Trevor Francis, a former England forwards who transferred from Birmingham to Nottingham Forest in 1979 and became Britain’s first soccer player to earn one million pounds, has passed away. He was 69.
Francis had a heart attack and passed away in Spain, as his family reported on Monday. He spent half the year in England and the other half in Spain.
Nottingham Forest expressed its sadness on Twitter after learning of the demise of two-time European Cup champion Trevor Francis.
RIP Trevor Francis
One great striker!#TrevorFrancis pic.twitter.com/JVBPDRbmZy— TV Football 1968-92 (@1968Tv) July 24, 2023
He was “a true Forest legend who will never be forgotten.”
Francis scored the game-winning goal in the 1979 European Cup final’s 1-0 triumph against Malmo, shortly after his historic transfer to Forest. Francis joined Manchester City in 1981 but was injured and missed the European Cup victory over Hamburg the following year.
Former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who played on the 1979 and 1980 European Cup-winning teams for Forest, remarked, “I’m absolutely devastated to hear about my old teammate Trevor Francis.”
What a nice man, what a friend, and what a loss.
Francis played 52 times for England’s national team before managing Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham to championships.
The English Football Association expressed its sadness over the news on Twitter.
“He scored 12 goals for the Three Lions between 1977 and 1986, including two at the 1982 FIFA World Cup.” We are all thinking of his family, friends, and former clubs.
Francis made his Birmingham debut in 1970 at the age of 16. In a 4-0 victory over Bolton in 1971, he set a Football League record by being the league’s youngest player to ever score four goals.
Following that, he had stints at Sampdoria, where he won the Italian Cup; Atalanta; Rangers; and Queens Park Rangers, where he was the player-manager. In 1990, he transferred to Sheffield Wednesday, where he finally succeeded Ron Atkinson as manager.
Sad news today of the death of #trevorfrancis He may only have been with @RangersFC for a short period of time, but played his part in the epic League Cup Final victory over Aberdeen at Hampden in Oct 1987. RIP Trevor. pic.twitter.com/YgpbowR1JU
— The Rangers Archives (@OldRangersVideo) July 24, 2023
Birmingham posted on Twitter, “Trevor will forever be revered as a giant of the club, the player everyone wanted to see.”
“He played 330 times for the Blues, scoring 133 goals.”
Helen, Francis’s wife, passed away in 2017 after a cancer fight.