Cyrille Regis

Regis was born on 9 February 1958 in Maripasoula, French Guiana, the son of Robert Regis, a labourer from Saint Lucia and Mathilde Regis, a seamstress.[3][4] His father moved to England in 1962, with the rest of the family, including Cyrille, following a year later.[5] Cyrille grew up in Harlesden, located in the Borough of Brent, and attended Cardinal Hinsley Maths & Computing College.At primary school, Regis said that he was a much better cricketer than footballer. “I was an outdoor child. So I just wanted to play cricket outside, and I played much more cricket back then because football was just another sport I did without any real passion”.[6]

After leaving school, Regis trained as an electrician, earning a City and Guilds diploma; he continued to practise the trade until his move into professional football.[7] He was a cousin of the athlete John Regis.[8]

Regis's dual French and British nationality made him eligible to play for either the English or French national sides, but it was England that he chose to represent.[23] He made his England under-21 debut on 19 September 1978, in a 2–1 victory over the Denmark under-21s in Hvidovre.[1][24] His first England B game was a 1–0 win against Czechoslovakia B in Prague on 28 November 1978.[2] He played in two further matches for the B team in 1980.[2][25] He scored his first goal for the England under-21s on 5 June 1979, in a 3–1 away win against Bulgaria.[1] The result helped England reach the latter stages of the 1980 European Championship, although it was the only one out of six qualifying matches in which Regis participated. He played in the away legs of both the quarter-final and semi-final, where England lost to East Germany.[1] In all he played six times for the under-21s, scoring three goals.[1][24]

Despite winning five caps for the full England side, Regis never played the full 90 minutes for his country at senior level; he played as a substitute three times and was himself substituted twice.[26] He made his international debut on 23 February 1982 in a 4–0 win over Northern Ireland in the Home International Championship at Wembley. Regis came on as a substitute for Trevor Francis in the 65th minute.[27][28] His final international appearance for England was in 1987 against Turkey at Wembley, which ended in an 8–0 win for the home side, where he came on for the last 20 minutes.[10]

He was the third black player to be capped by England at the highest level after Viv Anderson and Laurie Cunningham.[29]

His younger brother is former player Dave Regis,[30] and his nephew is Jason Roberts.[31]

Regis became an evangelical Christian after a car crash claimed the life of his friend and former teammate Laurie Cunningham in 1989.[32] He and Cunningham had been involved in a similar crash two years earlier.[33] After retiring from playing, Regis worked in a variety of coaching roles before becoming an accredited football agent with the Stellar Group Ltd. He was the uncle of footballer Jason Roberts, for whom he acted as an agent, and cousin of sprinter John Regis.

He was awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Wolverhampton in 2001. In 2004, Regis was voted as West Bromwich Albion's all time Cult Hero in a BBC Sport poll, gaining 65% of the vote.[34] In the same year he was named as one of West Bromwich Albion's 16 greatest players, in a poll organised as part of the club's 125th anniversary celebrations.[35] Regis and his wife Julia visited water-related projects in Ethiopia in 2007, as part of their continued support for WaterAid.[36]

Regis won the Coventry City London Supporters' Club Player of the Year in 1986/87 and regularly comes in high in any legend polls for the club. In 2007/08 a Coventry City Hall of Fame picture gallery was erected at the Ricoh Arena, containing thirty Coventry greats from the club's entire history, whom he was among.[37]

He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.[38][39]

Regis's death was announced on 14 January 2018;[40] he was 59 and is survived by his second wife, Julia.[41] Regis died from a heart attack.[42]

The under-21 match between England and Romania at Molineux on 24 March 2018 was designated the Cyrille Regis International in tribute. England won the match, 2–1.[43] On 28 July 2018, two of Regis' former clubs (West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City) played in a friendly match dubbed the 'Regis Shield'; West Bromwich won 5–2.[44][45][46]

[47]

Coventry City

• FA Cup: 1986–87

Individual

• English Football Hall of Fame: 2019[48]
• Coventry City Hall of Fame[49]
• PFA Merit Award: 2018[50]

• List of England international footballers born outside England

• Matthews, Tony (2002). Smokin' Joe: Cyrille Regis – 25 Years in Football. Britespot. ISBN 1-904103-09-X.
• Matthews, Tony (2007). West Bromwich Albion: The Complete Record. Breedon Books. ISBN 978-1-85983-565-4.
• Bowler, D & Bains, J (2000) Samba in the Smethwick End: Regis, Cunningham, Batson and the Football Revolution ISBN 1-84018-188-5
• Brown, Jim (2000) Coventry City: An Illustrated History ISBN 978-1-874287-36-0
• Cashmore, E. (2013). Black Sportsmen (Routledge Revivals) (Illustrated, Reprint ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41581-223-8.
• Rees, Paul. (2014). "The Three Degrees The Men Who Changed British Football Forever". ISBN 978-1-4721-1926-1.
• Regis, Cyrille (2010) Cyrille Regis: My Story ISBN 978-0-233-00311-5

• Official website
• Englandstats.com profile
• Cyrille Regis in the Hayes F.C. Hall of Fame
• Cyrille Regis in the A-Z of Hayes F.C. 1909–
• Cyrille Regis in West Bromwich Albion 125th anniversary greatest XVI at the Wayback Machine (archived 2 February 2008)
• Entry at The Black Presence in Britain site