Paul Canoville

 

Paul was a young Chelsea player in the early eighties.  He made his debut as a raw 20 year old at Crystal Palace in a meaningless end of season mid table second division London derby.  He came on as a substitute and was on the pitch for all of three minutes.  I'm not sure he even touched the ball.  Chelsea fans booed him incessantly for the full three minutes.  His crime?  He was the first black man to wear a Chelsea shirt.  This was back when the National Front were very active on the terraces in England.  It was appalling treatment (I know I was there) and carried on through the next season.  Gradually though, he won over the fans and the boo boys were silenced.  He made a massive contribution to Chelsea's subsequent promotion two years later (although was still being singled out by some idiots for abuse) and their first season back in the first division.

 

Eventually he moved on to Reading and played only a handful of games before a bad knee injury ended his career at 25.  The racial abuse and a difficult upbringing had a profound psychological effect on Paul.  His story documents his life after football - 11 children with ten different women, descent into two long periods of crack cocaine addiction, two battles against cancer and his recovery and welcome back into the Chelsea fold.  A book every young professional footballer should be made to read to understand how lucky they are.

 

i might flick this onto the books topic in a day or two  (but I'll leave it as is for now - incase the name means more to others than it did to me)

 

Sheffield Wednesday were 3-0 up at half-time and so Canoville was sent on by Chelsea at halftime.  He scored with his first touch, after 11 seconds of the second half.

 

Chelsea were flying and got back to 3-3 with goals by Kerry Dixon and Mickey Thomas, before Canoville scored his second with only minutes left to put Chelsea ahead 4-3.

 

The only thing which denied them a famous win was a last-minute penalty by Sheffield Wednesday.  Extra-time saw no more goals.  Final score 4-4.

 

Chelsea won the replay 2-1 a week later.

 

Even that famous Sheffield Wed game was out of the ordinary for Paul.  He met his Dad in the bar afterwards for the first time since he was two!  No wonder he's screwed up.