A letter to Cyrille Regis…My Dad’s Hero, Who Gave Me the Belief to Follow My Dreams

 Cyrille Regis celebrates his call-up to the England squad. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images
Cyrille Regis celebrates his call-up to the England squad. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images
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A letter to Cyrille Regis…My Dad’s Hero, Who Gave Me the Belief to Follow My Dreams

 Cyrille Regis celebrates his call-up to the England squad. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images
Cyrille Regis celebrates his call-up to the England squad. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images

Dear Cyrille Regis, I’m writing to you now because your untimely death means that there are things I didn’t get the chance to say to you and because I want you to know the extent of how positive your influence has been on my life and that of my family.

Every Saturday was by the far the most exciting, memorable day I recall as a young boy growing up with my dad, Leroy, being a professional footballer. My happiest memories as a child were waking up in our flat in Streatham, south London, putting on my West Ham shirt with my brother Daron (more often than not before we brushed our teeth) and sitting in awe with Dad as he ate his pre-match fry-up in preparation for his big game at Upton Park in the late 80s.

We would then make the hour-long drive across London together as a family and as his sons we had the luxury of not only watching our dad play against the biggest teams in the country, we also had the opportunity to be in the dressing room warming up with household names such as Liam Brady, Paul Ince and Julian Dicks 20 minutes before kick-off.

Those are memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life and they inspired me to become a professional footballer, but without your poise, class, bravery, skill and desire to break down barriers and play the game you love under immense pressure and scrutiny I doubt I would ever have had these precious times.

You see, even though you were only six years older than him you were my dad’s hero. You were the man he based his game on – watching not only your world‑class, outstanding, centre-forward play and goals for West Brom as a teenager – but also the elegance, determination and drive to perform at the incredible level that you did in the face of cruel, inhumane abuse directed at you for the perceived “crime” of the colour of your skin.

My father admits that the pain of vile racism in football had caused him to question his career choice but he had you as a reference point and an example and that helped convince him that you could be a successful, black footballer in the racially stereotyped climate of the 1970s and 80s in our country. If it wasn’t for you he may never have found the confidence, fortitude and self-belief to make a career in the game he loved so much and in turn, those lifelong memories and experiences that I gained as a young boy through my dad wouldn’t have happened so I too may never have enjoyed my own football career without your influence.

With the racial prejudice that you and other players had to put up with and in turn break down I may never have had the luxury of lacing my boots up at 3pm every Saturday with thoughts of dealing with racism from the terraces or opponents the furthest thing from my mind. If it wasn’t for you pushing forward with fearlessness and pride through the time you received a bullet in the post after being selected to represent England, put up with chants of “nigger lick my boots” or bananas routinely being thrown on the pitch with the dignity that you did, the multicultural game that we now take for granted would have taken even longer to come about.

Your immense presence and ability also forced our society to look in the mirror and challenge itself to be better and this is why I am compelled to write this letter to you out of respect, gratitude and honour for the true icon and pioneer of our game. Your goals gave millions of football supporters joy, but your kind-hearted, strong and courageous character gave the generation beneath you (including me) the belief to push forward and follow their dreams without the overt, sickening racism that you and other players had to contend with during your playing career.

The best way that we as the younger generation can honour your legacy is to use the benefits that your struggle has afforded us and move this game and our society further forward. We have a duty to you to uphold your example of skill, humility, passion and respect for future generations to learn that no matter your race, gender, faith or creed, we all have a positive role to play in our society.

We have a duty to you to follow your message that the best way to beat the bigots is to be ourselves, strive to be outstanding at what we do and smile while doing it. That’s exactly what you did.

I had the immense pleasure of briefly meeting you on a few occasions and I regret that I didn’t take the opportunity to tell you how important you were in my father’s life and in mine and also those of countless professional players and supporters. Instead I smiled, nodded and shook your hand with a shy respect and awe which didn’t come close to articulating how you affected and inspired me. I pray this letter somehow reaches you in heaven. You truly were “The Man”.

Thank you Cyrille.

Rest in peace.

The Guardian Sport



Milan Come from Behind to Beat Juventus 2-1 in Super Cup Semi-final

Soccer Football - Italian Super Cup - Semi Final - Juventus v AC Milan - Al Awwal Park, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 3, 2025 AC Milan's Christian Pulisic scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
Soccer Football - Italian Super Cup - Semi Final - Juventus v AC Milan - Al Awwal Park, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 3, 2025 AC Milan's Christian Pulisic scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
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Milan Come from Behind to Beat Juventus 2-1 in Super Cup Semi-final

Soccer Football - Italian Super Cup - Semi Final - Juventus v AC Milan - Al Awwal Park, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 3, 2025 AC Milan's Christian Pulisic scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
Soccer Football - Italian Super Cup - Semi Final - Juventus v AC Milan - Al Awwal Park, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 3, 2025 AC Milan's Christian Pulisic scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini

AC Milan reached the Italian Super Cup final after coming from behind to beat Juventus 2-1 on Friday in Sergio Conceicao's first game in charge, setting up a derby decider with Inter Milan.

A second-half penalty from Christian Pulisic and an own goal by Federico Gatti completed Milan's comeback after Kenan Yildiz had fired Juve into a 21st-minute lead.

Milan will play Inter in Monday's final, after the Serie A champions overcame Atalanta 2-0 in their semi-final meeting on Thursday, where Conceicao could immediately get his hands on a trophy after replacing the sacked Paulo Fonseca as Milan manager on Monday.

The expected intrigue of a father against son battle failed to materialise, after Juventus winger Francisco Conceicao was named in the starting 11 but was withdrawn after picking up an injury in the warm-up, according to Reuters.

Conceicao's place was taken by Yildiz, and after a slow, cagey start to the game, it was the Turkish forward who broke the deadlock.

A through pass from Samuel Mbangula caught the Milan defence off guard and found Yildiz who took the ball into the area before smashing his shot into the roof of the net, beating Milan keeper Mike Maignan at his near post.

The second half began with another Yildiz effort going just wide in the opening seconds, and shortly afterwards, he played a low pass across the area but Dusan Vlahovic sent his effort wide.

Milan had a massive chance to equalise from a corner kick when the ball fell to Theo Hernandez, but he somehow managed to send a shot over the bar from close range.

The game at last opened up and Nicolo Savona's foul on Hernandez gave Milan a penalty kick in the 71st minute which Pulisic sent straight down the middle to beat Michele Di Gregorio.

Milan went ahead four minutes later, through an own goal. Yunus Musah's cross took a wicked deflection off Juve defender Gatti which took the ball past Di Gregorio who had come off his line.

"For our second-half performance, we deserved the final. In the first half I saw a Milan with many doubts, like a few weeks ago," Conceicao told SportMediaset.

"Then we spoke at halftime. We had to understand what we had to do to win and they were really brave."

Deep into added time, Juventus had one last chance to send the game to penalties, but Gatti's volleyed effort from close range went just wide.

The Milan manager embraced his son after the game before celebrating with his players, and Conceicao will now aim to stop Inter from winning their fourth consecutive Super Cup trophy.

"The second half was completely different, but we haven't done anything yet," Conceicao said.

"We have one less day of rest and this is an important factor."