Laurie Cunningham

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Personal information
Laurie Cunningham
Full name	Laurence Paul Cunningham
Date of birth	8 March 1956
Place of birth	London, England
Date of death	15 July 1989
Place of death	Madrid, Spain
Position	Striker
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1974-1977 1977-1979 1979-1983 1983 1983-1984 1984-1985 1985-1986 1986-1987 1987 1988 1988-1989	Leyton Orient West Bromwich Albion Real Madrid Manchester United (loan) Sporting de Gijón Olympique Marseille Leicester City Rayo Vallecano Charleroi Wimbledon Rayo Vallecano	75 (15) 86 (21) 44 (13) 5 (1) 30 (3) 30 (8) 15 (0) 37 (3) 1 (0) 6 (2) 19 (1)
National team
1979-1981	England	6 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Laurie Cunningham (8 March 1956 - 15 July 1989) was an England international association footballer, and was the first black player to represent England in a competitive match.

Born in St. Mary's Archway, London, Cunningham joined Leyton Orient after a start in schoolboy football. He joined West Bromwich Albion in 1977, where, under maverick manager Ron Atkinson, he teamed up with fellow black players Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis. Never before had an English team simultaneously fielded three black players. The Three Degrees, as they became known, challenged the established racism of English football and marked a watershed that allowed a generation of footballers to enter the game who would previously have been excluded by their ethnic background.^{[citations needed]}

West Bromwich Albion became one of the most attractive and exciting English sides in the late 1970s and Cunningham soon attracted attention. He became the first black player to wear an England shirt at any level^[1]in England under-21s' friendly against Scotland at Bramall Lane on April 27, 1977, scoring on his debut. He subsequently earned six full England caps, making his debut against Wales in a Home International on 23 May 1979. Although Viv Anderson had made his England debut in a friendly six months previously and thus was the first black player to play for the senior England team, Cunningham was the first black player to play in a competitive England match.

In 1979, he made a historic move as the first British player to transfer to Real Madrid for £995,000 Though he never recaptured his early brilliance he was adored by the fans being labeled 'Black Flash'. His later career saw him increasingly distracted by off-field interests and, after leaving Real Madrid in 1983, he was loaned to Manchester United and Leicester City as well as having permanent spells with Sporting de Gijón of Spain and Charleroi of Belgium. He finally returned to the English game on a permanent basis with Wimbledon at the start of the 1987-88 season. Although he had limited first team chances, he made a substitute appearance in the famous 1988 FA Cup final win over Liverpool. Soon after that he was transferred to Rayo Vallecano in Spain.