Trevor Francis

Trevor Francis was a teenage sensation at Birmingham, the club he joined as a schoolboy and for whom he made his debut at 16.

'Superboy' spent eight years at St Andrews before making history in February 1979 as the first £1million player when he signed for Nottingham Forest. Although he won the European Cup just three months into his City Ground career, his time at Forest didn't quite hit the heights he would have liked and he moved on to Manchester City after just two years.

After a season there, he left England for Italy, where he enjoyed five successful years with Sampdoria and Atalanta. He followed that with spells at Rangers, QPR and Sheffield Wenesday before officially bringing down the curtain on a 23-year playing career in 1994.

Francis made his England debut in a Wembley friendly against Holland in February 1977. The hosts lost 2-0 but, a month later, he scored his first international goal in a 5-0 World Cup qualifying win over Luxembourg. He played in only one major tournament - the 1982 World Cup - and won the last of his 52 caps against Scotland in April 1986.

Francis began his managerial career as player-boss of QPR in November 1988, but left after just a year.

He then took over at Sheffield Wednesday, guiding them to third place in the First Division in 1991-92, and to both domestic cup finals the following year. He was dismisssed in 1995, harshly in the view of many experts, before returning 'home' to take over at Birmingham in 1996.

His five years there were a succession of near-misses as Blues narrowly failed to reach the Premier League, although he did take them to the 2001 League Cup final, where they lost to Liverpool. His final managerial post was at Crystal Palace.