Trevor John Francis (born 19 April 1954 in Plymouth, England), is a former footballer who won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest and played for England 52 times. He was England's first £1 million player. Former England manager Fabio Capello considered Francis the best English player ever to have played in Serie A.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1988 and 2003 he was a football manager, most notably with Sheffield Wednesday and then Birmingham City. Francis is currently working as a pundit with Al Jazeera Sports and Sky Sports.

Francis was educated at Plymouth's Public Secondary School for Boys. He was an agile and skilful forward and joined Birmingham City as a schoolboy. He quickly rose in status, making his debut for its first team in 1970, aged just 16. His talent was noted when, before his 17th birthday, he scored four goals in one game. He ended his first season with 15 goals from just 22 games.

In the 1970s, Birmingham City reached the occasional domestic semi-final but failed to make a great impact in the First Division championship, so the ability and achievements of Francis were made more noticeable as a result.

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.

Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.

His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.

Ronald Ernest Atkinson, (born 18 March 1939) commonly known as "Big Ron" and (earlier in his managerial career) "Bojangles" is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits. He is perhaps most famous for his idiosyncratic turn of phrase: his utterances have become known as "Big-Ronisms" or "Ronglish".

Ron Atkinson, who was born in Liverpool but moved to Birmingham a few weeks after his birth, did not achieve great heights in his playing career. He was originally signed by Aston Villa at the age of 17, but never played a first-team match for them. He still refers to then Villa coach Jimmy Hogan as his biggest influence.

He transferred to Oxford United (then called Headington United) in the close season of 1959 on a free transfer. There he played with his younger brother Graham Atkinson. He went on to make over 500 appearances in all competitions as a wing-half for the club, earning the nickname "The Tank", and scoring a total of 14 goals. He was United's captain through their rise from the Southern League to the Second Division, achieved in only six years from 1962 to 1968, an impressive achievement. He was the first ever footballer to captain a club from the Southern League through three divisions of the Football League.

John Harkes (born March 8, 1967 in Kearny, New Jersey) is an American former soccer player. Harkes was the first American ever to play in the English Premier League, and the second American to score at Wembley Stadium. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He appeared in two FIFA World Cup tournaments, and won two MLS Cup titles with D.C. United, and was the second American footballer to appear in the final of a major English tournament since Julian Sturgis in 1876. Harkes is of Scottish descent.

A mainstay in the US national team midfield for most of the 1990s, Harkes was named the team's "Captain for Life" by then head coach Steve Sampson before having that title stripped from him by Sampson soon after. Harkes ended his national team career with 90 caps and 6 goals. Harkes was formerly a color commentator for the MLS on ESPN, since being replaced by Taylor Twellman. He called matches in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup with JP Dellacamera, and at the 2010 FIFA World Cup with Ian Darke.