Use your head and sign up now for the Everton FC newsletter Sign up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Today would have been the 45th birthday of former Everton FC midfielder Gary Speed.

Tributes from the football world and beyond poured in for the Welshman, who also played for Newcastle United and Leeds, when he took his own life in November 2011. He was manager of Wales at the time of his death.

Speed joined Everton, the club he had supported as a boy, for £3.5m in 1996, and subsequently scored on his debut against Newcastle. Speed finished the season with 11 goals and was voted Supporters' Player of the Year.

He left the club in January 1998 in a £5.5m deal to Newcastle, where he spent seven seasons and made almost 300 appearances. He made 534 Premier League appearances in total, scoring 81 goals.

He later moved to Bolton and Sheffield United before agreeing to become the manager of the Blades in 2010.

Just six months later he was handed the role of Wales manager and, managed to move Wales from 117th to 45th in the FIFA rankings.