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Andy Cole Leads Tributes To His "Hero" And "The Reason I Wanted To Play Football"

Andy Cole Leads Tributes To His "Hero" And "The Reason I Wanted To Play Football"
Arthur James O'Dea
By Arthur James O'Dea
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He may played for nearly 20 years in England's top flight, appeared five times for England, and won an FA Cup with Coventry City, yet, the untimely passing of Cyrille Regis (59) has aroused enormous sympathy for a man who "helped to pave a way for black footballers" in England.

Former Manchester United forward Andy Cole summed up succinctly a feeling that was shared amongst many of his peers this morning.

"The man behind the reason I wanted to play football", Cole, 13 years Regis' junior, grew up at a time when the prevalence of racism in English football was fierce.

Only the third black player to appear in the England jersey after Viv Anderson and Laurie Cunningham. That Regis' international debut came only a few years after Anderson made the initial breakthrough, his importance to the desegregation of the national side has not been overestimated or overlooked.

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Cole is by no means alone in celebrating the importance of Regis for black footballers that emerged in his wake.

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A "hero", "icon" and "legend" who "started the dream" for many young footballers, Regis' courage in the face of racial adversity has scarcely been forgotten.

Awarded an MBE in 2008 and voted West Bromwich Albion's all-time cult hero, as well as the crucial work he did in aid of normalising the presence of black footballers in English football or an English jersey, many figures from the world of football, past and present, have been keen to commend his incredible talents as a footballer also.

Keeping this in mind, the BBC drew from their archive just a snippet of his footballing ability in this video from his West Brom days.

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