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In terms of goals; I won the goal of the season in 1981-82. I scored a really good goal against Norwich. I slammed it in from 25 yards.

Those three things come up all the time in my career.

Tony: Do you still follow football as closely today? Do you go to a match most weeks?

Cyrille: Yes I do, I'm a football agent now. I look after young players. I help mentor them and get the right mindset into being a professional footballer. I help them to keep focus and I negotiate the contracts. It is very pleasurable for me to see young players - for all the highs and lows - it's a very difficult profession to get into and to stay in. When you get a young player, you mentor him, you support him for three, four, five years; he makes his debut and he goes to get a career, a long career. It's very satisfying indeed.

Tony: That's very gracious of you to say that you enjoy doing that. Doesn't it irritate you, the vast amounts of money which can be earned in football these days compared with when you were playing it?

Cyrille: No not at all; it's market forces. Nowadays if someone wants to give you £100,000 a week to work, nobody's going to turn it down, so good luck to them. We played in the seventies, eighties and early nineties and there wasn't that kind of money around; but conversely the players in the fifties and sixties and early seventies didn't earn what we earned in the seventies.

Tony: One final question if I may come to you Chris; what do you think is going to be achieved through Cyrille Regis? The book Cyrille Regis - My Story is out now, but another era of players has come along. Do you expect your average football fan to pick up this book?

Chris: I do. I think it's a timely reminder that the struggle of people is tantamount. What Cyrille went through back in the 1970's as a role model as a black sporting icon, is immensely important. He was an immensely important footballer player; a genuine cultural icon.

There's also something quite magical about being able to be spotted playing football on Regents Park and then two years later playing in the first division; coming in making your debut. It was completely Roy of the Rovers fashion; fans going home cheering his name and going on and scoring 20 odd goals in his opening season. He was a tremendously exciting player.

I think in these days with all the money and how sophisticated boys are looking at even four years old - that refreshing tale is something I'm sure will resonate with a lot of people. Not just people who harp back to those times, but perhaps people who like myself, believe one thing is really important, that children have a childhood. Maybe they should learn to develop as a footballer in their youth, when they've learned to love the game, learned to love sport and then they go on and make the most of it just as Cyrille Regis did back in the 1970's, and then through the 1980's and into the 1990's. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.