There are two things that former England striker Trevor Francis will be associated with.
One is the fact he became Britain's first £1million footballer when Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough signed him from Birmingham City in 1979 and the fact he featured in the theme tune on the closing credits for the TV sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
However, there is a third factor that is often overlooked when it comes to Francis, who was born in Plymouth in 1954, namely the fact that he is arguably the finest talent ever to emerge from Devon and the South West.
Even more remarkably, he never played his club football in the region.
After first emerging as a young talent with Plymouth Schools, it was Birmingham City who would secure the signature of Francis. He made his debut for the Blues at the age of 16 years and 139 days, becoming their youngest ever player - a record he would hold until it was beaten by Jude Bellingham in 2019.
Francis soon made the footballing world sit up and take notice of him when he netted four goals against Bolton Wanderers when he was just short of his 17th birthday. He went on to score 119 goals in 280 games for Birmingham and even had a loan spell in the NASL (North American Soccer League) before a certain Mr Clough signed him for Nottingham Forest for the well documented fee he has become synonymous with.
Forest had just won the League title and the League Cup and were looking to add the European Cup to their silverware collection. At the time of his arrival at the City Ground, Francis wasn't eligible to play for Forest until the final, where they faced Swedish side Malmo in Munich. His first taste of European football proved to be a memorable one, as he headed home a cross from the left from John Robertson to score the game's only goal to secure a first European Cup for Clough's side.
Francis missed Forest's second European Cup triumph against Hamburg in 1980 through injury and later left the City Ground in 1981 to join Manchester City for £1.2 million. His form for City earned him a call-up to Ron Greenwood's England squad for the 1982 World Cup and was on target in their group games with Czechoslovakia and Kuwait. He would be capped 52 times by England and scored 12 goals.
His next move saw him head abroad as he moved to Italy to join Genoa based Sampdoria for £700,000. In the 1984-85, Francis helped Il Doria to win the Coppa Italia for the first time ever and he would also end the campaign as the competition's leading scorer with nine goals in 11 games- becoming the first English player to finish as the top scorer in any Italian competition.
One of his teammates in that Sampdoria side was former Liverpool and Scotland midfielder Graeme Souness, and his next move would see him become one of the many Englishman who Souness signed for Glasgow Rangers during the time when English clubs were banned from playing in Europe due to the Heysel ban on his return to Britain in 1987, following a brief spell with Atalanta.
He later returned to England to sign for Queens Park Rangers in 1988, and he later became player-manager of the West London side. His stay at Loftus Road only lasted for just over a year until he was dismissed and replaced by Don Howe.
Francis then joined Sheffield Wednesday as a player under Ron Atkinson and he helped the Owls to win the Rumbelows Cup in 1991 and promotion back to the top-flight in the 1990-91 season.
Following Atkinson's departure for Aston Villa in the summer of 1991, Francis was appointed manager of Wednesday and led them to a third-placed finish in the 'old' First Division in the 1991-92 campaign - prior to the formation of the Premier League in 1992-93.
He then memorably led them to the finals of the Coca-Cola Cup and the FA Cup in 1993, where they were beaten by Arsenal on both occasions.
Francis eventually retired from playing at the age of 40 and remained in charge at Hillsborough until his dismissal in 1995. A year later, he returned to St Andrews to become manager of Birmingham City. Whilst he never managed to lead the Blues back to the top-flight, he did manage to guide them to the Worthington Cup final in 2001, where they lost on penalties to Gerard Houllier's Liverpool before he was sacked in the October of that year.
His final managerial role saw him manage Crystal Palace between November 2001 and October 2003.
He later worked as a pundit for Sky Sports and BT Sport and he died recently of a heart attack at the age of 69.
