Trevor Francis: The story of Britain’s first £1m football transfer

Former Nottingham Forest footballer Trevor Francis has died aged 69, leaving behind a legacy of being Britain’s first £1million player.

Francis died on Tuesday in his home in Marbella in Spain from a suspected heart attack, and players past and present have since paid tribute to his legacy.

The striker won 52 caps for England, played in the 1982 World Cup, had spells in Italy and also managed clubs at the highest level.

However, he is best known for something that did not happen on the pitch.

Francis told the Guardian in 2019: “I won European Cups with Nottingham Forest, I played 52 times over nine years for England, but whenever I go to a sporting occasion I’m always introduced as the first £1m footballer, as if that’s the only thing I achieved in my career. But do I feel proud of being the first £1m player? Absolutely.”

Francis had already achieved legendary status with Birmingham City throughout the 1970s by scoring 133 goals for the club in 328 appearances.

But the West Midlands side was never likely to push for titles and Francis knew he needed to step up if he was going to win trophies.

He said during the period: “I want to be part of a successful team and unless I see signs that we are going somewhere I won’t stay.”

Nottingham Forest and Coventry entered a bidding war for his services. Coventry matched the offer but Francis went with Forest who were, at the time, in a better position to challenge Liverpool for the league title.

Legendary Nottingham manager Brian Clough turned up for his press conference wearing a full tracksuit and carrying his squash racket – claiming he was late for a game. The gaffer also said that Francis’s price tag was actually £999,999 – and not the full million – to stop the figure going to the striker’s head.

It turned out Clough was bluffing about the £999,999 and that £1.15million had actually been paid. “Brian was very clever with the media,” Francis said. “He used to make headlines, and wasn’t bothered whether they were true or not.”

However, it was still a huge surpassing of the previous record – which, a month earlier, had seen David Mills swap Middlesbrough for West Brom for £516,000.

Little did we know but the floodgates had opened on the market and the transfer record was broken twice more in 1979 before the first £1.5million transfer was made in 1981. The current transfer record is the £106million Chelsea paid for Enzo Fernandez in January.

Francis’s first match was for the team’s C string side as they played out “in front of 20 people” against Notts County’s reserves in a game purposed for training.

But it didn’t stop Francis from feeling nervous.

“The following week I played for the first team and it suddenly dawned on me, at Portman Road, when the supporters sang ‘What a waste of money’ throughout the game,” he said in 2009.

“I found myself trying to justify the £1million.

“You have to be yourself and play your own game. There was a pressure lifted when I got my first goal against Bolton.”

The goals did come, however, and at important times too – with Francis throwing himself at the ball to score a header against Malmo that won Forest the 1979 European Cup.

To this day a giant picture of Francis stooping to head the ball against Malmo remains on display inside Nottingham Forest’s stadium.

Forest lost another legend on Monday with Chris Bart Williams passing away aged 49.