- published: 02 Jun 2013
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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.