10 Black Pioneers In British Football

Laurie Cunningham - The third player in West Brom's Three Degrees, Cunningham was the first black player to represent England at any level (in an Under-21 friendly vs Scotland in 1977). An extremely gifted left winger, Cunningham's brilliant form for West Brom in their great side of the late 1970s earned him a shock move to Real Madrid. He was the first British player to sign for Real, and he spent four relatively successful years in Spain, before he moved on to Sporting Gijon, in 1983. Tragically, Lawrie died in a car crash in Madrid in 1989, aged just 33.