Laurie Cunningham: the incredible story of England’s forgotten football genius Twenty-five years before a slaloming Ronaldinho received a standing ovation at the Bernabéu from the Real Madrid faithful, there was […]

Twenty-five years before a slaloming Ronaldinho received a standing ovation at the Bernabéu from the Real Madrid faithful, there was Laurie Cunningham.

In 1979 he became the first Englishman to play for the Madrid giants. In 1980 he toyed and destroyed Barcelona’s Argentinian full-back Rafa Zuviría, earning himself the adulation of the Nou Camp.

For a time Cunningham was the most thrilling, exciting and electric talent on the planet. A supernova on the wing.

And for too long he has been football’s forgotten genius.

Dermot Kavanagh hopes that’s about to change with the publication of his book ‘Different Class: Fashion, Football & Funk – The Story of Laurie Cunningham’.

The Sports Picture Editor of The Sunday Times fondly remembers witnessing this breathtaking talent in his youth, and was triggered to chronicle Cunningham’s story after coming across a photo of the player dressed to the nines.

“I’m old enough to remember him when he played here in the ’70s,” Kavangh tells i.

“He really became prominent in ’78 when West Brom had the Three Degrees and were playing brilliantly in the first division. I was only 13 or 14, then he went off to Spain.

‘He seemed to vanish’

“In those days it wasn’t like it is now where players move around Europe. It was quite shocking in a way. But after he went to Spain the furore died down a bit and that was it, he seemed to vanish.

“I saw a picture of him in a 1940s suit and fedora hat four, five years ago. It brought back all these memories and made me think ‘what happened to him, I loved watching him’.

“Once I started realising those clothes he was wearing were part of the ’70s Soulboys scene it got me even more interested and excited. He had a foot in two camps, the youth culture music side and being this fantastic, maverick footballer.”

Cunningham’s Career Clubs Leyton Orient

West Brom

Real Madrid

Manchester United

Sporting Gijon

Marseille

Leicester City

Rayo Vallecano

Wimbledon

Charleroi

Rayo Vallecano Honours La Liga – 1979-80

Copa del Rey – 1979-1980, 1981-1982

FA Cup – 1987-1988

Going directly from West Bromwich Albion to Real Madrid made Cunningham’s career trajectory one of the most peculiar in football.

Born and raised in London, he spent time on trial with Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, at a time when ethnic minority players were targeted from the terraces and suffered from institutional discrimination.

“There really was a ceiling for black players at the time.”

He had to start at a level below his station, relying on the trust of Orient boss George Petchey.

It was the grounding needed before linking up with fellow black players Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis to become ‘The Three Degrees’ in the Midlands.

“When I spoke to his schoolmates there really was a ceiling for black players at the time,” says Kavanagh. “You never really made it beyond schoolboys. If you hadn’t been offered a contract by the time you were 16 you knew you weren’t going to get one.

“The mere fact he went to Real Madrid, and so successfully, was huge for the generation which came after him.”

“He wasn’t the most reliable with punctuality. He was quite difficult for a manager to deal with. Not attitude-wise but just getting himself organised. But when he started playing… his pace from a standing start, no one could keep up with him.

“He had this incredible agility and flexibility and this uncoachable ability, like most maverick players, where he could do stuff instinctively. He had this incredible free-roaming swagger. He played the game on his own terms.

“The fact he did it in those days when there was a fair amount of racism in football, he just went to Real Madrid and thought ‘I can do it’. The mere fact he did that and so successfully was huge for the generation which came after him.”

Laurie Cunningham, Real Madrid, 23 September 1979. pic.twitter.com/XML1W4Gwop — A Football Archive* (@FootballArchive) August 29, 2016

His confidence and verve was on show on a November evening in Valencia when Cunningham caught the eye of Los Merengues during West Brom’s UEFA Cup tie with the Spaniards.

In search of the flair to complement their never-say-die, hard-to-beat team, Madrid were wowed as Cunningham outshone Mario Kempes (the player who had won and been top scorer at that year’s World Cup).

“The reports on that are fantastic,” says Kavanagh. “The Daily Mirror said something like ‘the skinny black kid from London running rings around the world’s best footballer’.

“Towards the end of that season, as was quite common with a lot of British teams at the time, West Brom didn’t make an offer. They let the contract run down and didn’t talk about it. He felt a bit unloved. He got in touch with Real Madrid, they were straight on the phone and bought him.”

What they said “When I was playing football on the estate he was the one I was trying to be like.” Ian Wright “He was always doing something amazing, we used to just marvel at it and go ‘wow’.” Les Ferdinand “His name should be up there with the best. Because he was.” Viv Anderson “He could run on snow without leaving footprints.” Ron Atkinson “The business. A phenomenal athlete, so fast it looked like opponents were going backwards.” Isidro Díaz “He was the most watchable footballer I’ve seen. His balance and the way he moved, it was beauty.” Cyrille Regis

His four-year Madrid spell was a microcosm of his career. Piercingly brilliant performances, a La Liga and Copa del Rey double in his first season – before injury hit.

The club failed to properly diagnose an injury resulting in two operations and the petering out of his Madrid career, perhaps not helped by a love for music and dancing.

“The thing that really did for his career at Real Madrid was early into the second season he got his foot stamped on in a game against Real Betis which broke his big toe,” notes Kavanagh.

A playboy image

“When he was first treated by the club they put his foot in plaster and he went out to a nightclub in the centre of Madrid. He got photographed in the nightclub and the press went crazy. The club went berserk and fined him a record fine.

“From then on his image within the club, and also from certain fans, was more of a playboy who cared more about going out rather that his fitness which wasn’t true but these things get traction.

“When the plaster came off after the second operation there was no movement in the toe and that really finished that pace he had from a standing start so he was never the same player.”

Laurie Cunningham facts First black footballer to play professionally for England when he represented the Under 21s in 1977

One-third of ‘The Three Degrees’ at West Brom, named after the American pop group, alongside Brendan Baston and Cyrille Regis

Real Madrid’s record signing at the time for £995,000

First Englishman to play for Real Madrid

Second black player to feature for Real Madrid

Only four England caps

Cunningham’s Madrid exit sent him on a peripatetic journey around Europe, including a handful of games at Manchester United and an FA Cup winner’s medal with Wimbledon.

Spain would call again, where he married Silvia and had a son called Sergio, and played for Rayo Vallecano in Madrid.

Yet he would not see his son, who was on the books of both Real and Atletico Madrid, grow old. On 15 July, 1989, his life would come to a tragic end.

He was killed in a car crash outside Madrid at the age of just 33.

A life which was more than football. A life which should be remembered more. A trailblazer, on and off the pitch. The man who made Barcelona fans salute a Madridista.

Beyond the pitch

“I didn’t want it to just be a straight football book,” explains Kavangh. “I spoke to his brother and his brother’s friends who were involved in the reggae sound system culture. Laurie was so into the soul music and the way they dressed.

“Also, I was interested in what Madrid was like. Because Franco had died in ’75 it was like the swinging ’60s in London. There was this whole energy about Madrid, it was undergoing a bit of a social revolution.

“He was always interested in the music, the dancing and clothes, although the main thread is his football story there are these other themes which were important to him, and in the end, you could argue were part of his downfall.

“That maverick mind he had in a conservative world, of British football and Spanish society… when you put the football on top it makes a really interesting story.”