Chants of ‘There’s only one Cyrille Regis’ fill the air at service for trailblazing black footballer

Thousands of football fans, former players and relatives have paid a moving tribute to Cyrille Regis, the “gentle, thoughtful, generous, passionate, determined, resilient giant” who blazed a trail for a generation of black footballers.

In a memorial service at West Bromwich Albion’s Hawthorns stadium, a crowd of 2,000 fans broke into rapturous applause and chants of “There’s only one Cyrille Regis” – the song that followed him around England’s football terraces in the 1970s and 80s.

The former West Brom, Coventry City and England striker, who suffered a fatal heart attack on 14 January, aged 59, was honoured with tributes by his nephew Jason Roberts, the 81-year-old former Coventry manager John Sillett, and his former teammate Brendon Batson.

Play Video 1:23 Former West Brom and England striker Cyrille Regis dies aged 59 – video obituary

Roberts, the former West Brom striker, received a standing ovation when he told those gathered in the East Stand: “I believe that, as an individual and as a family, we don’t own the legacy of Cyrille Regis. Everybody here does.

“Everybody here has been touched by what he’s done, by what he’s done with this football club. Every little last bit of his legacy lives with you as much as it does with us, because he was a special man and his legacy must live on.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cyrille Regis’s family attend the memorial service for the former England and West Brom footballer. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

Regis was one of three black players in the West Brom side of the late 70s alongside Batson and Laurie Cunningham, whose death in 1989 inspired Regis to become deeply Christian.

Batson, 64, recalled the “vile racist abuse” they suffered as he paid tribute to his former teammate. “Never was he ever intimidated. He always said it motivated him to play better,” he said. “How could anyone think they could possibly intimidate the big man?

“He left us with great memories, and we are blessed to have known him. Nice one, Cyrille, nice one, son.”

Jonathan Barnett, a football agent who worked with Regis at the Stellar agency, said he had had a profound effect on the young players he mentored right up until his premature death.

“In the fortnight since his death, we have witnessed an outpouring of love that has transcended any club, any race, any religion’” he said.

“Because Cyrille Regis was nothing less than a giant, a gentle, thoughtful, generous, passionate, determined, resilient giant. A giant who did so much for football, who did so much for black people, and who I truly believe did so much for humanity.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Beverley Knight sings Going Up Yonder during the memorial service for Cyrille Regis. Photograph: Adam Fradgley/AMA/WBA FC via Getty Images

The singer Beverley Knight sang Going Up Yonder at the service, which ended with family tributes from Regis’s brother Dave, his daughter, Michelle, and his son, Robert, who said their father had always been their “walking, talking, living superhero”.

His wife of 11 years, Julia Regis, said she had “not fully come to terms with the fact I will not see his infectious smile again” as she ended the ceremony with a eulogy that ended: “Rest in eternal peace, my beloved. I will love you forever.”

Regis, who scored 112 goals in 297 appearances for West Brom, was only the third black footballer to play for England and is widely credited with transforming attitudes on and off the pitch.



Many of England’s most successful black footballers were at the Hawthorns to pay homage to Regis, including Mark Bright, Les Ferdinand, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Ian Wright, Mark Walters, Dion Dublin, Paul Ince and Viv Anderson, who said Regis had wryly remarked to him after receiving a bullet in the post in 1982: “I got a bullet and you got nothing!”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flowers and tributes to Cyrille Regis left by supporters at the gates of the Hawthorns. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Earlier, the West Brom manager, Alan Pardew, led his squad in a guard of honour as Regis’s body arrived at the Hawthorns before a private family funeral. Hundreds of football fans braved near-freezing temperatures to salute their idol, as a huge banner lined the route emblazoned “There’s only one Cyrille Regis”.

As the procession pulled away from the stadium, followed by family and friends, supporters broke into applause and chanted his name. Among the friends and ex-colleagues that attended the service was the actor Duane Henry, who had flown from Los Angeles to be at the Hawthorns. Henry, star of Fox TV series NCIS, was mentored by the West Brom hero when he was a teenager in Handsworth, Birmingham.

Speaking before the service, Henry said: “Cyrille was one of the only positive black men in my life who constantly inspired and guided me. Cyrille, I hope I lived up to all the expectations you had of me. I always wanted to do that.”