four times in major
tournaments. They met each other in the
1980 and 1988 Euros, winning one each.This time the Dutch were in good form.Frank Rijkaard put them in front after just two minutes.After fifteen minutes, Robert Witschge scored
direct from a free-kick and the Dutch were 2-0 up. Klinsmann got a goal back for Germany just
into the second half, but the Dutch were rarely troubled and Bergkamp scored
their third in the 72nd minute.The Germans now had to rely on CIS not beating Scotland
The CIS had
gambled on being defensive and gaining draws against the Dutch and Germans,
relying on their confidence in being able to beat Scotland.The Scots were already out but in this game
they provided their finest football.Paul McStay put them in front after seven minutes and then ten minutes
later Brian McClair doubled the lead.They rounded the victory off when Gary McAllister scored from the
penalty spot and Scotland could, once again, go home from a tournament early
but with their heads held high.For CIS
this was the last time they played as a unified country.
Sweden were
buoyed by the Germans defeat against Netherlands, but soon realised how
injuries had weakened them that day.Back to full strength, the Germans put on the style.Thomas Hassler scored another trade-mark
free-kick.Riedle then made it 2-0 after
59 minutes and the game seemed to have been won.Brolin converted a penalty for Sweden just
five minutes later, but they were still being overrun in midfield.Two minutes from time, Riedle grabbed his second
goal of the game and Germany now dreamed of a World Cup/European Championship
double as they had achieved in the ‘70’s.Kennet Andersson headed another goal back for the home side, but unfortunately
for the Stockholm crowd they couldn’t force extra time.Germany were now in their third major final
in the last four competitions and were looking like favourites.For Sweden, they had produced one of their
finest tournament performances ever.
22 June 1988,
Ullevi, Gothenburg, 37,450
NETHERLANDS(1)2(Bergkamp 23,
Rijkaard 86)
DENMARK(2)2(Larsen 5, 33)
Denmark won
5-4 on penalties
Netherlands: van Breukelen; van Tiggelen, R
Koeman, Rijkaard, F de Boer (Kieft); Wouters, Roy (van’t Schip), Witschge, Gullit;
van Basten, Bergkamp
Denmark: Schmeichel; Sivebaek, Piechnik, L
Olsen,, Andersen (Christiansen); Christofte, Jensen, Vilfort, Larsen; B Laudrup
(Elstrup), Poulsen
Penalties
Netherlands: Koeman, van
Basten, Bergkamp, Rijkaard, Witschge
The Dutch
were now very confident of retaining their trophy, especially as they were up
against Denmark who had, had their bags packed since they lost to Sweden.The Danes shouldn’t have even been there, so
they could hardly want to get to the final more than the Dutch, could they?
Brian Laudrup’s
cross from the right wing was headed in by Henrik Larsen at the back post and
Denmark were in front in the opening five minutes.Bergkamp then equalised almost twenty minutes
later.Witschge chipped the ball into
the area where Gullit headed it back to Bergkamp on the edge of the area and he
fired his shot past Schmeichel.But the
Danes came back just ten minutes later when Vilfort crossed from the left to
Laudrup who headed back where Ronald Koeman’s poor headed clearance fell
straight to Larsen to beat van Breukelen again.Denmark lead at half-time and were largely untroubled during the second
half too.With just four minutes to go,
Frank Rijkaard finally equalised for Netherlands when the Danes failed to clear
a corner to take the game into extra-time.The Dutch were so close to going out, but now they had thirty minutes to
try and win the game.They couldn’t make
any further inroads, the Danes hung on and we now had the lottery of a
shootout.
Ronald Koeman
was first up for the Dutch and he scored.Larsen also made no mistake.Up
stepped Marco van Basten, top scorer four years earlier but without a goal this
time round.His shot was saved by Peter
Schmeichel.Poulsen scored for Denmark
and they now held the advantage.Bergkamp, Rijkaard and Witschge all scored the Netherlands, as did
Elstrup and Vilfort.It then fell to Kim
Christofte to put the Danes into the final and he didn’t miss.Against all odds possible, Denmark had
reached the European Championship Final.They had deserved their place too, as they certainly weren’t outplayed
by the holders and could now continue their amazing fairytale.
EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
26 June 1992,
Ullevi, Gothenburg, 37,800
DENMARK(1)2(Jensen 18,
Vilfort 78)
GERMANY(0)0
Denmark: Schmeichel; Sivebaek (Christiansen),
L Olsen, Piechnik, Nielsen; Christofte, Jensen, Vilfort, Larsen; B Laudrup,
Poulsen
Apocryphal
stories had the Danes on the beach at the beginning of June.Whether that’s true or not is not certain,
but they cannot have been preparing for what they were now involved in, when
their seasons ended in May.Germany were
overwhelming favourites.They fully
expected to add the European Championship to their World Cup trophy from Italia
’90.Germany created several chances in
the opening twenty minutes, but it was Denmark who opened the scoring.John Jensen scored it, only his second ever goal
for the national side.1-0 to Denmark at
the break, and people around Europe were starting to contemplate whether it
really could happen.The second half
just became more and more frustrating for the Germans as you could visibly see
them getting desperate and the Danes growing in confidence.The Germans always an aura around them as if
they were lucky, and while the gap was only one goal, there was always the
prospect of them getting back into it.That hope well and truly faded in the 78th minute when Kim
Vilfort shot Denmark into a 2-0 lead and the miracle had happened.
CONCLUSION
One of the
most remarkable stories of international football and the sort of thing only
thought possible in books or movies, Denmark had turned up for a party they
weren’t originally invited to, and walked off with the ‘best dressed’
prize.They probably had their bags
packed after their second match but the fairytale just went on and on.To add to the image of fantasy, Kim Vilfort,
who scored the winning goal, had just come back from visiting his daughter who
was ill with leukaemia.They also did it
without one of the best players in Europe at the time, Michael Laudrup.
Denmark had
probably had better, more talented teams during the ‘80’s than this one, but
somehow this was just meant to be.It
was their time.They were average
against a poor England side in their opening game, played well and lost to the
Swedes and then it just turned for them.The Germans were stunned, they later admitted to being too complacent
about their chances.The Dutch played
their best football against Germany, but seemed to freeze against the
Danes.The Swedish players did their
country proud too, in a group they were not expecting to get out of.
Scotland also
can be proud of their efforts, ultimately in vain, and CIS lacked a decent
goalscorer as they could’ve at least tried to have a go in their early matches.
But it was England and France who had most to regret about their tournament
performances which contained almost no high points at all.
