Birmingham commission statue of club legend Francis

Image source, Rex Features

Image caption, Trevor Francis celebrated 118 league goals in his eight and a half years as a Birmingham City player
  • Author, Ged Scott
  • Role, 大象传媒 Sport England

Birmingham City have commissioned a bronze statue to honour club legend Trevor Francis.

A year on from the death of their former star player and manager at the age of 69, the League One club have announced that the Trevor Francis Memorial will stand in front of the Kop Stand at St Andrew's.

The statue, which will be constructed by "globally acclaimed portrait sculptor" Douglas Jennings, is scheduled to be unveiled in a year's time - prior to the start of the 2025-26 season.

鈥淚 felt honoured when I received the call to work on this project," Jennings.

"Trevor Francis is iconic, one of our greatest English footballers. I appreciate what he means to so many people and in particular Birmingham City Football Club. "

Jennings was "the unanimous choice" of a Trevor Francis Memorial Committee, consisting of his friends, comedian Jasper Carrott, John White and Tom Ross, Blues chief executive Garry Cook, chief fan experience officer John Clarke, and Birmingham City Foundation executive vice chairman Jeremy Dale.

Jennings' work has ranged from The Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace to high profile public commissions and former football personalities, including England and Fulham player Johnny Haynes, England World Cup winner and Republic of Ireland manager Jack Charlton and, more recently, a statue of former Rangers manager Walter Smith.

The news comes on the day when Blues will entertain Rangers in a Trevor Francis Memorial Match. Over 20,000 tickets have now been sold.

Plymouth-born Francis made his name for Blues when, as a 16-year-old, he scored all four goals in a home win over Bolton Wanderers in 1970.

He netted 118 league goals for the club, becoming a fans' idol for his pace and trickery on the ball, before becoming Britain鈥檚 first 拢1m footballer when he signed for Nottingham Forest in March 1979, going on to score the winner in the European Cup final two months later.

He also played for Detroit Express (twice), Manchester City, Sampdoria, Atalanta, Rangers, Queens Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday.

He was player-manager at QPR before joining Wednesday in the same capacity in 1991. He steered them to Wembley twice in 1993 when they lost both the FA Cup and League Cup finals to Arsenal.

Francis moved on to Birmingham in 1996 and very nearly became the first to manage the club in the Premier League, taking his team to the second tier play-offs in three successive seasons - and a League Cup final, which they lost on penalties to Liverpool in February 2001 in Cardiff.

But he was sacked later that year following a poor start to the season, after which Blues went on to win promotion under Steve Bruce.

His final managerial job was succeeding Bruce at Crystal Palace before he moved into a job as a popular television summariser.